How To Make HIIT Sprints Work For You

It’s a fact that HIIT works and works really good.This type of training not only burns a lot of calories while you are working out, but also speeds up your metabolism and keeps it increased hours after the intense workout.

HIIT improves cardiovascular endurance, making your workouts a lot shorter than traditional cardiovascular workouts and at the same time, more effective.Besides cutting excess bodyfat HIIT is a tremendous way to stimulate new muscle growth.In fact HIIT can be more effective at improving your health and fitness and burning fat than many hours of your regular endurance training.

HIIT training can be applied to all kinds of activities where you can alternate between high and low intensity phases.It can be done on a treadmill, elliptical, stationary bicycle and lots of other activities, but my personal favorite is sprinting.

The thing is, lots of people confuse the principles of HIIT sprinting with the principles of ordinary cardio and this is where they get it wrong. First of all, this type of training is not for everyone.It requires you to be in a good physical shape and condition even before you start doing it, or otherwise you can easily end up injuring yourself.

The other thing you need to understand is that you have to treat HIIT sprints for what they are – a high intensity form of exercise.When you are sprinting you are you are giving an all-out, max effort. Just like any heavy weightlifting workout it can beat you down in no time.Here are a few tips on how to make the sprints work for you:

1. You should treat HIIT sprinting like a weight workout.This means NO sprints on weightlifting days.They deserve a separate day.

2. You should allow your body to rest properly after a HIIT sprint session.Get a rest day after the sprint workout.

3. No trainee that knows what HIIT means would train in the gym 4+ times a week (or even 3 times) and do additional HIIT sprinting that same week.If you don’t believe me just try it for a couple of weeks.

An example setup would look like:

day 1 – Upper body workout

day 2 – HIIT Sprints

day 3rest

day 4 – Lower Body workout

day 5rest

day 6 – HIIT Sprints

day 7rest

4.When you start sprinting – start at a lower pace and shorter sprint intervals.A good rule of a thumb would be 15 seconds of sprinting and 1 minute of jogging (or walking).

5.Switch between regular, low intensity cardio and HIIT phases.You can do HIIT sprinting for 3-4 weeks and then return to regular cardio for another 3-4 weeks.

Here’s an example of a typical HIIT workout: HIIT Training for Fat Loss


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