5 Reasons why HIIT should be in your workout routine

The world was changed when HIIT entered the stage, and many pounds were lost due to its structured workout regime. The whole concept of HIIT follows the guidelines of a total body workout, with scheduled between sessions of high-intensity exercises. It’s a challenging exhausting workout that pushes you to your maximum threshold of endurance, in a short time frame with astonishing results.

The primary basic principles for HIIT workout consist of hard and intense workout cycles that are about a minute long, followed by recovery time of 1-2 minutes, depending on the intensity of the initial exercise. As you gradually introduce more challenging exercises, you need to make certain adjustments to your work to rest ratio as well. If in the initial phase your work to rest ratio was 3:1, with consistency and gradual implementation of harder exercises you should be able to reach to 1:1 ratio.

Monitoring your heart rate at all times during a HIIT workout is crucial for maximum effectiveness. When you are going through the high-intensity-interval-session your heart rate should be performing at 85 percent of its ultimate range.

HIIT Benefits

HIIT offers numerous benefits, starting from increased metabolic rate, optimal muscle building, fat burning, faster calorie burning process etc. But that’s just the beginning, the benefits of HIIT training are numerous and experienced over time.

1.    Optimal efficiency

HIIT offers the best results when it comes to efficiency to time ratio, for example compared to the long time required to perform a steady pace cardio workout, with HIIT you`ll get the same results in only a fraction of that time. HIIT enables results on both aerobic and anaerobic fronts, whereas cardio training affects only the aerobic performance.

Therefore, HIIT is a better option when it comes to a total body workout, providing the benefits from aerobic performance (high oxygen consumption), whereas with the anaerobic training your body gets  stronger and builds muscle.

2.    Weight loss and fat burn

Burning fat require oxygen. The more oxygen enters the body the more fat will be burned. As we mentioned before, HIIT increases the body’s need of oxygen, which is the key driver to the fat burning process.

Even after the workout is done your body continues to burn fat due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption ( EPOC ). The best thing about this “after-burn” effect is that the body can continue to burn fat even one, or in some cases, two days after the intense workout.

3.    Muscle retained, fat lost

One of the many benefits of HIIT is the increased production of the human growth hormone (HGH) that improves your overall state of health, strength and endurance. Or in simple terms, your body will be able to build muscle faster and more efficiently while dropping fat at the same time. This is amazing, considering the harmful effects on the body when going through certain diet regime, where the body loses some muscle along with the fat.

According to the studies researching the effects of HIIT, it was concluded that HIIT practitioners even in their post-recovery phase were producing 450 percent more HGH, enabling them optimal muscle building and fat loss results.

4.    Better Metabolism performance

The “after-burn” effect causes your metabolic rate to increase and remain at an optimal level even after two days, enabling your body to burn fat and calories even after the workout is done.

According to numerous research studies on the effects of HIIT, it was discovered that anaerobic exercises included in this particular training regime are providing increased Basic metabolic rate (BMR), which measures the rate of energy expenditure at recovery time in kJ per hour per kg body mass.

5.    Endurance and Stamina

Pushing yourself to the max requires strong willpower and psychological abilities that not everyone possesses. During the hard-intense training set, practitioners of HIIT are experiencing the “can’t breathe” state and the feeling that your heart might explode from your chest.

Rest assured, that HIIT workout is good for your heart. According to a 2006 study, it was concluded that just after eight weeks of HIIT workouts, participants could bicycle twice as long as they could before the analysis.  As we mentioned above, HIIT targets both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems which leads to optimal body results.


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