When you want to lose the most weight and get the best results from every minute in the gym, search for HIIT—high intensity interval training—workouts that burn the most calories. If you’re like most people in Houston, TX, finding that type of workout fits many goals. HIIT workouts aren’t a specific workout but a way of doing any workout. They alternate intensity between high intensity and recovery. HIIT workouts build endurance faster besides burning calories.
When you workout at peak intensity, it torches calories.
The problem is you can’t continue working out at peak intensity for very long. That’s why you vary the intensity between high and recovery. It also increases your metabolism, so you continue to burn more calories even after you finish the workout. It’s called afterburn or EPOC—Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. It helps burn fat, burns more calories while you’re doing it, improves oxygen consumption, reduces blood sugar rate, blood pressure, and heart rate, and improves overall performance.
Many exercises are excellent HIIT workouts.
You can use any type of workout as a HIIT workout, including bodyweight exercises. You can do your favorite bodyweight workouts using HIIT. Start with moderate exercise, such as side lunges. Do them for two minutes then do as many burpees as you can in a minute. Switch to a lunge squat for two minutes, then move to wide to narrow squat jumps at peak intensity, then go back to walking lunges for two minutes. You can use running and walking as your exercise. HIIT started as a running workout. If you’re new to exercise, start with bicycling or walking. Walk or bike at a moderate speed for two minutes, then switch back to a top speed for a minute.
You can even do HIIT workouts with weights.
Any exercise will do, even ones using weights or kettlebells. You can do a HIIT workout with battle ropes. The key is to start at a moderate pace and move to high intensity to raise your heart rate. Alternate back to moderate intensity for recovery. Doing goblet squats while holding one dumbbell or a kettlebell is one way to do HIIT. You can modify your workout by doing three one-minute high-intensity exercises, moving directly from one exercise to the next. When you’ve completed them, give yourself a one-minute break.
- Don’t push yourself. If you can only do 10 or 15 seconds at peak intensity and have to drop back to recovery for longer than an equal amount of time or longer, it’s okay. Work your way up to longer peak intensity intervals.
- Always learn the basic exercise first before using it in a HIIT routine. Focus on form to avoid injury and maximize the benefits.
- Studies show HIIT workouts keep you younger at a cellular level. They lengthen the telomeres that protect the chromones from damage that causes disease, aging, and death.
- Never do HIIT workouts without consulting your healthcare professional, especially if you have any condition. If you’re pregnant, 3-6 months postpartum, immune suppressed, have a heart condition, have osteoporosis, or osteopenia avoid HIIT.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym