What’s a HIIT Workout and Why Should You Care?

As a former member of the military, I’ve had my fill of acronyms. However, even in civilian life I haven’t escaped them, but HIIT (pronounced “hit,” but usually does not involving hitting anything) is worth learning.  HIIT stands for “high intensity interval training” and it has been lauded as a time-saving and effective form of exercise for quite a few years now.

Now that you know what HIIT stands for let’s tackle its definition. As the name implies, HIIT involves short, intense periods of exercise followed by short recovery periods. This pattern is then repeated for 15 to 30 minutes total. The length of the intense exercise and recovery periods will vary depending upon the type of exercise being performed, fitness level, and desired goals. In general, the intense exercise period lasts from 30-60 seconds with a recovery period of roughly equal length with more fit people choosing a shorter recovery while beginners may require a longer recovery time. The flexibility of the program is one of its many appeals.

As for the exercises you perform during a HIIT workout, that is, largely, up to you. You could sprint/jog at your local track. You could sprint/slow pedal on your stationary bike. You get on a rowing machine, row like mad for a minute and then recover for 45 seconds. You could do body resistance exercises like burpees or jump squats. You could use simple muscle resistance devices like kettle bells, free weights or battle ropes. You could beat the crap out of a heavy bag. You could swim fast/slow in the pool. There are numerous HIIT workouts on the internet machine if you care to look. Like everything else, variety tends to help motivation, so alter what exercise you perform now and then.

As for the “why you should care?” question, here’s a few of the health benefits of HIIT workouts:

• It’s fast. In our time constrained world, this is huge. At most, a HIIT workout should last no longer than 30-40 minutes, shorter for beginners.
• It can burn calories quickerthan a traditional endurance workout, about 25-30% more calories depending upon the exercise and duration. Studies have also indicated that your metabolic rate remains high after a HIIT workout, meaning your body continues to burn calories.
• It can shift your body’s initial energy source from glycogen (or carbs) to fat, especially in overweight or obese people. Simply put, a HIIT workout burns more fat than an endurance workout.
• Increased muscle mass, depending upon the activities done. Obviously, if you’re doing resistance workouts (with or without weights) your muscle mass will increase over time. This is especially important to older folks as we lose muscle mass as we age.
• HIIT can improve your blood flow, which, in turn, increases oxygen transport to your muscles. One study revealed that 20-minute HIIT workouts done four days per week increased oxygen consumption by 9% which was equal to endurance athletes who trained 40 minutes per day, 4 days a week.
• HIIT can reduce your blood pressure and heart rate, especially among the overweight and obese.
• It Can reduce blood sugar levels and improve insulin resistance, which is quite important to those at risk for type 2 diabetes. In fact, studies revealed that HIIT workouts brought about this benefit more so than endurance workouts.
• HIIT workouts improve both your aerobic and anerobic performance levels. Aerobic (with oxygen) performance is closely associated with endurance health while anerobic (without oxygen) is linked to short, intense efforts, like sprints.

If you’re looking for an effective, time-saving workout, then HIIT workouts are for you. You’ve just got to ensure that the short, intense efforts are at or near 100% effort for maximum effectiveness. If not, you will not derive all the benefits listed above. If you’re still curious, here are a few beginner HIIT workouts.