Just What Is High-Intensity Interval Training?

In today’s day and age, science has been able to identify certain types of exercise routines that can help to improve the health and fitness of humans. There are so many different theories now as it relates to how you should exercise to get the best results, that people often times do not know what to believe or how to go about exercising. However one of the most significant methods is high-intensity interval training. As you will see from the paragraphs to come, this type of training has been proven to provide very good calorie burn as you work out.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is also referred to as sprint interval training. It is a strategy of exercise that was created with the intention of improving your overall performance with much shorter training sessions. It is really a form of cardiovascular exercise that allows the body to burn fat in very short and intense workout routines.

A normal HIIT workout session could range from 9 to 20 minutes in total. The theory behind this work would routine sets a 2 to 1 ratio for workouts leading into recovery periods. This means, for example, that a runner who does hard sprinting for 15 to 20 seconds will then end up jogging or walking for 10 seconds after each stint.

With most HIIT sessions, there are warm-up exercises that are done first, which are then followed by 6 to 10 repetitions of high-intensity workout exercises. It is important to note that the high-intensity reps are broken up by medium intensity reps of different exercises, and it all comes to a stop with one session of cooling down exercises. The recommendation is for high-intensity exercises to be done at near maximum intensity, while the medium intensity exercises should be done at about 50% intensity.

HIIT is thought to be a great way to get the most results from your workout if time is limited in your case. The idea is to at least accomplish six cycles of exercises and ensure the entire program lasts between 15 and 20 minutes. Try not to go less than 15 minutes or exceed the 20 minute mark. People have noted that doing HIIT sessions has been able to significantly improve their overall athletic performance. If you are the type of person who has reached your maximum level in terms of fitness, you can still continue to use high-intensity interval training to improve your endurance performance.

As you can see, there is not much technicality involved with high-intensity interval training. It follows a very simple technique that is claimed and in some cases proven to produce really great results in terms of burn as well as overall fitness. If time is an issue for you or if you prefer to do shorter exercises, you should definitely consider this type of routine.

Rob Humphrey is a Fitness Product Specialist. His favorite diet supplement is shakeology. He likes to workout with the new program TurboFire by Chalene Johnson.

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