High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

How would you like to burn about 1,000 calories during a 1 hour workout and continue to burn up to NINE times more fat for the rest of the day…while resting?  Well, if you are doing one of the Beachbody High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout programs (Insanity, Insanity: The Asylum, Turbo Fire, Plyo X, Interval X,  etc.), chances are you are already doing that.

What is HIIT? HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a cardio vascular workout that is so intense that your body will not only burn a lot of calories during the workout, but it will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the butt-whipping that you just handed to it!  That is referred to as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC (sometimes referred to as afterburn).  During recovery, EPOC is used to restore your body to its resting state and adapt it to the exercise just performed.  The result is an elevated consumption of fuel.  This type of training has been used in sports training for decades, but it has just recently started to become mainstream, and it is the foundation for the Insanity workout programs.

For years we have been told that the optimal fat burning zone is usually 60%-80% of your maximum heart rate.  If you use a heart rate monitor (which I recommend) during Insanity for example, you will notice that your heart rate is consistently above that “optimal” heart rate.  Should you decrease your intensity level so you maintain the “optimal” heart rate?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!

During traditional long-duration, moderate-intensity exercise (jogging, cycling, elliptical, etc) your body can easily go into a catabolic state.  This means that you will start losing muscle mass instead of fat…that’s not good!  Recent breakthroughs in science behind fat burning and athletic performance show that shorter durations of HIIT will burn the same amount of calories in a shorter amount of time, but you will actually raise your resting metabolic rate for up to 24 hours after the workout.  To put it simply, your body gets revved up and stays revved up for hours after the workout as it recovers, and you shed fat like crazy!  Trust me, it works!

You have two types of muscle fibers in your body.  Slow twitch muscle fibers are typically more compatible with endurance training, such as long distance marathon runners or cycling.  Fast twitch muscle fibers are activated during short, intense periods of exercise, like sprinting and weight lifting.  During HIIT training your heart rate should go above 80% of its maximum capacity, forcing it to use the fast twitch muscle fibers.  When you are in periods of lower-intensity work or at rest, the muscles will continue to burn fuel (EPOC).    To accomplish this Insanity and other HIIT methods use 3 minutes of high-intensity exercise, followed by 30 seconds of rest.  That is opposite from traditional interval training where you have 30 seconds of intense exercise followed by 2-3 minutes of rest.

To summarize, if you want to quickly shed body fat, get sculpted muscles, and get into incredible cardio vascular shape this type of training may be exactly what you need.   You will notice changes in your body composition quickly. You will be able to run faster, jump higher, and look better!  The obvious trade-off here is that this type of exercise is tough!  Also, since you typically only use your own body weight in these programs you may not see in much increase in muscle size, but strength and power will increase.  Insanity: The Asylum incorporates weight training into its program so increasing muscle size is common.

I don’t know about you, minimizing the duration of my workouts and get better results is something I am interested in.  So toss your heart rate “zone” chart in the garbage and HIIT it!  You won’t be sorry!

High Intensity Interval Training workout programs that I recommend are:

INSANITY

INSANITY: THE ASYLUM

TURBO FIRE

P90X and P90X Plus incorporate HIIT into some of the workouts

If you are interested in one of these programs please contact me first and we can discuss which one is best for you.  If you are interested in receiving free fitness and nutrition coaching, please join my team at www.GetRippedNation.com or just CLICK HERE to make me your Team Beachbody coach.