Physical activity is an important component of a healthy
lifestyle and the benefits of regular exercise have been well established. Adopting
your fitness routine to include more interval training can bring great benefits
to your energy levels, body composition, and overall fitness.
If you are exercising regularly, you're already doing a
great job at trying to be healthier. Unfortunately, you might find yourself
among the masses of people that routinely do low to moderate intensity
cardiovascular exercise for extended periods of time and therefore seeing very
little results.
You may also be plagued with injury because you have a weak core
muscle stature and poor posture. Lastly, you may see delayed results because
you are not building muscle through agility and strength exercises. With
that said, we recommend a combination of Mind Body, Agility and Strength and
High Intensity Intervals (HIIT) for the perfect workout so you can see maximum
results in less time.
Why You Need High Intensity Intervals,
and What Chronic Cardio Does to Your Body
When you stay above 75 percent of your maximum heart rate
for extended periods of time, you’re burning glycogen. Your body in turn craves
more carbohydrates to replenish the lost stores, so you devour lots of sugar
and starches. This describes your body’s urge to reach for a bagel after a long
run or a session on the elliptical going at a steady pace.
When you continue this cycle, your body can release more
cortisol (stress hormone that can cause weight gain), lose lean muscle mass,
and gain more fat mass. Other signs of overtraining can include illness and
fatigue. This is counterproductive to most individuals’ health and fitness
goals. In an effort to improve health, any activity that makes you more
fatigued and susceptible to illness should be avoided.
If you’re not doing some form of high intensity intervals in
combination with strength and mind/body exercises a few times a week, then you
are missing out on the most beneficial and time efficient form of exercise.
The bonus: Just 15 minutes of interval training is as
effective as 60-90 minutes of steady state exercise. This typically includes
whole body functional movements involving cardiovascular and muscular exercises
engaging the core as the center of every movement. Intervals can be performed
on any type of cardio equipment, doing drills in place, or old-fashioned
sprints.
The latest research suggests that performing high intensity
intervals can be 5-6 times as effective as regular steady state exercise. HIIT
can be used to increase cardiovascular capacity, performance levels, and
accelerate fat loss. Therefore ditch the long cardio sessions and replace them
with effective short bursts of cardio leading to breathlessness.
You know you are performing HIIT intervals correctly when it
takes your body at least 30 seconds to gain your breath back. An easy way to
know if you have hit your target heart rate is to perform a talk test (e.g.
repeat your phone number immediately after an interval without stopping to
catch your breath). You should not be able to say more than 3 words
consecutively without stopping to catch a breath.
What Makes HIIT So Beneficial
Low-volume high-intensity workouts recruit fast twitch
muscle fibers, increasing the production of Human Growth Hormone (HGH)
naturally and normalizing insulin levels. Interval training produces healthy
levels of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) which start to decline around the age of
30. One study from the Journal of Sport Sciences showed that HGH levels
were up 450 percent by performing 30-second high intensity intervals. Benefits
of healthy levels of HGH and regulated insulin levels include but are not
limited to: decreasing body fat, improving muscle tone, slowing down the aging
process, boosting energy, decreasing stress, preventing disease, improving
athletic speed and performance and achieving fitness goals much faster.
How to Implement HIIT and Not
Overstress Your Body
Eat Well for Energy--While decreasing your carbohydrate
consumption is often seen as the best way to decrease body fat, when performing
High Intensity Intervals you need to ensure you are getting proper nutrition.
Always begin a meal or snack with healthy proteins
(grass-fed or wild caught) or healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, coconut oil,
etc.) and then load up on lots of vegetables and some fruit for your
carbohydrates to support your energy needs. Some good examples of pre and post
workout snacks include but are not limited scrambled eggs with berries,
avocados, and grass-fed beef.
Get Enough Sleep--We all know that lack of sleep leaves
us looking ragged the next morning. More and more research is showing that a
good night’s sleep is essential for our health. In fact, getting adequate sleep
to allow recovery from intense exercise is vital to maximizing the benefits
from it while also preventing conditions such as high blood pressure, metabolic
diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, etc.
If you are having trouble sleeping through the night, you
may need to reconfigure your workout regimen. It is best to get into a routine
where you consistently go to bed and wake up on a regular schedule, limit distractions
before sleep such as television, and practice relaxation techniques. Studies
show that those who do not sleep through the night are more at risk for
numerous conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood
pressure, and stroke.
Quality Is More Important Than Quantity--The
key to maximum results is to workout smarter, not longer. High intensity
interval workouts should be limited to several times a week to allow the body
to recover properly and reap the benefits of it depending on what your goals
are.
If an individual desires to get stronger, then HIIT should
be performed only once per week. Whereas an individual wanting to achieve a
leaner body mass could perform HIIT up to three times per week if they have the
ability to recover well. Therefore, decide what your goals are and experiment
with just doing one HIIT session per week or gradually add more workouts while
monitoring your progress and results.
Have Variety--While high intensity intervals seem
perfect for losing body fat and improving lean muscle mass, we know that high
levels of the hormone cortisol can cause the body to hold onto fat. That is why
it is always beneficial to change up your routine where you are only performing
HIIT several days per week, insert other types of physical activity in between
or mix it all up on the same day and take days off in between.
Instead of doing additional days of interval training, try
engaging in some type of active recovery such as walking or yoga. You may find
that this stress-reducing exercise helps you recover more quickly from your
more intense exercise schedule. In 1963, Tudor Bompa introduced this idea of
periodization (AKA muscle confusion) that focuses on loading muscles in a
variety of ways for optimal performance and results. By varying your
workouts, the body is constantly adapting and improving upon its weaknesses,
which leads to greater results.
What are the Added Benefits of Other
Types of Exercises Combined With HIIT?
As previously mentioned, it is always best to combine
interval training with core and strength exercises for maximum benefit and
results. When done appropriately the benefits include but are not limited to:
decrease body fat, slow the aging process, improve mental well being and
provide stress relief, improve posture and balance, improve insulin
sensitivity, control blood pressure, increase lean body mass and decreased
illness.
Mind/Body--These types of exercises have been
described as full body movements associated with improved muscular strength,
flexibility, balance and coordination, improved mental development and
self-efficacy. This could include a fusion of core exercises and flexibility
combining fundamentals from Yoga and Pilates to name a few.
A variety of these exercises have shown to help individuals
decrease anxiety, decrease pain, enhance sleep, decrease the use of medication
for post-surgical pain, decrease side effects of medical procedures, reduce
recovery time and shorten hospital stays, strengthen the immune system and
enhance the ability to heal, increase sense of control and well-being.
One of the greatest benefits of mind/body exercise is
preventing injury so that you can continue on your road to better health
through high intensity intervals and agility and strength exercises. They strengthen
your entire core as well as help promote good posture leading to proper form
and technique during strength and interval training. A good rule of thumb
is to regularly include mind/body exercises so that you can continue your
long-term fitness routine while preventing injury and promoting flexibility.
Learn more here.
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