Torch Fat Through High Intensity Interval Training

There are quite a few tried and tested training and exercising programs all maintaining to accomplish the desired results. Some are more effective than others; some have little effect at all (although consuming a healthy diet, you often always see some gains). One of the proven programs for burning fat that actually works is High Intensity Interval Training, known as HIIT, and this method is outstanding in accomplishing results. Sports scientists have been getting excited over HIIT for years, it is becoming frequently more common amongst amateur and professional athletes, and should be built in any fat burning or lean muscle workout regime. Standard steady state cardio still has its advantages; however, nothing quite gets rid of excess fat and increases overall levels of fitness in the quickest time possible quite like HIIT. Would you more enjoy spending up to an hour casually jogging or cycling along at a relaxed and steady pace in the morning, after your heavy lifting, or on your days off? Alternatively, would you refer to get it done with under twenty minutes, feel anxiously out of breath, be sweating furiously and really feel as if you have worked out at your maximum level?

Intense exercise burns fat far better during and after the activity than steady state cardiovascular activity, which is fact. The so named fat burning zone, which is the rate of intensity at which you burn the most fat when exercising, is not the level of intensity at when your body burns the highest amount of calories. After performing HIIT, your body carries on burning calories and fat even when at rest, this because your metabolism has been rapidly increased.

HIIT generally consists of combining intervals of steady state cardio with periods of quicker and more intense cardio. This not only increases the overall number of calories burned, it also enables you a quick recovery so you can perform the intense intervals with maximum effort. Research shows this has a massive effect on fat and calorie burning during and after performing cardio activity.

When doing HIIT, you also see a gain in aerobic and anaerobic performance. What this generally means is your performance will improve covering both long and short distances, which makes HIIT an excellent option for both sprinters and marathon runners looking for stamina and endurance. Studies have also proven that gains may occur when involved in heavy lifting, as participants have been able to accomplish more reps on the heavy compound exercises such as squats and deadlifts, whilst recovery time between sets seemed to have shortened at the same time.

To totally appreciate the concept behind this, you have to think about the energy systems within your body. If an adequate level of oxygen is present, your body uses aerobatic energy paths. Once this supply of oxygen diminishes, it changes to follow the anaerobic paths. To hit the anaerobic zone, some extreme and intense cardio needs to be performed. HIIT therefore means you reach the anaerobic zone helping boost your resting metabolic rate by increasing what scientists call excess-post oxygen consumption (EPOC), it is understood EPOC may result in improved V02 max. EPOC is basically your body working harder to repair following intense training, which needs increased energy and hence higher calories burned. A greater V02 max means more calories and oxygen can be managed by your body hence improving ability over a given time period.

When you have a depletion of oxygen (represented by the EPOC), all your blood sugar has been burned off by your body, which means your body begins to burn fat as an energy source. Using fat as energy is appealing in the period post training. The vast majority of energy is burned during actual exercise when involved in aerobic activity, whereas when following short intervals of anaerobic exercise (HIIT) vast levels of energy are burned during and for many hours following.

You can create a HIIT regime pretty much any way you want, it could be circuit training, performing burpees, cycling or up-hill sprints, anything that will result in your heart rate pumping. The crucial thing is to make sure you can perform the activity for as fast and intense as you can for twenty to sixty seconds. You can then recover for anything from twenty seconds to as much as four minutes. You might be thinking that four minutes is too long to catch your breath, however after many circuits of flat out sprinting in between you soon start to realise how taxing HIIT can be. To start HIIT for the first time, you need to warm up for a good five minutes before sprinting at your most intense level for say thirty seconds, before slowing down over the next thirty seconds so you are able to perform the same intensity at the same max effort for a further thirty seconds immediately after. If you cannot, then you need to either decrease your maximum intensity interval or lengthen your recovery interval. Remember it is the max effort you put into the exercise, rather than the time it takes. It is not necessary to achieve 100% on every high intensity interval; you can choose to build up to your max level if you want to. Once you hit it, you can pyramid back down. Similar to resistance training, just ensure you mix up the intensity. Completing pyramids might help to avoid over-training and injury, however; maximum fat burning and metabolic rate will be through maximum intensity.