Posted on February 06, 2015 by Kate Halsall

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is essentially any workout that alternates between short intense bursts of activity and periods of rest or lower activity. There are many kinds of interval training you could choose from – Fartlek, Tabata, Circuits, and Expletives to name a few; and contrary to popular belief, HIIT can be performed both with weights and cardio. As personal trainers, we’re often incorporating interval protocols into our clients’ workouts and gym programmes – but what are the benefits of HIIT training?

Burn Baby Burn
We’re not just talking calories here. You increase your metabolism, increase testosterone and growth hormone, AND increase the body’s need for oxygen during the workout which leads to greater afterburn or EPOC (excess-post exercise oxygen consumption). We are talking about burning calories AND fat, both during AND after your HIIT workout.

Short and Sweet!

“I don’t have time…” is something we hear a lot. The beauty of HIIT is that they can be short workouts, in fact, they generally last 20 mins or less. Tabata being one such quick HIIT protocol- it’s only 4 minutes long! Best of all, they can be done anywhere – in the home, in a hotel room, in the park etc

Finely Tuned Atheletes
Ok, maybe not straight away, but HIIT will help you to reach that status! It increases your VO2 Max (amount of oxygen you use during exercise), enables your body to effeciently remove lactic acid from your muscles, and utilises both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. In short, it will result in changes to your fitness levels!

Spice Things Up
To help prevent adaptation and plateaus in your training, HIIT will provide a different stimulus for the body.

Essentially, if you’re looking to accelerate fat loss and improve aerobic and anaerobic endurance/fitness levels, HIIT is definitely something you want to be adding to your training regime. Keep in mind however that you will be working at maximum effort during these intervals – these are hard sessions and need to be planned around your existing training accordingly.

Further Reading:
http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/actually-hiit/
https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/high-intensity-interval-training.pdf