HIIT
Are you struggling to find time to do any exercise?
Does the thought of pounding out a 30 to 60 minute jog on the treadmill send a feeling of dread through you?
Or, are you exercising regularly, eating right… And not seeing the results you are looking for.
There may be a better way.
Have you tried HIIT yet?
HIIT stands for “High Intensity Interval Training”.
This training will help you burn fat, keep and/or put on muscle,increase your cardiovascular fitness,and save you time.
There’s plenty of scientific research to back any claims. I’ll list 3 studies here for your convenience but you can also ask DR Google.
A 1996 study from Baylor College of Medicine found that subjects that did HIIT on a stationary bike burned more calories during a 24 period following the exercise than those that did a moderate steady paced exercise for 30 minutes.
Another study was done by researchers at Laval University in Canada. They studied two groups – one followed a 15 week program using HIIT, another group performed ” Steady State” cardio exercise for 20 weeks. The results found that the steady state exercise group burned 15000 calories more than the HIIT group, but those that followed the HIIT program lost significantly more body fat.
A recent study from right here in Australia studied a group of women who did a 20 minute HIIT that involved 8 second sprints followed by 12 seconds of rest. The second group did a 40 minute cardio program at a steady pace that worked them at an intensity of 60% maximum heart rate( MHR).
The HIIT group lost 6 times more body fat than the group that followed a 40 minute cardio program.
If those results excite you then here’s how to do HIIT exercises.
Do an exercise as hard as you can – 80-90 percent max effort for a brief time, say 10- 30 seconds, and then rest for a given period of time typically twice as long as the exercise period.
There is a warm up and cool down period and the entire session is usually 15 to 30 minutes long.
Finding an exercise or activity that you like to do really helps.
If you haven’t been exercising lately ( meaning in the last month or more ) you should begin with something easy for a few weeks. Start with some brisk walking like you are late for the bus and work your way up to HIIT.
I’d like to give you 3 different styles to get you started the right way, but before we get started…
If you have a heart condition, or any condition that requires proper professional health advice, make sure you talk to a health professional of your choice.
So now that we got that out of the way, lets get started!
Tabata Training
Bike, run, dance, or jump.
Warm up for 3-5 minutes
Work as hard as you can for 20 secs
Rest for 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times.
Turbulence Training
8 sets of weight lifting followed by 8 sets of cardio
For example:
1 set of bench presses
1 minute of jump rope
Rest 30 seconds
1 set of squats
1 minute of burpees
Rest 30 seconds
Work no longer than 45 minutes
Sprints
Brisk walk and jog to warm up 10 minutes
Sprint all out for 10 to 20 seconds
Walk for 2-3 minutes rest
Do 8 to 10 sets
Walk for 10 minutes cooldown
And just as a bonus here is The TOUGH CACTUS routine.
This is a style I use to get ready for the Tough Mudder: it includes using body weight exercise, dumbbells, cardio, and a pull-up and dip machine would be really helpful at some stage. We can modify it from beginner to expert.
5 minute warmup
1 minute of body weight exercise (push ups, squats etc. with Dumbbells occasionally)
45 sec rest
1 minute cardio
45sec rest
1 minute resistance exercise (pull ups, dips)
45 sec rest
1 minute cardio
45 sec rest
Continue for 20 repetitions
5 minute cooldown
Over the next weeks to months, reduce the rest period to 15 seconds.
The ultimate feat for the Tough Cactus Bootcamp is to do a 3km run, the bootcamp routine 2 times through and another 3km to finish it off.
Make up your own exercise, have fun with it and for more info on this please feel free to email me.