Why You Should Incorporate HIIT Into Your Workout

One of the most common reasons I hear people use for not going to the gym is because they simply do not have enough time to work out. It is completely understandable that people have important things going on in their lives like work and family, but don’t you think taking time each day to focus on your body and health should take a little priority? Well I’m here to tell you that it IS possible to accomplish all your daily obligations and still manage to get a good cardio work out in, and that is by incorporating HIIT into your routine. HIIT stands for High-Intensity-Interval-Training and is a specialized form of interval training that involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. An example of this would be sprinting for 40 seconds at maximal effort and then walking for 20 seconds and repeating this cycle 6-12 times but never exceeding a total of 20 minutes. Because it involves briefly pushing yourself beyond the upper end of your aerobic exercise zone, it offers you several advantages that traditional steady-state exercises (where you keep your heart rate within your aerobic zone) can’t provide. HIIT trains and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy system but pushes the anaerobic threshold with brief, all-out efforts. This increases the amount of calories you burn during and after your exercise session because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise. HIIT not only increases your metabolic rate, it will improve your athletic endurance as well as your fat-burning potential. To get the benefits HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals. It has been shown that interval training is just as beneficial as long duration jogging and can be accomplished in half the time. So if you say you don’t have the time to workout, doing HIIT exercises will help your body get the workout it needs in the little time you have. HIIT is also a type of exercise you can do anywhere and requires no equipment, so there is no reason for anyone to not give it a try!