Why You Should Incorporate HIIT Into Your Workouts

By Bryan Kittman | March 30, 2019

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is one of the most effective methods for helping torch fat, build muscle, and improve your cardiovascular endurance. In a HIIT workout, you’re faced with performing at near max capacity for a short amount of time, followed by short period of rest and recovery. During HIIT training, you’re going to want to get your heart pumping to 85% of its maximum rate. At this level, your body is rapidly increasing its metabolic rate, giving you the ability to reap the benefits it provides. Here is why you need to start incorporating HIIT training into your workouts.

It’s highly efficient

HIIT training essentially packs 30-minutes of traditional cardio into a much smaller time frame. HIIT puts both your aerobic and anaerobic fitness to the test, allowing to cover all the bases for cardiovascular training. One 27-minute HIIT workout is the equivalent of a 60-minute cardio session, saving you time so you aren’t spending a good portion of your day doing boring running on a treadmill.

Boosts metabolism

During the afterburn of a HIIT workout, your body is put into metabolic overdrive, causing your body to kick start its metabolism. This means it will increase your basal metabolic rate, the rate of which energy is expended while your body is at rest. So, not only are you getting a kick ass workout, you’re training your body to continue burning fat even while at rest.

Rapid fat loss

To burn fat, you need a lot of oxygen. WIth HIIT, you’re going to need a whole lot of O2 to keep you going. All that huffing and puffing places your body in an oxygen shortage, causing the body to demand more oxygen during recovery. This intense period of exercise will result in your body burning off fat a much more efficient rate than you’d get doing steady state cardio.

Increased stamina

Anaerobic activity is when you push yourself so hard that breathing becomes difficult and your heart is pounding in your chest, and not too many people reach that point when it comes to doing cardio. However, reaching this point when doing HIIT will work wonders for increasing your cardiovascular stamina, giving you an optimal benefit over performing regular cardio work.

Keep your muscle

Pushing your body to a certain point while doing HIIT causes your body to release a natural boost of human growth hormone, which is essential for a variety of health factors. Human growth hormone has been shown to be an important factor in promoting fat loss and muscle growth. So, when doing HIIT, you’ll be able to keep that hard earned muscle, while still ridding your body of unwanted fat.

Versatility

Unlike requiring a treadmill or stairmaster to do traditional cardio, HIIT can be performed pretty much anywhere. In fact, you really don’t need a single piece of equipment to do HIIT, all you need to do is push yourself to the 85% effort range for a short period of time. HIIT can adapt to wherever you are, making it a very versatile form of training.

It’s rewarding!

HIIT is unlike any other forms of cardio. It can be exciting to push yourself to the upper limits of your physical ability, and you may even surprise yourself by how far you can go. Not only is it efficient, results are typically seen quicker, making it a great option anyone. Plus, if you throw in some creativity, you won’t ever become bored with HIIT training, as it can always be switched up to your liking.