Add HIIT To Your Weekly Cardio Routine
High Intensity Interval Training
That's right HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. What exactly is that and how does it work? Let me explain.. but first let me use an illustration. When your in your car, when do you burn more gas.. when your going 70 on the highway just cruising, or when the light turns green and you go from 0 to 60? That's right, you burn more gas when you step on the gas! It's the same with our bodies, we burn more calories when we step on the gas! So in other words, we want to add sprinting to our cardio routine, and INTERVALS. An interval is a period of time while doing cardio that you push your body almost as hard as it can go, but then the key is to slow down and let your heart rate go back down. The reason we want your heart rate to go back down, is so we can raise it again. You burn more calories bringing your heart rate from 90 to 180, than you do from keeping a steady pace with a heart rate at 155.
The key here is to confuse your body! Jogging for an hour will not confuse your body at all. With each interval you have 3 variables you can play with to confuse your body; Speed, Incline, and Duration. With each interval you do, you should change one or 2 or maybe all three of these variables. Depending on what type of shape you are in, your intervals should be between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. Lets say you do your first interval for a minute at a speed of 7.0 and an incline of 2.0... a good idea for the next interval could be keeping the speed and incline the same but doing it for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Or you can keep it at a minute but bump the speed up to 8.0. And the same goes for the incline becuase the incline makes it tougher as well!
Besides the fact that HIIT has been proven to get amazing fat burning and incredible V02 level increasing results, one thing I love about it, is you get it done much quicker. You should only perform interval training for between 10 to 25 minutes. You can go longer if you really want to, but 25 minutes is all you need. If your pushing yourself harder and harder, you can make 10 to 25 minutes really count!
Now I'm not saying that this is the only type of cardio you should do from here on out. Remember I can't stress enough how important it is to confuse your body. By adding HIIT to your routine, you will be gaining better results from your low intensity long duration cardio training. Your body will get confused going from one day jogging for 45 minutes to doing intervals the next day for 20 minutes. Keep your body guessing in all you do and I promise you will get the results you've been working for!! God Bless, I hope you all enjoy good health!!
