These days, High Intensity Interval Training routines, also known as HIIT workouts, are gaining popularity. But why? Experts claim that this method of exercise is a great way to build stronger muscles, improve your endurance, and burn more fat or calories.
If you want to know about the benefits, the risks, and the best HIIT workout routines, keep reading below!
1.What Is HIIT?
HIIT is more than just a cardio routine and a good method of fat burning. It is also a very effective training method for many people. The HIIT workout meaning, High Intensity Interval Training, is based on the idea of doing high intensity intervals in between low to moderate intensity intervals.
This concept can be applied to most exercises like squats or jumping jacks and even running. It is seen to be much more successful than normal cardio sessions since the higher intensity increases both the anaerobic and aerobic endurance while also burning more fat.
According to research, HIIT workouts burn adipose tissue (fat deposits) about 50% more effectively than low-intensity exercise. They have also been proven to speed up metabolism and allow you to continue burning calories throughout the day. This is why people often turn to HIIT workouts for weight loss.
However, HIIT workouts are also found to generate more cellular damage and metabolic waste than steady state training.
2.The Benefits Of HIIT Workouts Include:
- Improved heart health
- Minimal need for expensive gym equipment
- Increased metabolism
- Personal challenge to achieve your weight and fitness goals
- You can do the exercises anywhere
- Assistance in controlling your appetite
- Help boost your mental strength and confidence
3.What Are The Best HIIT Exercises?
The short answer to this question is: it depends. The long answer is: there’s a lot of factors that make a routine the best for you, the most common of all is calorie burn. However, the same routine may burn more or fewer calories in a person depending on that person’s:
- Body weight – How much you weigh before doing a workout is a huge factor because we tend to burn more calories the heavier we are.
- Your Sex – Calorie burn also depends on whether you are a male or a female. Men will burn more calories than most women in the same period of time of doing the same routine, partly also because men are usually heavier than women.
- Your Hard work – Of course, just like in any fitness routine, the harder you work and push yourself, the more fats and calories you can burn. In HIIT, you are expected to exert your maximum effort at all times.
- Fitness Level – Whether you are a beginner or have been working out for quite some time or are trying to exercise now and then, it will affect the number of calories you can and will burn. Fitness regarding muscular strength and endurance, aerobic fitness, body composition, and flexibility all play their roles in helping your body burn calories and last long enough to finish a routine properly.
- Other factors – The efficiency and rate at which your body can burn fat, your genes that determine your body’s metabolism, the intensity of your workouts, your lifestyle, and so on can also affect the number of calories you can burn.
However, in the simplest terms and without knowing anything about a person, the usual HIIT workout routine, at its peak, can make you burn around 12 to 22 calories per minute.
Related:- THE BEST DIET AND FITNESS ROUTINE FOR WOMEN ALONG WITH HEALTH ADVICE
4.Here Are Some HIIT Workout Programs You Can Try:
A HIIT cardio warm-up to slowly raise your heart rate:
- March or jog in place for 30 seconds.
- Stand tall, stretch your arms, and roll them in big circles backward as if doing the backstroke for 30 seconds.
- Do a front lunge, side lunge, and back lunge by stepping one leg. Switch legs and repeat. Keep doing this for one minute.
5.HIIT Workout
This workout is designed to maximize caloric burn so expect it to be quite challenging. Go through all the exercises with full body movements and do as many reps as you can for 45 seconds then have 15-second rest periods and repeat each exercise for three rounds before proceeding to the next. For first-timers, you can extend the resting phase up to 20 seconds but be sure to push yourself at least a little beyond your level of comfort.
- Push-ups – You can use a chair or plyo box to support your hands or do this with your knees touching the ground.
- Squats – You may use a chair for additional support. Make sure that your feet are kept under your hips, and your weight rests on your heels.
- Butt kicks – To do this, jog or walk in place while kicking your heels back up to reach and touch your
butt. - Tricep dips – Stand with your back on a stable chair or low table and place your hands on the edge.
Straighten both legs in front of you, balancing on the palms. Bend your elbows and go as low as you can, engaging your core. Press up and go back to the starting position. - Side Lunges – Step to the side in a deep lunge, maintaining your knee above your toes. Keep your toes facing forward and your weight on your heels. Alternate between your legs.
6.Cool-Down:
For more challenging routines, you can choose other exercises such as the following:
If you have no access to a space to do the sprint, change this into 10 to 15 reps of jumping jacks. Do the recommended 10 to 15 reps for the other exercises. For a no-equipment routine, substitute box jumps into jump squats, kettlebell exercisesinto dumbbells, and sled pushes and pulls to suitcase carries or farmer’s walks. Depending on your fitness level, you may do 3 to 5 rounds of each without rest or do active rest 30 seconds in between.
When doing active rests, do not lie down or sit. Instead, slowly walk or march in place or around the room until you feel like your body has fully recovered. If you still feel energized, you can even do jumping jacks, lunges, or lateral jumps during this amount of time.
Paired with discipline and the perfect meal plan, HIIT workouts can really help you achieve your fitness goals in a quick and healthy way. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and HIIT it!
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