+What is the benefit of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)?
HIIT is a great way to condition and maintain your lean muscle gains and strength while burning fat. While cardio activity is necessary for heart health, circulation, and mobility, pure cardio activities can actually prevent muscle building and we do not what that to happen. Lean muscle helps drive our metabolism. We want to be heart healthy but also maintain muscle. Our HITT training is cardio that enhances muscle building and cardiac output so you burn calories AND build muscle.
HIIT alternates between short bursts of high intensity exercise followed by a brief period of rest. This is one of the best ways to turn on “afterburn,” where your body’s increased metabolic rate burns fat for a period of time AFTER your workout. Interval training can turn on this afterburn for a good 4 hours post-workout, meaning you’re still burning calories and breaking down fat.
HIIT workouts tend to be shorter in duration, with outputs of high intensity exercise, yet studies are finding that despite the shorter duration of these workouts, they tend to be superior when it comes to fat loss, with an increase in fat burning muscle fibers. An Australian study found that HIIT training, when compared to a typical 40-minute cardio program at 60% maximal heart rate, showed a 6x greater increase in fat loss. The American College of Sports Medicine found that HIIT workouts showed a 10% increase in calories burned in the 24-hour post-workout period. Workouts showed a 10% increase in calories burned in the 24-hour post-workout period.