Want to find out the benefits of HIIT? Scroll down to see how this form of workout may be able to help you achieve your fitness goals
HIIT, or high intensity interval training, is a general term for workouts that last for a short period of time that combine shorts bursts of high intensity exercise with low intensity recovery periods. Despite ranging from just 10-30 minutes in duration, they can have an extensive range of benefits.
HIIT exercises can take many forms, including sprinting, squat jumps and peddling a stationary bike, you can mix it up to find the best form of HIIT to suit you.
Known for being an efficient way to exercise by burning quite a lot of calories within a small space of time, HIIT can also help to lower blood pressure and increase oxygen levels in the body. Pretty cool eh?
It's quick
Ideal for people with a busy work schedule (i.e all of us!), HIIT is ideal for squeezing in a quick half an hour on your lunch break or if you need to get in shape for an event in the not so in the distant future. Another benefit of HIIT is, as research shows, you can achieve more progress in a shorter amount of time. Just 15 minutes of interval training carried out three times a week is shown to be more effective than jogging on a treadmill for an hour.
Furthermore, a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting shows that just by doing high intensity interval training for two weeks, it can improve your aerobic capacity as much as if you were to carry out six to eight weeks of endurance training.
You don't need any equipment
While biking, rowing and skipping are all great examples of HIIT, you actually don’t need any equipment to reap the benefits of it. As long as your heart beat is heightened, by keeping your knees high and your feet fast or by doing something like jumping lunges, equipment doesn’t matter.
Jumping jacks, burpees and leg swings are all great examples of HIIT exercises that raise your heart beat without the need for equipment, or a gym! So what are you waiting for?
It improves your metabolism
Not only does HIIT help to burn fat and calories long after you’ve stopped exercising, it also stimulates the production of the human growth hormone HGH for upto 24 hours after you’ve finished your workout, which is responsible for slowing down the ageing process. So put down your expensive moisturisers and eye creams and get squatting, lunging and jumping!