High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): One of The Best Training Exercises of all time!

Training of the steadfast!

When most people think of doing physical training and adding it to their daily life routines, for a variety of reasons, such as fat burning, overall health and well-being and muscle mass building. What immediately comes to their minds is the things that we normally see in the traditional gyms (treadmills, steady bicycles, weight machines, free weights etc...). But then most people feel like they are too busy (an excuse!) to follow a training schedule, attending the gym every other day and being committed (yeah... I still agree it's somewhat boring). So even though it happens that many people at some point of their lifetime end up paying for a membership in the gym and start the first days pushing themselves really hard and doing well. Yet before the month ends and they already have decided to quit. This is a reality that I have seen and experienced in most people within and out of my friends circle. Today, I am here to present and introduce you to the solution of your excuses and unstoppable laziness (yeah you can curse me now for being honest with you Mr. Lazy). It's something called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT.

What is High intensity interval training HIIT?
High intensity interval training is simply an intermittent training, done with a great deal of intensity for a period of time with rests in between. You basically do an intense physical effort for a short period of time (mostly less than 3 minutes) and then you rest for half or less of that time which you were active during (or you can do a very light effort to keep the blood flowing and regenerate your energy faster), and then you repeat the same cycle for few more times. This can be done in as short as 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes. Now I know some might think what can a 10 minutes of working out do or how can that be impactful on my health and physique. I suggest you to go and read more in-depth about HIIT, search on Google and YouTube and I assure you that you will find so many information, testimonials and scientific evidences that will literally blow your mind and convince the heck out of you to go and give it a shot yourself.


What makes HIIT a powerful exercise?
High intensity interval training comes with a whole lots of benefits. That of which you were looking for and that of which you might not have thought of and expected, out of such a seemingly simple 10-minute exercise (not that you are able to catch your breath during it anyway), the benefits are significant. Here are some of the most important ones;-

It increases your metabolism: High intensity interval training forces your body to consume high amounts of oxygen due to the great intensity, and that results in a great metabolism boost that lasts for up to 48 hours, and so you will be burning calories even after you have finished your actual exercise.

Burn more fat with less time: As time passes, more and more studies are showing that an HIIT session is much more effective and efficient in burning fat than steady state cardio and other medium/low intensity workouts. What’s even better is that you spend significantly less amount of time on an HIIT workout session than on other common workouts to burn the same amount of fat, and yet you keep on burning more fat post-workout in HIIT and so you burn more fat overall with considerably less amount of time.

An endurance boost: Doing your interval workout with intensity can increase your overall health and endurance according to a study in PLOS ONE, and that was seen through observing the increase in the amount of mitochondria, which aids in fueling your body and brain. Moreover, an improvement in blood pressure which helps in preventing diseases. And that improvement in endurance will stay with you and serve you during your less intense workouts and anything that requires physical effort.

Have a healthy heart: High intensity interval training increases the flexibility and elasticity of your blood vessels. Moreover, it's safer than other medium intensity exercises according to one study findings.


No equipment needed: One of the biggest advantages that HIIT exercise has, is that you don't need any equipment. Not even free weights. In HIIT you are fully reliant on your body weight as the main focus is on elevating your heart and making your body reach its maximal output. In addition to that, you retain your muscles. In fact, your muscle mass will actually increase from this kind of intense training, and you will be amazed by the results within the first few weeks.



Sample workout of HIIT training
High intensity interval training is something really creative in its nature. You can literally invent your own way of doing it. There are countless ways and movements that you can combine together and do intermittently, forming it into your own personalized HIIT workout. Depending on your physical capabilities and the space where you are going to perform your sessions. You can even do it at home, even if you room was tiny. The internet in general and specifically YouTube is full of videos and training schemes of different movements and combinations of HIIT. However, there is a specific video on YouTube for a guy called Mike Chang who i truly admire and highly respect for his  consisted work and effort. And i recommend you all to watch it as an example of how it’s like to do HIIT with minimal standards (Small room, absolutely no supporting equipment, simple combination of movements). This video was specially done by him to be easily digested by the beginners and those who didn't hear about HIIT before. I hope that it will be helpful to you. And now I’ll leave you with the video to watch, enjoy ;).