Posted by “HIIT” – an acronym for High Intensity Interval Training is a workout routine that is trending and been gaining popularity lately. Sought after largely by youth, whose fitness cravings can be described as – something involving “vigourous acts of exercise and swift results”, HIIT is an exercise routine that involves creating a balance between fluctuating oxygen levels and pushing your body to the extreme for a short intervals of time.
Contrary to the calm and consistent approach, it involves vigourous intervals of exercise followed by subsequent cooling down. Both the exercise and cool down last for very short amounts of time – for instance an exercise lasts for 30-40 seconds followed by a cool down of 15 seconds. One specific exercise forming part of the routine needs to be repeated at least 4-5 times. The entire routine can include 5-7 different exercises.
When you expose your body to a heavy workout and give it your all, you are soaking up all the oxygen present in the body thus indulging in anaerobic workout.
The keyword here is “Oxygen”. Maintaining the right levels of oxygen is a very integral part of High Intensity Interval Training. Oxygen flows from your lungs to your bloodstream and is further broken down to provide strength and energy to your body for activity and performing everyday tasks.
“Anaerobic Workout” – as suggested by the term itself, is a form of exercise that involves breaking down glucose in the body “without oxygen”.
By adopting HIIT, you are performing a robust workout and utilizing all the oxygen in the body leaving it gasping for breath. But it is part of the game. The strategy is to saturate all the oxygen and then give the body time to recover that oxygen in a short, relaxing stretch, triggering the anaerobic pathways of energy production.
With a very befitting name, HIIT is an “extreme” and “speed oriented” approach of fitness.
Dr Paul Rajender, a practicing physician in the US says – “A slow and calculated approach towards attaining fitness might seem plausible, but it isn’t the only right way. HIIT is a fitness oriented routine aimed at pushing your existing limits and burning a significant amount of calories.
Personal trainer Monty Bhullar, a 12 year veteran at a FITPASS member gym in Delhi states – “HIIT has proven to provide results with no major drawbacks and it tests your mettle. Also, it is a test of your will power – by putting yourself under duress repeatedly and then calming down, with the expectation that you will be doing it again the following day, week or month”.
“A true TEST for any human”. he ends.
High Intensity Interval Training routine is suitable for both men and women and HIIT workouts help considerably burn calories. When done properly the calorie burn per 30 minutes session for an average person can range between 400-600 calories.
A typical HIIT workout has 5-8 exercises elapsing for 30-60 seconds each, alternating with 20-30 second rest periods.
Some researchers claim that this anaerobic routine of exercise helps burn more calories and fat than your traditional aerobic form of workout.
Dr Sushma C Kapila, a medical researcher based in Bombay states – “ HIIT results in a fascinating post exercise metabolic boost called the EPOC effect – an abbreviation for Excess Postexercise Oxygen Consumption. It basically means that the body’s oxygen consumption goes up after you do a hard workout and it continues to burn extra calories, thus keeping your internal metabolism highly active even after the workout has ended.
Couple common forms of HIIT workouts include – Cardiovascular activity and Resistance training. The short extreme intervals of exercise are commonly referred to as bouts and can include activities such as Squats, Jumping, Skipping etc
FITCOACH by FITPASS, equips you with personalized HIIT routines and provides you with constant motivation and support at all stages. One of the major catches of HIIT is its requirement for extremely high levels of subject motivation. The body’s natural tendency to be at a relaxed and calm state creates a resistance to repeat vigorous workouts and one needs to be constantly motivated to achieve desired results. Interestingly, you need not worry about this, as stated earlier, FITCOACH got this covered for you.
In a testimonial left by a FITPASS user she mentioned – “HIIT significantly helped improve my athletic capacity and glucose metabolism. All thanks to FITPASS and Mahesh, my trainer”.
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