Get More from Your Cardio with HIIT – A NUBODYZ Publication

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Seattle, Washington 10/19/2009

Many who regularly workout, and many more who have tried to workout but have thrown in the towel due to disappointing results, harbor great distain for treadmills, elliptical, and stationary bikes of all varieties and makes. After all, who wants to spend almost an hour enduring such extreme monotony while listening to the same songs on our mp3 player that we once loved but now hate (somehow, I’ve managed to become sick of over 1,000 on my mp3 player; what ambition!). Well, the good news is that you can get better results from your cardio workouts in half the time and reduce your level of boredom through what is called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).

Notice I did not say HIIT would necessarily be easier; so if you are the type of person who performs their cardio armed with a gossip magazine or a cell phone (one of my biggest pet peeves), this approach probably is not for you. This form of exercise, however, is simple and easy to learn. It can be performed doing any type of cardio, although I prefer the treadmill and elliptical. The foundation for HIIT’s effectiveness is its alternating bursts of high intensity cardio paired with low intensity cardio versus the traditional steady pace. Later on, I will explain how intense and how long your intervals should be to achieve optimum results, but for now, let’s explore why this method is superior.

For starters, when executed properly, HIIT only needs to be performed for 20 minutes max because it is extremely efficient in the way of burning calories, which of course will significantly cut your workout time down, and for some of you, cut your cardio time in half! Furthermore, HIIT allows you to burn more calories out of the gym as well which is a result of the bouts of high intensity which does two things. One, it increases the amount of energy your body will use to recover following the workout. This is commonly referred to as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). This not only sounds really fancy and cool, but it is crucial to your progress as well. What this basically means is that you will consume more oxygen recovering from exercise than if you had taken a conventional steady-state approach, there-bye you have an elevated metabolism and more calories are being burned. Burned calories out of the gym is critical to your success and one of the most overlooked elements to reducing body fat. The second way HIIT effectively consumes calories out of the gym is through burning not only fat, but also tapping into your glycogen storages (where carbohydrates used for energy are stored). Therefore, subsequent meals will be used to replenish the depleted glycogen reserves instead of turning into fat. Low intensity cardio simply does not provide this benefit.

A complication with traditional forms of steady-state cardio is that your body will eventually adjust itself to the speed you are going and will try hard to conserve energy (calories) as a consequence. This means you will hit the dreaded plateau. If you are thinking “well, I’ll just ran faster as I get fitter” you will be sorely disappointed. Eventually your body will adapt to the new speed, and as you progress, it will adapt to an even more elevated speed. Eventually you will have to move so swiftly your long aerobic cardio will turn into an anaerobic workout similar to the “intense” portion of your HIIT. So, if you have to stop doing traditional forms of cardio at some point to get the benefits you seek why not do HIIT to begin with.

Clearly, you can see why HIIT is more effective at burning calories; but just how much more effective you might be wondering? Numerous studies have shown that participants who engaged in short high intensity training lost 9 times more fat than those who performed long low intensity training. To supplement this, longer low intensity cardio can potentially put you into a catabolic state where your body will start to burn hard earned muscle as a source of energy. This loss of muscle will decrease your metabolism and significantly impede your aspirations of developing a lean sculpted body.

Now that you know why to do HIIT let me educate you on how to do HIIT. Firstly, because HIIT is more demanding, I recommend gradually building up your intensity if you are just starting to workout. Always warm up and cool down for at least 5 minutes before and afterwards. As with all cardio programs, staying within 60-90% of your target heart rate range is critical to your fat burning efficiency. As far as intervals, there are many approaches that can be taken. Some individuals who are more conditioned can take a more extreme approach where they will sprint for 30 seconds and then jog for 1-2 minutes. A different approach includes a moderate pace while maintaining a heart rate of 65-70% of your max for 2 minutes, than increasing your intensity for 1-2 minutes with a heart rate up to 85-90% of your max for a total of 20 minutes. It is important to note that HIIT workouts should never exceed 20 minutes (excluding your warm up and cool down).

HIIT does not need to be overcomplicated, the main principal is to stay within 60-90% of your max heart rate and switch up intensities at least every 3 minutes but not more regularly than every 30 seconds. A very easy way to get your feet wet without overdoing it is to simply keep changing your speed and intensity every two minutes. Executing this accordingly will provide you with all the benefits we had previously discussed and prevent your body from acclimating to a constant pace. If you choose to workout outside and don’t have a heart rate monitor and stopwatch, you can improvise by walking one block and then jogging the next. Either way, give HIIT a shot. Being open to different approaches and getting out of your comfort zone is vital to your fitness success. HIIT is one of those rare phenomena that can actually produce better results in less time. If you stick with prehistoric steady state tactics to exercise you will simply find yourself running in circles (excuse the pun).