High intensity interval training is a fantastic way to both put on muscle and shred down fat. Essentially, you alternate between resting and going as hard as you can for similar amounts of time until you’re too tired to do it anymore.
HIIT training, as it’s more commonly known, can be done with a variety of exercises, all with different effects and results, so you can experiment a bit to figure out what works best for you.
One of the most common HIIT exercises is sprinting. Many people struggle with running to get in shape, but by doing short bursts of sprinting combined with short periods of rest to catch your breath, you can improve your cardiovascular system, tone your legs, and shed pounds,too.
HIIT allows you to put in a great deal of effort intermittently, instead of putting in a mediocre effort for awhile. This gives you better results with exercises that you might struggle with.
Many people have turned to HIIT in order to get those abs that they’ve always wanted. By doing extremely intense ab workouts and then resting, you’re able to keep going a bit longer than you would with some predetermined sets.
The higher amount of reps means that you’re going to see results faster. Much of what makes ab workouts effective for that muscle growth is continuously getting in reps, so with HIIT, you’re going to definitely firm up your core.
You can structure your HIIT workouts in different ways. The length of the workout and of each interval can be adjusted to better fit you, though you should be uncomfortable to an extent while doing it.
While some involve exercising and resting, some will have you switch between an easy and a difficult exercise and wait until the end to really rest up. This makes for a very intense workout that’s sure to leave you sore the next day.
Not every workout needs to be a HIIT workout. You can do them once a week, once a month, or whatever works for you. Whatever you do, you want to use them to help break up the monotony of standard workouts to confuse your muscles.
If you go to the gym and do the same workouts at the same time every week, your muscles will adapt and already be prepared for it, which makes the workout less effective. By throwing HIIT into the mix, your muscles are forced to shake things up.
