Article provided by Aaron Silk – Personal Trainer
One thing we hear a lot here at Bay City Gym is that members don’t train as often as they would like or that time is a big time restraint, and they don’t have enough of it. If this sounds like you, maybe it’s time to give High Intensity Interval Training, (HIIT), a go. HIIT refers to workouts that involve short periods of intense or explosive exercise followed by short periods of rest with varied recovery times. Exercise bouts may range from a few minutes to 10 minutes and longer. Total workouts generally last from maybe 20 minutes to 45 minutes.
Despite how short the workout is it can produce benefits similar to twice as much moderate intensity exercise. HIIT not only provides the results of longer duration exercise in a much shorter amount of time but may also provide many other health benefits.
- You can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time. One study compared the calories burnt during 30 minutes of HIIT, weight training, running and biking. Researchers found that HIIT burnt 25-30% more calories than other forms of exercise.
- Your metabolic rate is higher for hours after a HIIT workout. This results in burning additional calories even after you have finished exercising.
- HIIT can help fat loss similar to traditional exercise, even with a much smaller time commitment. It can also help reduce waist circumference.
- You may gain muscle using Hiit workouts, however, not as much as you would using a weight training programme, which is great if you don’t want to bulk up.
- HIIT can improve oxygen consumption. One study showed four 20 minute workouts a week increased oxygen consumption by 9% compared to people who cycled continuously for 40 minutes, 4 times a week.
- HIIT can reduce heart rate and blood pressure, and can also help with reducing blood sugar.
- HIIT improves aerobic and anaerobic performance.
Bay City Gym offers classes that focus on HIIT. If the benefits sound like something you would like to achieve, come and join us in our Small Group Training classes. We have had many members gain some great results over a relatively short time frame. We offer classes most days with a range of times. The workouts are different every day and you will be done and dusted in 45 minutes. Come and give them a try and see for yourself.