Burn Off Fat And Increase Endurance With Hiit

If you can spare as little as 20 minutes three days a week, an High Intensity Interval Training routine is the best way to burn fat, boost athletic performance and reach your fitness goals.

High Intensity Interval Training combines brief periods of intense exercise with intervals of more moderate activity. The cycle of sprint and rest periods is repeated in varying numbers of sets, which can boost metabolism and burn fat more effectively than a strictly aerobic exercise routine. The number of sets is less important than the intensity level, especially for a beginner.

Training speeds metabolism and helps burn fat faster by having you exercise at alternating intensity levels. Bursts of high-intensity exercise are mixed with longer recovery periods in which the same exercise is continued at reduced intensity. The sprint phase of an High Intensity Interval Training routine requires the maximum energy you’re able to safely expend. The duration and intensity of the sprint interval differs as widely as individual fitness levels. Someone who hasn’t exercised anything but a remote control in recent memory might exhaust his or her endurance limits with a brisk minute-long walk. An indoor cyclist might last 15 minutes in climb mode before reaching maximum energy output. Both, however, are putting forth the same amount of effort and both will benefit from the routine. Both would also need a sufficient rest period before resuming maximum pace. Otherwise, each would lose momentum and benefit no more than he or she would have from a traditional aerobics routine. Keep in mind that intensity is more important than duration.

High Intensity Interval Training further helps increase the anaerobic limit, or the point at which muscles weaken due to the buildup of lactic acid that results from brief spurts of intense exercise. Increasing the anaerobic limit is invaluable to players of football, soccer, hockey and other sports that require short bursts of intense activity.

An interval routine trains you to increase your endurance level and keep your body operating at optimal fat-burning capacity by expending as much energy as safely possible for a short period of time, then allowing the body to recover before repeating the set. Think of the sprint interval as a car transmission running in fifth gear and the rest interval as a downshift into fourth. A beginner walking at a brisk pace for 60 seconds and an indoor cyclist simulating a 15-minute climb could both be expending maximum effort. Both would need sufficient rest periods before expending maximum effort again. If either tried to maintain the sprint interval without rest, he or she would lose momentum and get the same benefit as a traditional aerobic routine. The duration of each interval and the pace at which you alternate is determined by your personal fitness level.