High-Intensity-Interval-Training (HIIT): 8 Incredible Benefits of HIIT
“Health is Wealth.” Most of us have heard this common saying since childhood, but still, physical inactivity is one of the common reasons that lead to critical ailments worldwide.
If you are not involved in a physically demanding job, you need to have an exclusive fitness routine that will help you to stay active and fit. Unfortunately, most people avoid joining any fitness routine for reasons like hectic schedules and lack of time.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) breaks this excuse – ‘lack of time’ and is one of the most efficient ways of exercising.
What is HIIT?
HIIT is a form of exercise combination that includes short bouts of high-intensity exercise followed by a period of rest or low-intensity exercise.
Each period of intense exercise can either be less than 45-seconds or a few minutes. It depends on the physical capacity of an individual, as recommended by your fitness instructor. You rest for 30-seconds, in-between each interval, and then repeat the exercise sequence.
HIIT is Time Efficient
HIIT is an excellent fitness option for those who cannot commit to a regular fitness session. According to health practitioners and fitness professionals, a low-volume HIIT is a time-efficient exercise strategy. It provides the benefits of the longer-duration exercises in a much shorter amount of time.
The entire HIIT workout can be as short as 15 – 20-minutes or more than a 30-minute session with a warmup, recovery intervals, and cool down. It is a practical and fruitful choice for people who find it difficult to commit to longer sessions.
HIIT is one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise, but its benefits are more in terms of physical and mental well-being.
8 Incredible Benefits of HIIT Workouts
1. Helps burn more calories in less time
The research conducted to compare 30-minute HIIT sessions with the same duration biking, running, and weight training found significantly more calorie burn with HIIT sessions than the others. As per its observations, an average healthy man can burn 25 to 30% more calories with a HIIT workout routine than other forms of exercise for the same duration.
2. Boosts metabolism to burn more fat
Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) restores the body to a resting state. It adapts to the exercise just performed, thus boosting the metabolism to use fat as a fuel rather than carbs. HIIT maximizes EPOC and helps in burning 50% more fat as compared to a regular steady-state cardio workout.
3. Builds muscles and maintains muscle mass better
When HIIT workouts stimulate the burning and using up of fat and calories, it produces muscle building anabolic hormones. It is an effective way of developing lean muscle.
As compared to regular workout/prolonged exercises, it also helps in losing fat and maintaining muscle mass. An unguided weight loss workout can cause not just loss of fat but the loss of muscles. Whereas, through HIIT, fat-burning hormones such as epinephrine, help burn fat and calories, and not muscles.
4. Improves blood circulation and helps in fighting Type II Diabetic symptoms
A study compared an endurance training group exercising four days/week for 30-minutes per day to the HIIT group working out three times per week for 20 minutes per day. It found that HIIT workout improved blood circulation/blood vessel dilation and significantly affected blood pressure levels.
Furthermore, as per the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, resistance-based interval exercising/HIIT improved endothelial functions (blood clotting, immune function, and platelet counts) too, that helped Type II Diabetic patients.
5. Helps hormone balancing
HIIT helps to balance the hormones Ghrelin (long-term weight gain and short-term eating habit hormone) and Leptin (a starvation hormone). As a result, the levels of testosterone get elevated and promote weight-loss.
6. Strengthens the cardiovascular activity
During HIIT, your heart rate gets pushed, and the oxygen consumption increases. Both these activities strengthen and improve your heart and cardiovascular functions.
As per a 2015 study, a 10-week program (55 minutes per week) of HIIT workouts produced cardiovascular and metabolic benefits faster than those of moderate-intensity exercises by participants in an average of 128 minutes per week.
7. Improves mental health
HIIT not just boosts physical health but also enhances mental well-being. According to researchers at the University of Alabama, HIIT has improved the motor functions and quality of life of people who have Parkinson’s disease.
Further, as per a 2015 study, an 8-week program of HIIT showed positive effects on the physical and mental health of patients with chronic schizophrenia. They had low motivation to exercise and believed exercise as a time-consuming task. HIIT changed the whole perception and resulted in improved mental health.
8. Reverses signs of cellular aging
As per recent research by Mayo Clinic, HIIT workouts can roll-back cellular aging. Another study published in the European Heart Journal explained that it improved the production and synthesis of proteins in the body, which protects DNA and helps you age healthfully.
A HIIT workout designed by a trained professional can not only help you push your physical limit but also improve your health and stamina.
Why join Empire Fitness?
At Empire Fitness, we aim to provide a safe and fun fitness environment. We have designed HIIT in a 45 to 55-minute cardio inspired workout that will improve your overall fitness, strength, speed, and agility. Our HIIT workout includes cardio intervals with different drills and equipment. It is a combination of athletic aerobic movements with strength and stabilization exercises.
There is a 20-exercise station setup for HIIT at Empire Fitness. We schedule a 2-minutes workout for each station with a 30-seconds break in-between each interval. Our overall fitness regime aims to focus on different body parts on different days, to help you push yourself more.
The instructors at Empire Fitness are highly trained and certified. We make modifications to make the workout feel less difficult for some and adversely more challenging for people who can handle more. It depends on our observation of each individual.
Is HIIT right for you?
Anyone age 14 or above can join HIIT and expect to see improved athletic capacity, improved metabolism, and increased fat burning in 4-6 weeks.
To know more about HIIT and flexible membership packages, feel free to contact us @ (305) 506 5006.
