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HEALTH & FITNESS

More Results in Less Time

Nick, Trainer, Rozelle

06 October 2016

If I could tell you there is an easier way to reach your goals without having to do 90 minutes of exercise 5 times a week, would you believe me?

 

Well trust me, there is, and it’s called HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training – it’s the stuff we do in our boot camps and PT sessions. If you want to start achieving your fitness goals and actually see some results for all the work you are doing, then read on.

HIIT sessions stair runs, anyone?

check out classes.

How does it work?

The general misconception is that to lose weight, one needs to jump on a treadmill or run around the block a few times. But let’s break that down: say you weigh 60kg and run at a pace of 8km/hr for 30 minutes. You will burn approximately 260 calories (roughly equivalent to 2 slices of bread with peanut butter). This in itself is not much at all, but here is the problem – once you stop running, your body stops burning calories. Thus, total calories burned for your 30 minute workout would be only 260.

Instead, let’s say you did 30 minutes of HIIT training. On average, the same person described above would burn 18 calories per minute. So, in just 30 minutes you would burn 540 calories. BAM! That’s 280 more calories burned. Even this alone shows that HIIT is a more efficient training style.

Furthermore, unlike your jogging – with HIIT, you keep burning more calories for the following 24 hours!! How? It’s known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC, i.e. after you finish your HIIT, your body is still working to replace the oxygen lost during the workout to return your levels to normal. So, while you are back to your normal activities, your body is still burning calories – in fact, it can add 10-15% to your overall calorie burn for that workout. The more intense the exercise, the greater the EPOC debt, thus intensity is the key with HIIT, rather than length of time. So, not only have you burned 540 calories in your initial workout, you are now burning an additional 50-80 bonus calories!

 

“Burn calories for 24 hours post workout without doing anything.”

Still not convinced to add some HIIT to your weekly workout routine?

Well, when you are performing HIIT workouts you use a combination of strength and cardio resulting in building more lean muscle mass (which you will continue to build as you get stronger and keep challenging yourself). Don’t worry, we are talking ‘lean’ muscle, so you are not going to turn into a hulk or one of the guys in the gym that looks like a walnut that’s about to burst! Aside from lean muscle having you looking more slim and toned, it also increases your resting metabolic rate. This is rate at which your body burns energy to maintain your current weight. Muscles burn more energy than fat, so the more lean muscle you have, the more energy your body requires. So, building more lean muscle turns your body into a fat burning machine!

So, are you keen to get started with HIIT training? If you are going from couch to HIIT, then I would consider starting with 15 minute HIIT sessions and building up from there. You can check out my 15 minute fat blaster workout here to get started. You just do as many reps of an exercise as you can within the set time – this is the great thing about HIIT; two people with completely different fitness levels can do the same workout, at their own pace and both be working really hard. That’s why we love this style of workout at our boot camps.

The key to your success with HIIT training is intensity. It has to be high, you have to be really burning and feeling short of breath. It’s no stroll in the park!! If you can’t do this on your own, find a buddy or a trainer to help push you to your limits. Trust me, it will be worth the 15-30 minutes of discomfort!

Add HIIT training to your workout plans next week and let’s get into GoodShape!!

 

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