I’ve been a fan of HIIT and interval training for well over a decade. It jacks up the metabolism, increases your natural fat burning hormone (HGH) and simply helps you lose a lot more body fat than diet alone. For people that know about interval training, this is already known. The thing that is not widely known, it that you can better do endurance exercise, when you do interval training.
Great Results With The Interval Training Study
The Journal of Applied Physiology had a study published in 1995, where they divided 16 participants into two groups. Eight people did two weeks of sprint intervals, and eight people were the a control group who did nothing over these two weeks. Both groups were tested for endurance capacity, before and after these two weeks. It was found that in this short time, the interval group’s endurance capacity was doubled.
Endurance Benefits Greater Than Endurance Exercise
So we know that HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) has been proven to increase endurance more than people who do nothing, but what about people who do endurance exercise? The researchers say that the result of their interval study is…”comparable to or higher than previously reported aerobic-based training studies of similar duration”. The people in the study, increased their endurance capacity better than the endurance study, in which the people did endurance exercise for 2 hours a day for 5 days a week, or a total of 20 hours.
15 Minutes of HIIT vs 2 Hours of “Regular” Cardio?
It is a little insane, when you contemplate that by doing HIIT, you can increase your endurance capacity in greater amounts, than by doing the actual endurance exercise. This will be a pretty big paradigm shift for a lot of people. The information that is contained in the study isn’t new, but it has yet to reach the mainstream audience. Even now, when I go to the gym, I hardly ever see anyone doing interval work. It really is mind boggling! For more than 15 years, we have been aware that HIIT is better at burning fat, and for the last 5 years, we have found that one of the ultimate ways to boost endurance, is by doing interval training.
How Can This Help Endurance Athletes?
If you are an endurance athlete, then to get the most benefit from your workout, you have to use endurance exercise. You have to strengthen the tendons and muscles to be able to endure the pain involved in endurance exercise. The best thing to do, is to do a mix of intervals along with your endurance training. By doing it this way, you get the benefits from both exercises.
What About Everyone Else?
I like to “milk” a little more fat burning after HIIT by throwing in some steady state cardio. My body, as well as my joints are also in better condition, so that helps with sports that need me to run for a long time. It is wonderful when you can run for 20-30 minutes, and not have to suffer through body aches for a few days afterward. Right now, I only do this 1-2 times a week. You will probably not need to do steady state cardio for long time periods, if your only concern is losing weight.
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