HIIT – The new paradigm in fitness for weight loss

Fitness for most people means endless running on city roads trying to avoid vehicles, people and garbage. The prevailing concept is that the more you run the more calories are burnt. The idea of running longer distances such as half or full marathons have become popular.  At these distances the body takes a huge hit and long term damage to the muscles and bones can take place.

There is an alternative to the time consuming, boring and ultimately harmful running fitness regime.

HIIT is the latest in personal fitness and overcomes all the above mentioned issues.

This is something called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short.

HIIT is an exercise routine in which you work on an intense workout routine with intermittent recovery periods. This makes for a shorter, more-efficient workout.

The high intensity workout should be done at maximum effort and the recovery part should be at half the effort.

This is more effective than other weight loss routines and is time efficient too.

HIIT workouts work on improving your metabolism. This could result in greater fat loss over time.

In the normal cardio you’re burning calories during the workout. There’s no post exercise boost in metabolism. The body adjusts to this level of workout and in the long run you will need more and more of cardio to get better results.

Getting started with HIIT

The key ingredient here is Intensity. The body is pushed hard for a short period of time and this helps the body to burn calories.

Here is a basic HIIT workout:

1>     Warm up for 3 minutes. Warm up can consist of light hopping, jumping jacks, and loosening of muscles and joints. No stretching of muscles at this stage.

2>     The next exercise can be sprinting or jumping but very fast for 2 minutes. This should max out your system. Your body should feel the stress.

3>     Take a break for recovery for 1 minute. You should be moving around and not stationary.

4>      Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 5 more times. At first you may be able to manage 2 or 3 repetitions.  Over time you can increase this to 7 to 8 times.

5>     Cool down by cutting your intensity to 20 to 30%.

6>  Stretching and yoga can be done now as muscles are warm and receptive.

The entire routine will be over in 30 minutes and without covering large distances. Variations in the exercises can be added.

I hope you try this workout. Will be a change from regular cardio and results will be much better.

Hemanshu Pandey

Basketball and philosophy are passions. Reading is a habit. Represented Maharashtra and Mumbai University as a basketball player. Currently coaching kids for school sports and women for marathons.