High Intensity Interval Training and YOU

Happy New Year everyone!

I have been lacking in the article department for December but I have a good explanation. My son was born on December 3 and he along with the holiday season has led to neglecting this here blog.

As many of you have done in the past and have done so for 2010, will be pronounced as twenty ten and not two thousand ten, resolutions set to lose weight are the most popular. I want to address something that most of the gym goers are going to attack, those dreaded cardio machines at the gym.

If you go to the gym a lot and have done so for years, have you ever noticed that the same people trying to lose weight are still looking the same as they did months or even years ago? Do you look at them and immediately think they are doing great because they can do 45 minutes of cardio day in and day out? I can guarantee that their endurance is through the roof and they probably have a blood pressure that CEO's and air traffic controllers can only dream of.

What is this high intensity interval training that you speak of Erik? Well, simply put, you are going all out, balls to the wall, for a short and set time period with a rest period of a longer duration for about 15-20 cycles. A great benefit to this type of training is that it only takes 20-25 minutes per session instead of a long, dragged out affair of steady state cardio.

Back to those members who you see on the cardio equipment forever... As hard as they are working now, they are not burning fat as efficiently as they were a year ago going at their same intensities. The body will adapt to whatever we do, we instinctively go into preservation mode and try to complete things with the easiest of efforts. So a year ago, they were burning over 450 cals over 50 minutes compared to now only burning 350 calories over that same period. (note, these numbers are not exact, just trying to paint a picture.) The heart does not need to pump as hard because of that adaptation to the same workload. This spits in the face of burning more calories when you work out longer.

Not to go all Bill Nye the Science Guy on all you reading this, but some science is required to make more sense of all of this. At low intensities or steady state cardio, your muscles are not doing too much. Energy to get through these workouts is coming from your peripheral fat stores which is great news. Hence, long steady state cardio does burn fat but at a lower rate.

Moderate to high intensity cardio training uses fat within the muscle as energy because the energy from the peripheral fat stores has been depleted. Carbs are also burned from the muscle here in this area as well. The carbs are burned because the muscle is looking to replace the depleted glycogen stores from the higher level of work effort required by the muscles. This process also fuels the fat burning stove. After your bout of h.i.i.t., your body continues to burn fat while your muscles are busy returning those glycogen levels. I don't recommend much in terms of nutrition and you should consult with a dietician or nutrionist before changing your diet, but having lower carb levels during h.i.i.t. will make your muscles burn off more intramuscular fat as energy instead of the carbs.

Is h.i.i.t. okay for you? If you are just getting back into exercise after a long layoff or you are new to training, I recommend building your aerobic levels up for 4-6 weeks with those long 30-45 minute steady state cardio sessions. This is a method of training that requires some experience and a strong mindset. It is very demanding physcially and mentally.

If it is up your alley and you want to kickstart your fat burning into high gear, this could be something to try out for 4-6 weeks. I do not recommend this as your new cardio workout forever. Long steady state cardio has its benefits for your aerobic capacity as well as your heart. You could take 3-5 weeks off from h.i.i.t. and go back to it later. It is great for you to mix things up.

There are different things you can do for h.i.i.t. But the main thing to keep in mind is that you should be out of breath after a short burst. Warm up for 5 minutes and start out with 10 seconds of all out effort with 20 seconds of rest and continue to do this for 10 minutes and then cool down for 5 minutes. This should get you to 20 cycles. As you progress over the 4-6 weeks, you can increase your 'all out' time and lower your rest time, or you can increase your total session to 25 minutes to get in more cycles. I would only do this type of training 2-3x in a week.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a note in the comment section of this post. Until next time, I hope you fulfill your 2010 resolutions.

Regards,
Erik