Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-02-25, 10:02:46 | version 1.33.01
Saves time & moneyThe beautiful thing about HITT training is it can be done in the comfort of your own home, outside or even at a hotel while traveling. The exercises that can be per- formed during HIIT are endless. All you need is your body weight to get in a good workout with no equipment required. Ex- ercises like, Running, biking, jump roping, and rowing all work great for HIIT, but you don’t need any equipment to get it done. High knees, pop squats, or anything plyo- metric like jumping lunges work just as well to get your heart rate up fast! Perfect for those who can’t get to a gym. With HIIT, you will be working harder than you normally work, but for about a quarter to a half of the time. Twenty minutes of this hard core training will leave you sweaty. If you are used to performing 60 minutes of cardio you save 40 minutes and get double the benefits! Preserve hard earn muscleAnyone who has been on a diet knows that it’s hard to not lose muscle mass along with fat. While steady state cardio seems to encourage muscle loss, studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow dieters to preserve their hard-earned muscles while ensuring most of the weight lost comes from fat stores. Especially when adapting a lower calories diet, our bodies can experience a negative responses which is loss of muscle as well as fat. This ultimately lowers the person’s metabolic rate which is not ideal for someone looking to burn fat. HIIT workouts along with weight training have been shown to preserve muscles mass ensuring that most of the weight loss comes from fat stores. You aren’t spending enough time to breakdown muscles fibers while performing HIIT. Another huge bonus- The more muscle we have, the higher the metabolism. There are many more positive benefits that come from Interval training, the list goes on. Benefits range from a healthier heart to increasing lung power, increased metabolism and even agility. No matter what training routine you are in currently, give HIIT a try, you won’t be disappointed with the results! SJ Nieusma is a published author, fitness writer, personal trainer and holistic/sports nutritionist. She chose this field 8 years ago after losing almost 30 lbs. and realized she wanted to help others do the same. Her desire to help people succeed drives her to bring out the best in each individual. As her passion grew in health and fitness, her love for writing on those topics grew as well. Over the past 7 years she has published a book, “Shedding for the Wedding” as well as contributed her writing to magazines internationally. Some of these magazines include, Ultra-Fit and Health and Fitness. SJ also writes for Supple- ment and nutrition companies, and guides readers on how to live fit. Photo credit: Eva Simon. 1Burns Fat Are you guilty of spending a lot of time run- ning nowhere on the treadmill? Listen to this-- Exercise physiologists used to believe that“steady state”cardio was superior for fat loss because relatively more fat is used by the body as fuel at lower exercise intensities than at higher intensities. The“Fat Burning Zone” shown on most cardio equipment as only 60%- 65% of max heart rate is really a myth and is NOT optimal for burning fat. This is what drove lots of women to spend hours on the tread- mill a week! Yes, you burn more fat relative to glycogen when going for a walk, but what we care about is total fat burn. At higher intensi- ties, you are burning far more fat, even though the fat/glycogen ratio is lower. In addition, HIIT allows you to exercise at very high intensities for a much longer period of time than steady state, so you burn more fat. 2 3 TRAINING Summer/Fall 2013 • FitnessX.com 21.