What is HIIT Training?If you’ve been keeping your ear to the ground on the fitness front, then you no doubt would have heard a lot about HIIT training in recent times.HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training, and it involves doing a number of short but intense exercise sessions, separated by less intense exercises for recovery.For the average practitioner, a normal routine will go something like: warm up period, a number of sets of intense exercise at about a minute long, each set being split with light work at about 50% intensity, followed by a cool down period. Workouts will normally last anywhere from 5-30 minutes.This is by no means a set formula, and different people will have varying degrees of intense workout and recovery, but a general rule of thumb is that your intense sets should be twice as long as your recovery period.Benefits of HIIT TrainingFrom a weight loss perspective, HIIT training has some big benefits. This type of training makes good use of the afterburn effect, where your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is raised after an intense workout as your muscles try to rebuild and refuel.This means that not only will you be burning a tonne of calories during your workout, but due to the spike your metabolic rate experiences in the hours/days after a workout, you’ll continue to burn more calories (than normal) just sitting on the sofa!There are also considerable fitness benefits too.
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