HIIT training is best for weight loss, speed training, and time-crunched workouts
By Jamal Al-Bayaa, Staff Writer
Sprint for 20 seconds at a 100 per cent exertion level, then rest for 40 seconds before doing it again. By the five-minute mark, participants are already sweaty, and huffing and puffing like theyâre getting ready to blow a house down. If anyone is brave enough to follow this regimen for 20 minutes, theyâll definitely âfeel the burn.â Or pass out. Itâs really just a matter of which one comes first.
Sound crazy to you? It sounds crazy to a lot of people, but recent science and trends have been crowding around the idea that HIIT training, as itâs called, is the most effective type of cardio you could be doing if youâre training for speed, power, weight loss, and heart health. Thatâs pretty much all of the general reasons to do cardio in the first place, unless you have very specific requirements or ambitions.
The secret to HIITâs effectiveness at reaching those specific milestones is that itâs not really cardio at all, and yet itâs still cardio. Specifically, HIIT training trains anaerobics more than aerobics. Muscles more than lungs. Itâs not quite cardio and not quite a barbell: letâs just suffice to call it bardio, and recognize it as an efficient fusion that will simultaneously gas you and give you strength and power. The tradeoff for the physical prowess acquired by sprints may be scoffed at by some, but they do exist.
First, HIIT does not include long-distance endurance in the list of traits it effectively improves. As a partially anaerobic exercise, it isnât well suited to large amounts of volume over a long period of time. Although sprinting for endurance is ineffective, adding 60 second sprints into otherwise singularly paced long-distance runs has been found to increase endurance levels in runners considerably.
Second, the tradeoff for physical abilities may actually be mental regeneration. Steady state cardio (running on the treadmill for upwards of 20 minutes) was found to be exponentially more effective than HIIT at regenerating cells in the brain, suggesting that long distance running is more stress relieving and cognitively beneficial, which is something major for students to consider if planning a fitness routine.
Lastly, HIIT training poses a greater risk of injury to all who participate in it, but especially non-athletes (as compared to athletes of a similar demographic). Especially, UBC researches have shown that knee injury is much more common among these non-athlete groups. Take that with a grain of salt thoughâthese study participants were engaged in little to no exercise, and then asked to immediately jump into an exercise regimen made for a highly conditioned athlete/fitness enthusiast. HIIT training doesnât hurt people, pushing past limits without considering how much a body can comfortably handle hurts people.
With all that being said, HIIT training is a great way to spice up a workout, especially for athletes. For non-athletes, the principles can be applied in a more gentle way to build up fitness levels. Start this training for all the benefits, and then stick with it for my favourite reason of all: itâs actually fun!
