High Intensity Interval Training: what, why and for who?

At the beginning of 2014, every magazine and gym had adverts or articles promoting High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – in the form of TABATA training, Les Mills GRIT, INSANITY, etc. Most of them promise you great results (increasing fitness and power level, toned body, lost fat) during short-30min. intense work-outs, which combining aerobic, plyometric and strength exercises.

The big question is-does it work? And more importantly – is it for everybody?

The main point to understand is that you will get benefits with every type of combined cardio-strengthening program, however with higher intensity and heavier weights, the benefits, will be greater.

HIIT is so intense that participants achieve amazing results in a relatively short period of time. The question is, are you determent enough to keep pushing yourself, move faster, jump higher, lift heavier. Most of people just want to tick the box that they have done class and HIIT is not about ticking boxes.

Enough general talking, I will focus mainly on bio-chemical benefits of HIIT:

Grown Hormone Release
GH stimulates cell reproduction and regeneration, improving immune system, increase protein synthesis and burns body fat! It also decreases recovery time and it is partly responsible for your youthful look.

Opioid Response
HIIT exercise has been found to release the body’s natural opioids – endorphins and enklephalins. They are responsible for pain relief, stress reduction and improving moods. Higher intensity – happier you (simplifying a bit).

Nitric Oxide Synthase
A group of enzymes that can do both – good and bad in your body.
An increased level of eNOS and nNOS is responsible for blood flow to muscles and brain, improving your heart health, tissue repair and giving you more energy. You will perform better and be more focused.

On the other hand, increased iNOS can result in destruction of immune cells, damage to muscles fibres and inflammation, leading to muscle wasting, pain and injury (common symptoms of overtraining).

Increase of Resting Metabolic Rate
The higher the intensity of your training, the greater the increase in your resting metabolic rate (RMR), allowing you to burn calories for longer, even after finishing exercises (researches shows if you do HIIT for 1h, your RMR is increased up to 10h. Beautiful! Imagine yourself sitting in your leaving room and watching Breaking Bad and still burning calories). In comparison, training for 1H within your comfort zone, speed ups RMR for up to 30-40min. Not so great.

HIIT & the Sexes
Males who undertake HIIT will also notice an increased level of testosterone, responsible for muscle building, fat burning, elevating energy levels and improving sport performance. Fortunately, HIIT doesn’t affect women level of testosterone in any way.

So Who Should do
All sounds very well, but it is important to remember that everybody who thinks about starting training using HIIT approach has to have quite good level of fitness to begin with, with good technic of all the basics lifts (clean, squats, dead-lift, lunges or even press-ups, etc.). It is very demanding method of training, which gets you very good results but only if you push yourself to maximum, which can carry high risk of injuries.

More and more often, I see personal trainers training some of their beginner-clients using HIIT exercises and methods, this is completely wrong and can only lead to injuries. (You can’t ask somebody to run before they learn how to walk.)

You must remember that HIIT must go in partnership with sufficient rest periods, your body needs time for recovery, otherwise you will over-train. Balance is everything. You should definitely forget about HIIT if you have any medical conditions (like hypertension, for example), you are pregnant, or have recent injuries. Be honest with yourself and answer these questions:

Do you dare to train hard? Is your body ready for it?

Please don’t train your ego, train your body. See what is best for you. All fashions will pass, next year they will try to sell us something even better.

Artur

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