HIIT: Challenge Your Body with This Workout

Even patients who've experienced heart failure achieved greater cardiovascular benefits from aerobic interval training

Over the last decade, interval training has been believed to be the best workout for most people. As the go-to fitness routine, interval training improves strength and endurance over moderate-intensity steady-state cardiovascular exercise. Study after study has shown that interval training, particularly high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the gold standard for rapid results in speed, strength and endurance, be it from running, cycling, weight training or using cardio machines at your gym. High intensity interval training is defined as alternating between high and low intensity exercises or between high intensity exercise and a short period of rest. Try running up a flight of stairs and walking back down. That’s HIIT.

High-intensity interval training is all the rage for total body fitness. Think home workout videos like Insanity, CrossFit and other boot camp-style classes. People have seen amazing results from this approach and by the way, this approach is not just for advanced fitness. Just getting started? This may be the best approach to try. Physiologically, this workout approach makes sense because it’s impossible to sustain maximal intensities during exercise for a long period of time, simply because of how our bodies use fuel. Oxygen is really the molecule that makes the magic.

The supply and demand of it in and out of the body is what determines how much maximal intensity you will achieve and for how long. Your body cannot get oxygen where it needs to go fast enough. Think this is inefficient? Well, that’s why HIIT is the ticket. The flow of how oxygen enters and exits the body allows for us to produce short bursts of speed or high energy. There’s a simple method to try HIIT for just 20-30 minutes. The format is simple, designed and tested by researchers from the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

Enter”10-20-30”, an interval-training concept which resulted in remarkable advances in fitness. Photo Wikimedia Commons. The researchers used 18 moderately-trained runners for a seven-week program of 10-20-30 training and found that they were able to improve performance on a 1,500-meter run by 23 seconds and almost by a minute on a 5-km run—and this despite a 50 percent reduction in their typical amount of training time. Studies that date back to 2007 show that even patients who’ve experienced heart failure achieved greater cardiovascular benefits from aerobic interval training. So how do you do this 10-20-30 thing? Pick a cardio exercise where you can watch a timer. Warm up for a few minutes, then perform 10 seconds at a high-intensity effort. From there, follow up with 20 seconds at moderate-intensity effort, then go for another 30 seconds at an easy comfortable effort level.

You’ll notice it takes one minute to complete each cycle. Work this pattern for 5 consecutive minutes and feel free to take a 2-minute recovery break between each 5-minute cycle. Try to complete 3-4 blocks of these 5-minute rounds. That’s all there is too it. For anyone yearning for a simple workout approach but doesn’t know where to start, HIIT is for you. Try it.

Equipment-Free Exercises to do Anywhere

Performing bodyweight exercises on different surfaces like sand can make them more challenging. These tips are the best for traveling which can be the most challenging and excuse-ridden for not getting some movement throughout the day.

Aerobic Exercise

Even if you're confined to a room or location with no running trails, you can always train your cardiovascular system. Calisthenics like jumping jacks, burpees and mountain climbers are a great way to your raise your heart rate. Try completing three sets of 10 to 20 repeats of each exercise and you'll have yourself a quality Tabata-style workout. Don’t feel like counting, or need more of a challenge? Set your alarm for timed intervals. Need to log miles? Laps around a parking lot or repeatedly climbing stairs can mimic a good run or hike.

Strength Training

No weights, no problem; bodyweight exercises tone and strengthen your body. Think push ups, lunges, squats and planks. They are super strengthening because they work multiple muscle groups at once. They can all be modified to make them more challenging or target additional muscles. Manipulate your routine by changing the surface or surroundings. Standing on an unstable surface is more of a challenge than being on firm ground.

DIY Boot Camp

Having to do the same routine day in and day out can get boring. But there are lots of ways to keep your fitness routine interesting – even on the road. Change the order of your exercises or, better yet, leave it up to chance by using a deck of cards or rolling a die to decide what your next exercise is and how many sets or reps you should do. You can also try making up a new workout progression; go from a squat to a lunge to a pushup all in one move.

Walk in the Woods

Start your workout with a brisk walk outdoors. You don’t need to take a long road trip to Yosemite - any local park or green space will do. Many communities offer biking and walking paths that make it convenient and accessible to people young and old.

Make Your Own Adventure Outside

Do your best to not ignore structures that amp up your workout in outdoor spaces. Many outdoor parks line fitness trails with simple obstacle courses and structures that challenge any move during your workout. Take advantage of free equipment for a more dynamic workout. Check out adventure parks in new communities - both free and small fee - where often rock walls and rope courses can challenge and change up your workout.

Combinations are king

With an exercise it can be great to do that exercise outside, uphill or even in water. Consider yoga which can be done in water. Combining any two activities enhances the workout and being outside relieves stress in ways exercise can’t do alone.

Start your digital detox today

Leave those electronic devices behind but to get the most of your green exercise - you really have to let go. We live in a box and work in one. Nature can expand our horizons in ways we never even imagined. Exercising in nature can relieve stress and unplugging frequently can keep us wired. Use green exercises as an excuse to disconnect and boost mind-body benefits of your workout.