Making time to exercise is among the most difficult challenges people encounter. People still believe that being in shape necessitates hours upon hours of repetitive aerobic sessions. This does not seem to be the case when you have the correct information and plan in place, as you may dramatically reduce your training time while reaping even greater advantages. How? Interval training (also known as anaerobic, burst, sometimes High-Intensity Interval Training) is a type of exercise that involves short bursts of activity followed by a rest period (HIIT). Breaking up your workout into short parts that alternate high intensity with rest periods will help you increase your cardiovascular fitness as well as fat-burning powers in a fraction of the time. 

When you do exercises like jogging, cycling, swimming, and so on, you make a big mistake: you think you’re burning fat. After 15 to 20 minutes of exercise, you begin to burn fat. This might also appear to be a good thing, but it informs your body that you will need fat to burn as a source of energy during activity. 

As a consequence, your body will produce and store more fat to be ready for your next run or aerobic workout, creating a never-ending cycle that makes it difficult to lose that stubborn fat that refuses to go away.

Get better results by working out less but burning more fat

Elite athletes are familiar with interval training, and the fact that it burns extra fat than long, slow cardio workouts is also common knowledge among athletes. Several studies have shown that exercising in shorter bursts including periods of rest between the burning of more fat than exercising for a whole session. Even while the exercise isn’t done at a high intensity, this has already been proven to be accurate.

In one research, participants who has been cycled for 40 minutes, alternating four-minute bursts at 90% effort with two minutes of recovery, improved their cardiovascular fitness by 13% and burned 36% more fat during a subsequent hour-long moderate cycling exercise. Further research goes even farther, finding that exercising for twenty minutes burns fatter than exercising for 40 minutes!

Women in the study either exercised for twenty minutes, combining 8 seconds of sprinting on a bike and 12 seconds of gentle activity, or for 40 minutes at a steady pace. Those who completed the 20-minute, alternating routine shed three times as much fat as the other ladies after exercising three to four times a week for 15 weeks! This form of exercise, according to researchers, works since it causes a distinct metabolic reaction. Intermittent sprinting generates a high amount of catecholamines, a chemical molecule that allows more fat to be burned from beneath the skin and within the muscles. 

The enhanced fat oxidation that results is assumed to be the cause of the weight reduction. One of the nicest aspects of this shorter but more intense workout is that it reduces the amount of time you really ought to exercise, which would be ideal if you don’t have enough time for hour-long cardio workouts.

You may make major inroads into your weight loss by combining Functional Strength Training and a proper nutrition plan. If you want to reduce weight, remember that exercise alone isn’t enough; you also need to eat properly.

Benefits of high-intensity interval training 

1. There is no need for any special equipment

Running, cycling, jump roping, plus rowing are all good HIIT exercises, but you don’t need any special equipment to accomplish them. High knees, fast feet, or whatever plyometric like jump lunges can all be used to quickly raise your heart rate and gain the advantages of high-intensity interval training. 

2. It helps people lose weight without losing muscle

It is difficult to avoid losing muscle mass and fat while you’re on a diet. While steady-state exercise appears to promote muscle loss, studies suggest that weight training and high-intensity interval training allow dieters to keep their hard-won muscles while losing the majority of their weight through fat reduction.

3. It works well

If you do want to squeeze in a HIIT fitness workout around your lunch break and get in shape for something like a fast-approaching event, HIIT is the perfect workout for a hectic schedule. According to studies, if you do 15 minutes of interval training 3 times a week, you could make more improvement than someone who jogs for just an hour on the treadmill. As per research presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting that was in 2011, just 2 weeks of high-intensity interval training could boost your aerobic capacity by almost as much as six to eight weeks of endurance training.

With the Tabata training approach, you can get a good HIIT exercise even if you have only four spare minutes. Tabata is a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) technique that involves 20 seconds of effort followed by 10 seconds of recovery, with the cycle repeated 8-20 times. To reap the benefits of HIIT, begin with one of these ridiculously short workouts.

Conclusion

You must be motivated and disciplined to achieve your fitness goals. With everyone’s hectic schedules, the best way to live a healthier and more active lifestyle is to plan out your workouts ahead of time. The good news would be that you don’t even have to exercise each day or follow a one- or two-hour training plan. The amount of effort you put into a workout seems to be more essential than the number of times you exercise. 

Despite years of research, finding the perfect combination of lighter sessions, hard training, and total rest can be challenging. It is not for everyone to take 40-60 minutes out of a busy day to exercise. As a result, instead of one long workout, we recommend two 10-minute sweat sessions. You’ll wind up working out for less time if you do it this way. Also, we emphasize that volume and intensity are effectively controlled, resulting in an effective and satisfying short workout.

Interval training, also known as high-intensity interval training, is an effective approach to increase the intensity of your workouts. Furthermore, if you undertake such workouts numerous days in a row, you might need some quality rest plus active recovery days to avoid overuse concerns or injuries. Rest days help muscles to restore glycogen stores, minimizing muscle tiredness and better preparing them for the next session.

Interval exercise is also more effective at reducing body weight & abdominal fat while preserving muscular mass. As a result, it’s time to bid farewell to hour-long gym workouts. Begin, push yourself as hard as you could and, and go about your day. A recent study discovered that individuals who swore when working out improved their performance by 2-4% and increased their strength by 8% compared to those who didn’t!