Have a busy schedule and finding it hard to shed off those extra pounds? Well, we at Fitnacle always believe that there is a workout program out there for everyone! If you’re someone who actually finds it hard to squeeze in an hour to workout into your everyday life, then this would be a very good option for you. High Intensity Interval Workouts, better known as HIIT workouts, are generally short periods of intense workouts alternated with recovery periods. The best thing about this type of workouts is that they provide maximum health benefits within a short period of time. In this article, we are not going to tell you exactly what type of HIIT workouts are good for you, as there are many scientifically proven methods that you can find all over the internet. Instead, we will be discussing about the benefits of HIIT workouts! With that being said, let’s dive into it!
(1) High Caloric Expenditure
A study was done at the Sports Science Institute of the University of Colorado, Denver on this matter [1]. They compared the amount of caloric expenditure during a 30 minutes period of HIIT, running, biking, and weight training. They found out that HIIT workouts burn 25-30% more calories than the other forms of exercise! The HIIT participants in this study did 20 seconds of maximum effort, followed by 40 seconds of rest until the 30 minute benchmark was reached whereas the other workouts had continuous efforts throughout the 30 minutes period. This is important to note because this shows that the participants are only working out for about 1/3 of the time that the other groups were. Although in this study, the HIIT participants had to work out for 30 minutes but traditionally HIIT workouts don’t usually go for more than 20 minutes. Therefore, with HIITS, it provides us with a high amount of caloric expenditure within the lowest amount of time.
(2) Raised Metabolic Rate for Hours After Exercising
This is related to the increase in caloric expenditure. What HIIT workouts do to us is that it raises our heart rate to approximately 160 – 180 bpm. Once your heart rate has reached this range, then your body’s metabolism will rise. When your metabolism increases, your caloric expenditure will also increase! A randomized control study was done by a group of researchers [2] that demonstrated the impressive increase in metabolism hours after a HIIT workout as compared to jogging. This results in the increase of caloric expenditure even when at rest.
(3) Fat Loss
This is yet again related to the point where HIIT workouts increases caloric expenditure. With the effective amount of caloric expenditure that HIIT workouts provide, the fat content in our body will decrease. This is because with a raised metabolism, our glucose levels in our body will drop tremendously in order for our muscles to function under stress. So with the glucose levels depleted, the next source of energy would be our fats. Our body fats will be broken down in replacement of the glucose that we’ve lost to fuel our muscles and organs. Hence, HIIT workouts are well known to be the quickest and most effective way to lose weight for those who are obese and overweight.
(4) Reduction in Blood Pressure
HIIT workouts are known for its health benefits. One of them is the reduction in blood pressure. Here’s the thing though, when we first start doing HIIT workouts, our blood pressure is bound to rise. However in the long term, our blood pressure will start to decrease. This is largely due to the fact that HIIT will be able to reduce the stiffness of our artery walls, leading to a lower resting blood pressure. This is actually proven via research [3]. In said research, it proves that HIIT reduces blood pressure more than the recommended moderate-intensity exercise. Hence, people who have mild – moderate hypertension are recommended to do HIIT workouts instead of a regular moderate intensity workouts.
(5) Reduction of Blood Sugar Levels
As we’ve mentioned before when doing HIIT, your glucose levels will be reduced as it will be used to fuel our muscles when under stress. Here’s the thing though, not only does HIIT reduce blood sugar levels but it also improves our insulin resistance a lot more than traditional continuous exercise. What this means is that more glucose will be absorbed into our muscles and organs. With that being said, HIIT is particularly beneficial when it comes to reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
**Do bear in mind that those who are in the Severe Diabetic and Severe Hypertension stages should consult a licensed physician before attempting to begin HIIT programs**
References :
1) Caloric expenditure of aerobic, resistance, or combined high-intensity interval training using a hydraulic resistance system in healthy men
Falcone PH;Tai CY;Carson LR;Joy JM;Mosman MM;McCann TR;Crona KP;Kim MP;Moon JR;
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25162652/
2) The acute effect of exercise modality and nutrition manipulations on post-exercise resting energy expenditure and respiratory exchange ratio in women: a randomized trial
Wingfield HL;Smith-Ryan AE;Melvin MN;Roelofs EJ;Trexler ET;Hackney AC;Weaver MA;Ryan ED;
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27747847/
3) Effects of high-intensity aerobic interval training vs. moderate exercise on hemodynamic, metabolic and neuro-humoral abnormalities of young normotensive women at high familial risk for hypertension
Ciolac EG;Bocchi EA;Bortolotto LA;Carvalho VO;Greve JM;Guimarães GV;