HIIT cardio is the new trend that is sweeping through gyms in Europe and North America. The reason for this… it’s fast, efficient and it works!
High-intensity interval training is something athletes and runners in particular have known about for a long time. Fartlek training, translated from Swedish, is ‘speed play’ and this has been a popular method of physical training for runners for a long time and a method that has been shown to burn more fat than running at a steady pace. Fartlek training combines running at a slow pace with intervals of running at a high pace, an example that most people who have ever played soccer will be familiar with is jogging across the pitch, running across , jog lengthwise and then run widthwise again.
While Fartlek training is still a great physical training method, the HIIT Tabatha protocol shed light on the ability to dramatically condense a workout without taking away any of the benefits. The problem with the high-intensity interval training Tabatha protocol is that it sounds bogus; no one really believes that a 4 minute workout can shed fat and although the 8 circuits that engage in the Tabatha method are extremely difficult, athletes often tend to feel like they have cheated themselves out of the gym after 4 minutes. The way the bodybuilders chose to incorporate the HIIT Cardio Tabatha protocol into their sessions was a 4 minute session each side of the normal bodybuilding routine. This tends to be a very popular way to use HIIT without feeling like you’ve cheated yourself.
The Tabatha protocol will work for anyone who uses it. What we all need to keep in mind is that the time we spend in the gym is not directly correlated to the results we get in the gym. Always keep in mind the famous saying ‘you can train hard or you can train long, you can’t do both’. A great example of this is the direct comparison of the traditional one hour session on the treadmill to burn fat at a slow and steady pace with the very popular and recently found 30 sets in 20 minutes of kettlebell exercises. Studies show that not only are more calories burned in the actual training session of the shorter period of activity, but participants show greater muscle definition, less body fat, and much higher fitness levels. This is just one way that training harder for shorter periods of time has been shown to be more beneficial.
You’ll often hear about fighters overtraining for a fight and not feeling fresh when the big night rolls around, which can have devastating effects, think of Amir Khan in his most recent outing against Danny Garcia. He was originally set to fight a few months before Lamont Peterson was suspended for taking illegal substances. After being stopped in 4 rounds just a couple of months after peaking out of him in a fight that never happened, many pundits and trainers around the world put it down to overtraining. There are others, like the never outspoken Chris Eubank Senior, who claims that training is a myth and a state of mind and it’s more about getting stale when you train that is the biggest concern. While this may be the case with boxers, there is plenty of scientific evidence in bodybuilding on how overtraining can stop results altogether. For example, studies have shown over and over again that bicep progress is halted by overtraining, and in fact, as soon as the bicep is overtrained, the muscle shuts down and no growth or repair occurs. In addition to this, often the best way to get past a training plateau (a stage where progress stops), the best way to get past this is to take a week of gym time that allows all your muscles and joints to recover. After doing this, most people find that they can instantly lift more weight than the week before when they were stuck lifting a certain weight.
HIIT training appears to answer most, if not all, of the problems associated with physical training; keeps you fresh in body and mind. It combats injury and overtraining issues and is an excellent fat burner and a great way to increase your fitness.