The Concept of
Quick and Short : High Intensity Interval Training
While he is now disgraced there are
a lot of lessons to be learnt from Lance Armstrong’s life. All said and done he
is a cancer survivor who has been through a lot. While he won with using performance
enhancing drugs one must not forget that everyone was on performance enhancing
drugs on the tour those days.
One of the things one should not
copy from Lance’s life is consumption of drugs and lying. However, there is a
lot to learn from his method of training. One of these is the concept of high
intensity training. It was through ruthless high intensity interval training
that Lance rode his opponents into the dust.
Most of us give an excuse that they
do not exercise because they are pressed for time. It is a stale excuse; in most cases I am sure
they spend more time in front of the TV or on social media internet. However, there
are some amongst us who are actually pressed for time. High intensity interval training
is a concept by which none of us can ever give time as an excuse. In addition I
am convinced that it is superior to spending long hours exercising at lower
intensity.
The whole concept of High Intensity
Training is to spend about 5 to 6 minutes exercising at highest intensity or
close to highest intensity. Remember a Lion or a Cheetah or a Deer does not
sprint for more than 5 to 6 minutes a week. They only do this while hunting
prey or escaping from the predator. The
rest of the time they just amble about or rest.
High Intensity Interval Training
(HIIT) Experts advice is to spend twenty minutes a day which consists of 15
seconds of all out effort followed by 10 seconds to 2 minutes of relaxed
effort. Initially 15 seconds all out effort will need 2 minutes of very relaxed
effort like walking. As you grow fitter this period of relaxed effort to regain
breath and energy can be reduced. An initial routine for a beginner would be 8
sets of 15 sec sprints followed by 2 minutes of recovery.
HOW IT WORKS : Researchers have studied high-intensity
training extensively, and the basic premise is that such efforts lead to many
of the same physiological adaptations achieved in traditional
endurance-training models. In fact, a 2005 study found that high-intensity
interval training doubled an athlete's time to exhaustion This is appealing to
time-crunched athletes because the efforts required are as much as five times
shorter than traditional training.
Researchers
examining the effectiveness of short,
high-intensity intervals for improving aerobic performance have also shown an
increase in the maximum amount of oxygen a muscle can utilize. Simply speaking it means your cardio-vascular
system fitness will improve faster through HIIT.
Weight
Training through its concept of repetitions and sets is an ideal form of high
intensity training. The catch is you should use progressively increasing loads
and also do such exercises which exercise the large muscles of the body. Also
the breaks between sets should never be more than 2 minutes. I have often seen people in gyms arm curling a
two pound weight ten times for months on end and then giving up saying that
their bodies do not respond to exercise.
Remember the body responds
positively only when it is overloaded for short periods to failure and then
given adequate time to rest and recoup from this stress.
We still don’t really know the minimum amount of exercise required to induce
significant health and fitness benefits. But a recent study has cut
down the exercise time even further, showing that just six ten-second all-out
sprints, spread throughout a week can improve aerobic fitness and blood-sugar
control.
Evidence states that the HIIT approach to
exercise can substantially improve aerobic fitness while providing a range of
positive health outcomes, including better blood-sugar control, blood pressure
and blood vessel function in a range of conditions such as obesity, metabolic
syndrome, diabetes and heart disease.
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