Cardio ranks right up there with dinner at your in-laws’ and a trip to the dentist. Like there’s not a million other ways you’d rather spend your time! But you want to be fit and you want to be lean, so you do it. So why the heck aren’t you choosing cardio that delivers twice the bang for its buck? We’re talking about high-intensity interval training (commonly called HIIT). It gets you leaner and fitter faster without spending one single minute more in the gym. HIIT is about how you do your cardio. Rather than choosing an aerobic activity that you maintain at a steady pace for the duration of your workout—say 30 minutes—you alternate fast periods in which you work all-out with slower recovery intervals. This cycling of intensity gobbles up way more calories, both during the actual time you’re exercising and for 24 hours afterward. That’s important because the “afterburn”—called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC—is just as valuable in the overall equation of weight loss as the actual number of calories you burn during a given activity. Increasingly, studies have shown this type of workout trumps steady-state cardio in which you maintain a constant heart rate throughout the activity. But you can’t just jump right into this workout protocol, even if you’re already doing some cardio. Since HIIT is so intense, you risk injury if you’re not careful. You may also experience burnout or overtraining. If you are looking to include HIIT cardio training, be mindful of these five keys so you can maximize your results while reducing your risk of injury. To read more click here!
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