It’s Friday, so I am linking up with Courtney at Eat, Pray, Run DC, Cynthia at You Signed Up for What and Mar at Mar on the Run for their weekly linkup. Each Friday, they host a link up — a “Friday Five.” This week I am on vacation so I have a special treat for you! Annmarie a/k/a The Fit Foodie Mama offered to guest post for me since I filled in for her in July.
Hi everyone! I’m Annmarie from The Fit Foodie Mama! Thanks so much to Erica for inviting me to guest post for her Friday Five! When Erica asked me to fill in today while she’s on vacation, the first thing that came to mind to share was about my love of HIIT! 🙂
For those of you who follow me or read The Fit Foodie Mama, you might know that I am a huge fan of HIIT workouts or high intensity interval training. By definition, high intensity interval training is short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise.
Unlike other cardio exercises (such as running which is steady state), high intensity training pushes you past your aerobic zone and works on conditioning your anaerobic system. Conditioning your anaerobic system offers a ton of benefits that aerobic cardio alone can’t provide which is why it is one of my favorite ways to cross train!
1. It’s efficient.
Science has proven that you can burn more calories in less time by doing a HIIT workout. That’s not to say that you have to do less work- just that you get more bang for your buck with a 15 minute HIIT workout than say, a 30 minute run. Which means you can fit in an awesome workout right when you wake up, during lunch or even while the kids play!
2. No equipment needed.
A lot of the HIIT workouts I do don’t require any sort of equipment- just bodyweight only. This makes fitting it in even easier and can literally be done anywhere. All that’s needed is an interval timer which you can easily download as an app on your phone or my personal favorite is my Gymboss which is small and super portable!
3. You continue to burn fat after you workout.
Not only do HIIT workouts help you burn more calories in less time but you also continue to burn fat after you finish the workout since it increases the amount of time it takes your body to recover. HIIT workouts also increase your metabolism since it stimulates production of the human growth hormone (HGH). Which means your burning fat while sipping on a recovery smoothie. BOOM.
4. Helps you lose weight, not muscle.
For anyone who is a runner, you might know that its hard to maintain muscle mass while training. HIIT on the other hand, discourages muscle loss since the weight that is lost during high intensity workouts comes from fat stores. Woohoo!
5. It never gets easy.
I’ve been incorporating HIIT workouts into my training for 6 years now but since the idea is to push yourself- it never gets easier. What you can do to make it harder if you find that a particular workout feels “easy” is increase your work time while decreasing your rest time. So, instead of 30 seconds of work, 30 second of rest you’d perform 40 seconds of work, 20 seconds and increase the work interval as needed!
Inspired to get your HIIT on? Here is a workout to try! 🙂
It can be done anywhere, no equipment required! Just remember to be safe and start out with shorter work intervals. I am not a personal trainer or a doctor- be sure to check with your doctor if you have any medical concerns.
Annmarie is a certified DVRT instructor, mother and runner training for her 1st marathon. She blogs at The Fit Foodie Mama where she shares allergy friendly recipes, DVRT workouts and musings from her running journey.
Great advice! Thanks to Ann Marie for filling in for me. Do you do HIIT? Tell us about it in the comments. I think I will try this workout on my trip.
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