Benefits of this type of sports training, examples of exercises for your high-intensity workout and tips on how to perform them.
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) has become a trendy training protocol in equipment-free sports in recent years. It’s a growing sports phenomenon that’s winning over more and more athletes with its many advantages.
HIIT is one of the most intensive physical activities for working out your cardio as well as your muscles. Whether you’re looking to lose fat or put in an intense effort to improve your cardio, this form of interval training is for you.
Here’s a closer look at the various benefits of interval training, which combines cardio and muscular exercises for intensive workouts. Follow our advice to get the most out of your workout! Let’s go !
Fitness and sport: what is high-intensity training?
It was in 1996, thanks to a study conducted by Professor Izumi Tabata, that HIIT began to gain interest in the eyes of the sporting community. In his study on the “effects of moderate-intensity endurance and HIIT on anaerobic capacity and VO2max”, the professor makes a startling revelation. It shows that high-intensity training is more effective than moderate exercise in developing cardiovascular capacity and burning fat.
Several types of protocol for burning calories fast
This type of sports training is available in several different protocols, but here are the two best-known:
Tabata Protocol
The Tabata protocol consists of a series of four-minute workouts. You follow 8 cycles of 20 seconds of high-intensity effort, with 10 seconds of recovery between each cycle . This is a hyper-intensive version of HIIT, so you’ll have to hang in there if you’re a beginner!
Little Protocol
Instead, this method focuses on long workouts lasting between 20 and 30 minutes, with the aim of toning your athletic figure. This split workout consists of 12 cycles with periods of high intensity (60 seconds) and low intensity (75 seconds).
How is a high-intensity training session organized?
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced sportsman, a high-intensity training session can’t be rushed – quite the opposite!
Don’t neglect your warm-up.
It’s essential to warm up the different muscle groups you’ll be working on before you start your session, to avoid injury.
One thing to know before you start: HIIT training can be modified and adapted to all types of athletes, at all levels.
Whether you’re looking to lose fat, build stamina or strengthen your muscles, HIIT is a physical activity that’s sure to meet your sporting goals. You can customize both the exercises and the duration of their intervals, as well as their intensity.
Recovery time (or rest time) is also essential for a good HIIT session.
Never neglect this recovery period! If you don’t rest between intervals, it’s simply not HIIT. Without recovery, your body can’t recover from more intense work. As a result, you won’t be able to maintain a high level of intensity throughout the session, which will degrade the quality of your interval training and reduce the beneficial effects on your body. Fractional training is serious business!
One thing to bear in mind when doing interval training is theintensity of the work. To calculate it, your heart rate should be around 80% of your maximum heart rate. How do you know when you’ve reached that limit? You should find it difficult to hold a conversation when you’re spending yourself so intensely.
What are the benefits of high-intensity training?
This type of interval training will improve your physical performance: better resistance to effort, greater cardio-respiratory capacity…
On a daily basis, you’ll feel a real change in your body. You’ll be in better shape overall, whether you’re running to catch your bus in the morning, or walking and climbing the stairs to your dreaded workplace.
HIIT training has numerous benefits for your metabolism. In particular, it improves your aerobic and anaerobic capacities… what’s that? Your muscles consume glucose in two ways: aerobically, when they’re oxygenated, or anaerobically, without oxygen. This type of intensive training program also improves your blood pressure, cardiovascular health and cholesterol levels.
For anyone following a weight loss program or program mass gainthis type of sports training is for you.
Indeed, HIIT accelerates fat melting, i.e. you burn the fat stored in your body. You’ll quickly melt away with this type of split training
Time-saving: the HIIT format itself saves you time.
The sessions are very short and intense, ideal for people who want to lose weight or improve their cardio but have little time to devote to sport, and want fast results.
The after-burn effect
The after burn effect is a phenomenon whereby you continue to burn calories after high-intensity training. The intensity of this afterburner effect depends on the intensity of the training. And what better way to maintain the intensity of your workouts and lose as many calories as possible than with HIIT?
HIIT, a scientifically proven sports workout
In 1994, Dr Tremblay’s study highlighted the positive influence of HIIT on weight loss in athletes. According to this scientific study, a 15-week high-intensity interval sports program would result in nine times greater fat loss than more conventional forms of endurance training lasting 20 weeks. Aiming for a flat stomach, you’ll lose weight much faster with this type of sports training.
In 2012, Australian scientists conducted a study on the “effects of HIIT on the body composition of overweight young men”. Scientists confirm the positive influence of intensive interval training on respiratory endurance, results already highlighted by Professor Tabata. It also proves that HIIT sessions increase your body’s basal metabolic rate . And this, several hours after your intense exercise session. Basically, you keep on melting even when you’re resting in front of your favorite series after an intensive session!
High-intensity training, various outdoor and home exercises
With Featness, you can do your high-intensity training wherever you like, whether in your living room or at the gym . Follow our different exercises or our personalized six-week program . Or you can practice a few simple exercises that require very little sports equipment.
Some types of exercise :
Burpees:
Bend your knees, bend forward and place your hands on the ground, jump back with your feet together and then reposition yourself as you started. Stand up and jump. This exercise works the whole body, and you’ll see, it’s very effective!
Individual pull-ups :
Standing with the weights in front of you, on the floor, you’ll do a squat, taking the weight in one hand and pushing it up to just above your chest. The elbow should always be above the wrist, so that the muscles work, but not your wrist.
Striking with weights:
Standing with a weight in each hand, you strike alternately forward and to the left. A word of advice: practice this exercise in front of a mirror to maintain an upright posture.