The Best Way to Become LEANER!!! HIIT IT!
Hi All,
What is HIIT??? High Intensity Interval Training.
I have done a great deal of reading lately about fat loss in the fitness industry. Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the experts in this area in North America and I have had a chance to read a great deal of his work as well as several other “results” based trainers.
I like to focus on becoming leaner compared to losing fat. What you focus your attention on is going to grow. So if you focus on fat loss then the word fat is in you brain. It is like asking you to not think about a pink elephant and I bet you have a pink elephant in your mind right now……. so I like to focus on becoming LEANER.
The workouts of 45 – 60 min of steady state cardio 4 to 5 days a week are obsolete. If your focus is to become leaner, HIIT is the the direction that you want to move toward. With steady state cardio (most running or cycling) once you finish your workout then you stop burning calories as your body’s metabolism returns back to normal. With HITT you actually boost your body’s metabolism for up to 36 hours following the workout and this boosting of the metabolism that Cosgrove calls Afterburn makes the biggest difference to becoming leaner. I will present exact numbers in a posting next week. Scientists have greatly underestimated the calories that are burned during intense training as well as the long term affects of HIIT.
My HIIT is a circuit-type of training where you can combine from as few as 2 exercises in the circuit, to as many as you like. I usually stop at 10 or 12. It gets too confusing after that. If you commit to 30 minutes three times a week you can get some good results!!
I like to assimilate what I have come across to make my own programs. That is why the program I have set up is different than the definition at the bottom of this posting.
I designed a program for 2 friends of mine and they have had great results training this way over the summer. They really like the fact that the workout is only 30 minutes long.
You can set up the circuit to be based on time or is can be based on repetitions. For example, if you base it on time you could go 15 s on followed by 15 s of rest for the 30 minutes for the exercises that you have chosen. This is pretty intense so if you are just starting you may want to try 10 s on and a 20 s rest. 60 – 10 s bursts is a lot of work.
When you base your workout on reps you would do a set number of reps at each station before you move on to the next station and rest as you need to along the way until you complete the 30 minutes. I have seen anywhere from 8 – 25 reps at a station with HIIT training.
Here is a sample workout.
9 stations 12 reps/Station
1. Push Ups
2. Barbell Row
3. DBell Deadlifts
4. Military Press
5. Iron Cross Banded Good mornings
6. Pull Ups
7. Lunges 6/leg
8. Overhead Med Ball Slam to the ground
9. Kettle Bell Hip Snaps
Get through all 9 stations as many times as you can in 30 minutes. Next time you complete the circuit try to complete more stations than you did the last time. Be as creative as you want with the exercises that you choose and modify the exercises so that you can get to the desired number of reps for the exercises that you choose. ie. (For pull ups use the gravitron so that you get some assistance from the machine if you cannot do all of the pull ups.)
Remember HIIT if you want to become leaner!!! It adds a great deal of variety to the workouts and unless you are training for a particular sport this a probably the best way to become leaner and it is a great addition to your training options.
Cheers,
Coach G
Definition of HIIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training
