A high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout provides many benefits. First, it helps you reach your fitness goals fast. Use it to improve your health while saving time. Unfortunately, a HIIT workout is one of the most misused training programs. Some people use it all the time, which is a big mistake. But, on the other hand, some people never use it and miss out on the many health and fitness benefits.
The body is a complex organism that is capable of changing and responding. It makes dieting and exercising difficult. When we find a diet or exercise that works, the body adapts, making it less effective. A HIIT workout is worth doing right because it provides the body many benefits.
Research says that HIIT training three times per week may produce the best results while limiting injury. Interval training is very demanding, and it is essential to recover fully between sessions. HIIT training uses overcompensation, overload, and use/disuse training principles to create fitness results.
Here is a list of the top 5 benefits of a HIIT workout:
1. To burn body fat, you must move and breathe more than you eat
Let’s start with the easy ones first. A HIIT workout is the best way to burn body fat. It overloads the body’s energy system and forces it to overcompensate. HIIT does this by exhausting ATP and Glycogen, the body’s short-term energy sources. In a short time, the body begins to use fat to provide body with energy.
A good HIIT workout can burn body fat as soon as 10 minutes. In 20 minutes, a HIIT workout can get you in shape. The body uses 2.9 pounds of oxygen to burn one pound of body fat. Also, the body exhales 84% of body fat as carbon dioxide and excretes 16% as body fluid. HIIT does a great job of making you breathe hard and sweat more to burn stomach fat.
2. HIIT helps you tone muscles with high-intensity and endurance exercises
The abrupt changes in energy and activities force the body to adapt. Also, the high intensity creates more fast-twitch muscles. Fast-twitch muscles look tight and sharp. They must be able to move at a moment’s notice, so they are very lean. Athletes use fast-twitch muscles to perform at a high level.
Who doesn’t want to look like a professional or college athlete? As the high intensity tightens and sharpens the muscles, the endurance melts away the fat. Body fat covers most people’s muscles and prevents them from showing. Once you get rid of the fat, you will notice you have muscles like everyone else. But a HIIT workout makes those muscles look even better.
3. Sleep provides many health benefits, including the production of hormones
You cannot miss out on Sleep when trying to lose weight. The three most essential things on a fitness journey are food, Sleep, and exercise. Sleep keeps you well-rested, which prevents you from having low energy. Not only does low energy slow you down, but it also slows down your metabolism. Also, Sleep improves every system in your brain.
The body uses Sleep as a reboot. Sleep gets rid of all the old junk and helps you start new and fresh the next day. Unfortunately, it is one of the most underestimated fitness activities. Like water, Sleep does not get the credit it deserves. HIIT exhausts the body and emphasizes the need for Sleep. After a good HIIT workout, your body is ready for Sleep. HIIT depletes hormones, energy, and muscles that the body must repair during Sleep. But make sure you don’t perform a HIIT workout too close to bedtime.
4. HIIT improves the cardio-vascular system but, most of all, the heart
HIIT uses a lot of oxygen and blood to generate energy and facility energy. The body uses the cardiovascular system to move blood and oxygen around the body. Because the body is adaptive, the heart and lungs get strong when attacked by exercise or work. They both come back stronger to perform better under tension.
HIIT places every system in the body under tension, but most of all, the heart and lungs. The heart is a juggernaut. In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times. The heart also accounts for more than 9% of the body’s metabolism. Also, pound-for-pound uses more energy than any other muscle. It is one of the few muscles that are always at work. They do not call the heart a vital organ for nothing.
5. The metabolism determines how well you can burn body fat
Most of the energy the body uses in a day comes from metabolism. The exception to this rule is athletes who use more energy performing exercises. The average person’s metabolism is ten times body weight.
So, a person weighing 200 pounds can count on their metabolism to burn 2000 calories daily. But your metabolism can go up or down, depending on your health. This explains why some people can eat anything and not gain a pound. At the same time, others can look at food and pack on the pounds.
A HIIT workout can increase your metabolism short-term and long term. The short-term increase comes from post-oxygen consumption. Long-term growth comes from a more fit body. The body uses 51% of the metabolism on four organs.
The heart, kidney, liver, and brain use more energy than the rest of the body. So HIIT improves the health of all four organs. It does it through the cardiovascular system. In addition, the body releases toxins and activates hormones when you breathe and sweat.
A HIIT workout challenges the body with speed, endurance, and power to become better.
One of the most well-kept secrets about a HIIT workout is that it improves functional strength. Functional strength is more important than mechanical strength. HIIT is one of the few exercises that can improve functional strength. The body responds more to functional strength because it is a natural activity.
Most athletes train with exercises that provide functional strength. But supplement with activities that provide mechanical strength. HIIT works the whole body and forces the body to work together. This causes the body to use every system in the body. As a result, the body becomes fitter. Fitness is a precursor to better health. A HIIT workout improves your fitness which causes your body to become healthier.
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