INTERVAL TRAINING ENGAGES ALL MUSCLE FIBERS
What’s the top excuse for not exercising? Not enough time.
But what if you could get the same—or better—results in 10 minutes of exercising than you used to get from 40 to 60 minutes? High intensity interval training (HIIT) is the key to getting results in less time. Research shows that three shorter HIIT workouts are as effective as five longer moderate workouts.
That translates to less exercise but the same results! Piles of research show that less than 30 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT) three times a week is just as effective as moderately exercising for 40 minutes or longer four or five days a week. I’ve been a fan of interval training for decades, because of the “surprise burst” it gives muscles and the results that come from it.
Plus, intervals demand that more muscle fibers engage in a more intense manner. But what does that mean? There’s more to muscles than just the basic muscle groups in the body, such as the abdominals, deltoids and quadriceps. Each muscle in your body is categorized as slow, fast, or super-fast twitch.
The slow and fast muscles are needed to carry out most everyday activities as well as many endurance or aerobic exercises.
However, approximately half of our muscles are super-fast twitch and they only engage during high intensity intervals.
So when you’re sprinting for those 30-seconds, you’re using all three muscle types at once, and that super engagement leads to better toning.
What’s more, several studies have reported significant increases in human growth hormone (HGH) production associated with HIIT. The natural increase in HGH helps increase your metabolism, which means you’re burning calories at a higher rate.
