Before I tell you about HIIT Training, let me share a short story with you... I've got a friend who I am in constant debate with. He truly believes that the secret to losing weight is all about running long distances. I can provide him with contrary evidence, research, real life proof of Interval Training's effectiveness, it really doesn't matter, he will never change his mind about this.
The problem is that he isn't alone. In fact, he's in the massive majority. If you ever need to prove this, go and have look at your local gym at around 6 pm. Multi-colored exercisers replicated on the treadmill, all going nowhere at around the same speed.
Ok, before I get shot down by a multitude of health professionals and personal trainers, I am by no means saying that aerobic exercise is bad for you, exactly the opposite in fact, it's really good for you. However if your aim of exercising is to lose weight, its probably the least effective method for doing so.
But how can this be? When you finish running on the treadmill it always tells you how many calories you burnt during your run? Exercise is tiring; surely we must be losing weight? Well unfortunately not, research suggests that after aerobic exercise our fat burning capacity is actually lowered, resulting in an almost negligible amount of fat lost. And the scary addition to this is that the more aerobic workouts we do, the more resistance our body will have to losing any fat.
So if aerobic training is the pea shooter of weight loss, let me introduce you to the cannon.
Interval Training has the opposite effect on our physical system. After a Interval Training session, your body goes into a 'fat burning' mode and this can last up to two days after your HIIT session. In addition to burning fat right after your workout, it also encourages your body to burn fat more effectively at all times.
Your muscles start needing more energy and the body chooses to send fat there to be used up instead of to your fat stores. The more you do HIIT Training, the better your body gets at using up energy in this way.
The best method to reduce body fat is through interval training. Try this if you have not been getting any results from jogging on a treadmill. You can start off slow and build up over a few weeks; you and your body with notice the incredible results.
Greg McKenzie currently runs www.intervaltraining.net and is a regular writer of Interval Training articles on blogs and others sites.