What is HIIT?

You know what amazes me? The human body. It is so complicated that sometimes it's so simple. I had a nagging pain in what I thought was one of my hip flexors on the front of my left thigh/groin area. It only hurt when I worked out and right after, but it went on for months. I went to get accupuncture for it last week and I asked my accupuncturist, Emily (who is also a physical therapist), about the pain. She did some needling, gave me ONE simple stretch to do 3-4 times a day for like 30 seconds and within 24 hours, the pain was gone. Is that amazing or what? I shake my head in amazement.

Do you know how many times I have had an injury over the years and waited it out for often up to a YEAR! Each time I finally consulted with Emily and she resolves my problem, sometimes in 24 hours. Case in point! So simple!

Accupuncture is unbelievable! I swear by it. But you have to find the right practitioner. I drive 50 miles one way, to see mine. She is totally worth it.

Anyway - did you know that you don't have to workout mega hours each week? Do you know that you only have to strength train twice a week and you only have to do your "cardio" for 30 minutes 3x a week to get the results you are looking for - stripping fat and making muscle? When I say "cardio" I mean your workout on the treadmill, eliptical, stairmaster etc. or your walk, run outside - whatever it is you do to burn fat.

The big shots in the industry hate the word "cardio". Me - I think we all know what it refers to so I use it. What they really object to is that people have been lead to believe that they need to do like 45-60 minutes of "cardio" 5-7 times a week to lose fat. THAT is so not true! I also object to that theory. The fitness industry changes their mind ALL THE TIME. But I really think we're on to something with "Interval Training" or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

This is what HIIT is: Warm up for 5 minutes, do 20 minutes of intervals and cooldown for 5 minutes. DONE! This is an interval - whatever you are doing, treadmill, running outside, walking, do it hard for 1 minute and easy for 2 minutes. That simple. And mix it up. Do it hard for 45 seconds, easy for 90 seconds, hard for 30 seconds, easy for 1 minute, hard for 8 seconds, easy for 12 seconds. Just DO IT for 20 minutes.

What this does is shake up your metabolism. Your body has to recover from all those intervals and that recovery can take from 24-48 hours, in which time, you are burning more calories per hour. Some refer to it as the "afterburn". If you do long slow cardio, your body adapts like a fuel efficient car. A fuel efficient car burns less gas. A fuel efficient body burns less fat. So you get fitter and fitter with long slow cardio, but your body gets more efficient and burns less fat. With intervals (HIIT) your body gets fitter and burns more calories on a daily basis. Combine that with the muscles you are laying down and the clean food you are eating and I see Fit Girl!

So cut back on the workouts if you are being a crazy person. If you do a hard and breathless strength training session for like 30-40 minutes, jump on that treadmill for another 30, that's all you need 3x a week. Just talk to me. I'll make it efficient for you! Results guaranteed - as long as you hold up the food end of the bargain!

See you back here next week!