I like to visualize Ben Johnson crushing Carl Lewis when I do my HIIT sprints
So, there I was.
I had just finished a set of killer HIIT sprints….when the Lance Armstrong clone to my left asked me “what’s the deal with that workout”?
I think I croaked something about anaerobic this and EPOC that…and was about to hop off the bike when he said…
“that’s just a fad..like Atkins. If you want to get fit, you HAVE to do cardio”
Arrrgggghhhh!
Stifling my hulk-like rage, I asked…
“What do you mean I have to do cardio?”
From there, he proceeded to tell me why cardio rocks and why high intensity training (HIIT, HIRT, resistance training) sucks.
Double arggghhhhh!
Hulk (me) was getting mad.
But, instead of smashing, I flipped him one of my business cards (along with a certain finger) and suggested he read the following study which shows (once again) how HIIT kicks cardio butt
And here’s the study.
According to the researchers, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is better than traditional endurance training for improving:
- Athletic performance
- Metabolic performance
- Molecular adaptation to exercise
According to researcher Martin Gibala…”doing as little as 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously.”
We have known for years that repeated moderate long-term exercise tunes up fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles and aids the removal of waste products. Exercise also improves the way muscles use the oxygen to burn the fuel in mitochondria, the microscopic power station of cells.
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Running or cycling for hours a week widens the network of vessels supplying muscle cells and also boosts the numbers of mitochondria in them so that a person can carry out activities of daily living more effectively and without strain, and crucially with less risk of a heart attack, stroke or diabetes.
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But the traditional approach to exercise is time consuming. Martin Gibala and his team have shown that the same results can be obtained in far less time with brief spurts of higher-intensity exercise.
Take that Mr. Lance Armstrong clone.
But wait, it get’s better.
One of the main complaints about High Intensity Interval Training is that it’s…well, too intense.
Sure, it gives you a great workout, but it will probably give you a heart attack.
Not according to Dr. Gibala.
The main purpose of his study was to prove the performance, metabolic and molecular advantages of a more practical model of low-volume HIIT.
The new study used a standard stationary bicycle and a workload which was still above most people’s comfort zone (about 95% of maximal heart rate) but only about half of what can be achieved when people sprint at an all-out pace.
- Seven men performed 6 HIIT training sessions over 2 weeks.
- Each session consisted of 8-12 x 60 s intervals (at ≈100% of peak power) separated by 75 s of rest.
- That’s a total of between 17 and 26 minutes per workout or 2 ½ hours over 2 weeks
So, how does this workout compare to traditional cardio?
According to the doc, to achieve the same performance, metabolic and molecular benefits with traditional endurance (cardio) training, you’d need to complete over 10 hours of continuous moderate bicycling exercise over a two-week period.
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Hmmmmm…let’s recap.
HIIT
- 2 ½ hours per week
Cardio
- 10 hours per week
And I won’t even mention the fact that HIIT workouts make you look like this:
while cardio workouts make you look like this…
your choice.
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Related Posts
- 10 More Reasons to Love HIIT
- Tabata Workouts WILL Cause Fat Loss
- Tabata Training 101
- HIIT: The Aerobic version
- 4 Steps to a Great HIIT Workout
- High Intensity Resistance Training
- Why Can’t I Lose This Fat? – Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- HIRT Exercise Descriptions
- Part 5
- Waves and Waves of HIIT
- HIRT – No Equipment – No Problem
- HIIT Workouts – Vertical Jump Training
- Energy System Fitness
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