I'll bet you've heard people talking about HIIT. No? You haven’t? Have you been living under a rock? Well, maybe not. I have to admit that up to about a couple of years ago I had no idea what the heck it was. It stands for “High Intensity Interval Training”. This means you put a whole bunch more intensity into your regular Interval Training workout. It’s now one of the ways I get my cardio dose, and I’m loathe to admit this too: I hate it. Well, I love it. Ok, I love to hate it.

 

Why do I hate it? Because it’s HARD!!

 

Why do I love it? Because it WORKS!!

 

I’ve never experienced such gains in strength and stamina as when I’m training regularly using High Intensity Interval Training. So, if my opinion means anything, I highly, (repeat: HIGHLY) recommend it.

 

One of the ways you can increase the intensity in your own Interval Training is to work as HARD AS YOU CAN during the ‘difficult’ interval STAGE and make sure your active recovery stage is not slacking (ie, you march with real purpose during the walking of a sprint/walk interval session, rather than ‘strolling’… heck, why don’t you do a light jog during your ‘recovery’ stage?). Make sure you understand though, that the recovery (aka: lower intensity) stage is meant to let you RECOVER so you can go as hard as you can on the next ‘work’ interval. So if you aren't able to get your heart rate down far enough by jogging, then take it down a peg and walk instead (but make it a very purposeful stride). You MUST recover in order to crank out that next work interval. Got it? Good! Let’s move on.

 

Hillsprints is one of the best ways to crank up the intensity. Just sprint up the hill and march down over and over again. So for instance, I'll run to the bottom of my favorite hill for about 10 minutes, then to get up the hill I give it everything I've got. At the top, I turn around and walk back down (no stopping to breathe or look around, just keep moving, moving, all the time moving), and at the bottom give it everything I’ve got to get to the top again. There's no doubt that when you get to the top of the hill you're going to be hurting a little. If you think you won't be able to sprint again right away you'll be right, but if you concentrate on getting your breathing even as you walk to the bottom of the hill, by the time you get there you'll be able to. I do this for 20 minutes then run home. So that's about 40 minutes of constant movement, all totaled. Yes, it certainly is a fabulous workout, and yes I certainly do hate every minute of it … but its a love kind of hate because it definitely does hurt but it definitely does do good things for me.

 

C'mon and join the love/hate revolution!

For more info about cool workout techniques check out The Fat Burning Furnace Case Study