HIIT - High-Intensity Interval Training

When I exercise, I use something called HIIT. I'd like to try to make you, the health conscious transhumanist, give it a try too, unless you already use it, in which case - carry on.

For a long time the conventional wisdom was that when doing aerobic exercises for health and endurance, the best way is to do low or medium intensity cardio training for at least 40 to 60 minutes. For optimum health, you are also supposed to do this every day. I have always found this boring, since it takes sooo much time and the low intensity keeps it from being challenging, which is also boring.

Happily, there is a new sheriff in town! Athletes have known for some time that the most efficient way to increase endurance is through interval training, but can it be healthy to stress your body like that in the long run? According to recent studies, the answer is that not only does it work just as well as moderate intensity training, but even older people rehabilitating from heart disease can use it.

For example, according to "Brief, intense exercise benefits the heart" on Physorg,
The research compared individuals who completed interval training using 30-second "all-out" sprints three days a week to a group who completed between 40 and 60 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling five days a week.

It found that six weeks of intense sprint interval exercise training improves the structure and function of arteries as much as traditional and longer endurance exercise with larger time commitment.
...
"We wouldn't be surprised to see more rehabilitation programs adopt this method of training since it is often better tolerated in diseased populations."


So not only are the sessions shorter but you get the same effect with only three days a week.

Oh.. One More Thing..
You burn more fat as well. As you probably know, excess fat is one of the worst enemies to your health, promoting inflammation, heart disease and diabetes. Once again, the conventional wisdom is that you need to exercise for a long time, with your pulse in the "fat burning" zone, pictured above, to burn fat. Well, it turns out that you actually burn more fat when you use HIIT, because of the magic known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. this means that for 24 to 48 hours after your training, your body has a heightened metabolism. During the actual exercise, you burn more during a conventional moderate intensity session, because it is longer, but taking the EPOS-effect into account you burn more overall on HIIT.


According to Wikipedia: Recently it has been shown that two weeks of HIIT can substantially improve insulin action in young healthy men. HIIT may therefore represent a viable method for prevention of type-2 diabetes.

OK, so how do I do this?

HIIT consists of intense bursts of high intensity exercise (15 to 60 seconds), where you try to get your pulse as close to your max pulse (at least over 90%) as possible, followed by a period (commonly twice your exercise time) of active rest where your pulse drops. You do this for about eight times and that's it. As with all exercise, you should have a warm-up period as well as a cool-down period before and after your session. 3 to 5 minutes should be enough.

I use an exercise bike at home, but the most common way to drive your pulse through the roof is running. Running has both benefits and disadvantages, since each step delivers a strong impact to your joints. Anything that gives you a good cardio workout works, sprinting, biking, rowing, jumping, etc.

I started out doing 30 seconds maximum pedaling, followed by 60 seconds active rest, where I pedaled very slowly. In the beginning, I couldn't get myself to do more than four repetitions, because it is extremely exhausting. It takes a little while to reach the eight, or so, recommended number of repetitions.

Recently I have tried to vary the interval times during the session. I normally do something like this:
3 minutes warm up with pulse between 120 and 130.
60 seconds of effort + 120 seconds of active rest
30s + 60s
45s + 90s
15s + 30s
45s + 90s
15s + 30s
60s + 120s
30s + 60s
and finally a few minutes of cool down.

A good place to learn more is the Wikipedia article.

When I started out, about a year ago, I also used these resources:
http://www.hiitsource.com/
http://www.intervaltraining.net/hiit.html

A fun way to find out your maximum heart rate, is by asking Wolfram Alpha.

All it takes is 15-20 minutes three days a week, so what are you waiting for?! Get going!

Incidentally, none of this is medical advice. If you are out of shape or suspect heart problems, start out slowly and consult your physician. You know the drill.