I’ve touched on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in a past column, and with good reason: A recent study on HIIT revealed that just a single session of HIIT had a variety of powerful benefits for recreational athletes.
That’s great news if you’re not a fan of long workouts, pressed for time or not willing to commit an hour or longer to exercise. In an article on the Time Magazine Twitter feed, a team of physiologists took muscle samples from a group of volunteers who alternated between pedaling a stationary bike for 30 seconds at top intensity interspersed with 3-minute rest periods six times.
The results coming out of the study—conducted by Hakan Westerblad, a professor of physiology and pharmacology from the Karolinska Instiutute, along with his colleagues—were profound. In the article, it stated “a single session of HIIT triggered molecular changes in muscle cells that remained detectable 24 hours later in a muscle biopsy. The muscle cells are essentially changing in order to prepare themselves for further hits of HIIT, so they can remember how much energy they need and how quickly they need to produce this fuel in order to sustain themselves through the bouts of intense activity.”
Let me reword that in layman’s terms: HIIT does the body good. Now, just because HIIT sessions can be done in 20 minutes or less, they’re not exactly a walk in the park. If you’re doing anything for 30 seconds and interspersing them with rest periods—be it cycling, running, rowing or strength-training—it must be done at maximum intensity.
In other words, by the end of the 30 seconds, you should be dead tired. Of course, HIIT isn’t restricted to the 30-second on, 2-minute “off” set. Another classic HIIT repetition scheme is doing a repeat hard for a minute followed by a 3-minute rest period, or a 2-minute on, 4 to 5-minute recovery zone.
Basically, for however long your working set is, follow that up with a recovery period that is two to three times longer. But recovering doesn’t mean you’re stopping. A running HIIT session means you’re jogging during the rest time, and a cycling HIIT workout means you’re spinning at an easier gear during the recovery period.
If you’re struggling to meet the intensity demands of an HIIT workout, here are some other great lung-busting, calorie-burning workouts that can be done in 30 minutes or less. Simply set a timer and do as many as you can (pick one, two or if you’re really feeling ambitious, do all of them circuit style): kettlebell swings, burpees, pull-ups, push-ups, shoulder presses with barbells or dumbbells and bench-presses with a barbell or dumbbell.
And don’t get fooled into thinking that you always have to lift heavy to build muscle. Recent research concludes that as long as you’re pushing yourself to fatigue—whether it’s five reps or 25 reps—you’ll pack on muscle. The reason? Higher repetitions done to failure can recruit the same amount of fast-twitch muscle fibers as compared to using a weight that limited you to one to five reps.
The bottom line? To truly maximize muscle gains, you’ll need a workout plan that involves low, moderate and high-rep ranges.
