What is HIIT?
My favourite (although not my clients!) training method for getting fitter faster and burning body fat is HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training.

This is not for the sedentary, you should be fairly active – a regular runner or gym goer before doing HIIT.

HIIT involves performing bursts of activity at high intensity for a set duration, bringing the intensity back down and then repeating. You’re training close to your anaerobic threshold – this is where your body is unable to sustain the energy required with oxygen supplied by your heart and lungs, instead turning to glycogen in your muscles and liver. This might sound a bit scary but it’s all part of our basic biology 🙂

When you finish training and start the recovery process your body compensates for this deficit by consuming as much oxygen and fuel as it can to repair the body and restore the glucose and glycogen to your body. Where does this fuel come from? Well, aside from food, it comes from fat!

Your metabolic rate is also increased when recovering from HIIT – this means that for several days after training you’ll be burning more energy than usual. This translates to even more fat loss.

So you can see that HIIT is a great way for improving fitness and body composition but it’s worth warning again that this is really for active people! If you’re unsure of your fitness levels or sedentary start off with gentler exercise.

How to do HIIT
There’s several ways of performing HIIT and I’ll outline them here

Basic. You perform half an amount of high intensity to low intensity work. Typically these sets can last between 30 – 60 seconds. For example, you’d row at high intensity for 30 seconds and lower intensity for 60 seconds.

Intermediate. Perform equal amounts of HIIT to low intensity work. For example, sprint for 30 seconds, then walk or jog for 30 seconds.

Advanced. The inverse of the basic level. You train at HIIT for double your rest period. For example, swing a kettlebell for 60 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds.

HIIT is a template, not a rigid way to do things. You can “HIIT-ify” almost anything! Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

And if you’d like to train with the Foxes, drop me a message below