Are Short Bursts of Intense Exercise Better Than Long, Less Strenuous?
High-Intensity Interval Training Is Time-Efficient and Effective.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) means doing a number of short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery breaks in between. Part of the reason why long-duration exercise may not provide a proportional benefit is that our body is not challenged to respond in the same way as short duration, intense exercise. HIIT produces the same physical benefits as conventional long duration endurance training despite taking much less time (and amazingly, actually doing less exercise!)
Short duration exercise provides a maximum benefit because it is done in an intense fashion. It is focused. It is vigorous. Contrast this to the 2 hour gym routine that includes leisurely walking from machine to machine and 15 water breaks!
What are the benefits of long duration cardio?
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 the activities of daily living more effectively and without strain, and crucially with less risk of a heart attack, stroke or diabetes.
The upside of doing long duration exercise is well-known, but a big question for most people thinking of getting fit is: “How much time out of my busy life do I need to spend to get the perks?” With Exercise, keeping it short is the best way to go.
Oh, and this means there is no excuse to not having the time to exercise anymore. The “I have no time to exercise” is not an excuse now that HIIT can be tailored for the average adult.
The usual excuse of “lack of time” for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology. The study, from scientists at Canada’s McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. Astonishingly, it is possible to get more by doing less!
“We have shown that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective,” says Professor Martin Gibala. “Doing 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.”
Did you know that a short burst of intense exercise is extremely beneficial not only for overall fitness but for building lean muscle tissue and promoting longevity? Just imagine — exercising anywhere from only 2 minutes to a maximum of 17 a couple of times a week and still reaping the benefits of cardiovascular fitness. With lack of time being one of the major factors why most people can’t make a commitment to regular exercise, very short, intense bouts of exercise presents a solution and with added benefits over long duration workouts.
Running or jogging for 25 minutes or more is not for everybody and the idea of doing a short burst of intense exercise might appeal to people who don’t have much time to exercise. Another benefit of short bursts of intense exercise is that it does not push the body into a ‘stress’ mode due to overtraining or exercising too much. Exercise is a form of stress. In the right measure it is a healthy stress as it engages the body into adaption to stress which leads to fitness. But too much physical stress is counterproductive as the adrenal glands (the glands that deal with energy production and survival) start to produce too much stress hormones release — mainly cortisol which literally eats away existing muscle tissue and makes the body store fat for energy.
What are some symptoms of over-training?
* Tiredness, and no energy for workouts
* Constant aching muscles
* Insomnia
* Injuries that do not heal
* Loss of lean muscle tissue
* Frequent colds and infections, due to a lowered immune system
* Biochemical depression
* Craving stimulants caffeine and sugars
* Muscle cramps, due to mineral deficiencies from over-exercising and stress
* Feeling ‘brain-dead’
* Weight gain (because of the excess cortisol from overtraining)
One benefit during long sessions of aerobics and/or jogging is that your body burns fat for energy. This is because once you pass the 15 to 20 minute mark of continuous exercise, whether it is walking on treadmills, or jogging, your body is burning fat as fuel during exercise. While this may sound great in principle to many who want to lose fat, in actuality, it is not ideal for optimal fitness or long term fat loss. Here’s why.
Aerobics or continuous exercise for over 15-20 minutes signals your body to burn fat as fuel and, as a result, it will make and store more fat in preparation for its next endurance workout, run or aerobic activity. This becomes a cycle, making it very difficult to lose that stubborn fat that the body thinks it needs as fuel for its next long aerobic workouts.
When you exercise for no more than 20 minutes at one time and your regime consists of any form of exercise such as stationery bike, cycling or running up a small hill, even doing 50 start jumps for up to a minute followed by rest/recovery for up to 2 minutes, you are doing supra-aerobics, beyond aerobics. That is training your body to recover quickly and build lean muscle tissue in preparation for its next intense training session. This is really a modified version of interval training.
Either way, when you are doing interval training exercise for only short bursts followed by rest and recovery as oppose to continuous endurance training, your body is forced to burn carbohydrates, in the form of stored glycogen stored in the muscles and liver during your exercise instead of fat. This is a biological loop that has many great benefits.
Benefits of high intensity interval training:
* Burn more fat (after the workout)
* Have more energy after your workouts
* Experience fewer injuries
* Build a powerful, strong heart
* Boost your lung capacity, due to the intensity of the sets.
Why are short bursts of exercise so great?
After you finish your high intensity interval training routine, your body starts burning fat to replace the lost glycogen from your muscles/liver that it has just used up during your training — and, it will continue to do so for 24 hours after you have finished your training. After a few weeks, your body gets the message that it doesn’t need to store spare fat because it is not doing aerobics or burning fat as fuel during exercise and that it needs lean muscle tissue instead of fat, for the intense workouts.
The other great benefit of doing high intensity interval training is that you only need to do it 3-4 times a week and not every day because of that 24 hour fat burning effect after your intense workouts.
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