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Cardio workouts are essential to maintaining your health and fitness level. The American Heart Association recommends adults get “at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity” — or a combination of both.
To gain even more benefits, they recommend being active at least 300 minutes (or 5 hours) per week.
Is having that kind of time to exercise a pipe dream? If you’re time-strapped, being able to put in half the time and reap the same benefits is probably appealing. Luckily, there is a way to do just that. Enter: HIIT workouts.
HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training and it’s one of the most popular forms of exercise, in part due to its high effectiveness in a short amount of time.
What is HIIT?
High-intensity interval training is a challenging workout performed at an intense level.
Interval training means exercises are done in bursts with short recovery periods in between. They can start slow and become faster from one exercise to another. Typically, cardio and strength training are combined to create a well-rounded high-intensity interval training workout.
HIIT workouts will spike your heart rate and push your muscles to the point of fatigue. By combining high-intensity bursts of cardio, brief rests and circuit-style strength training, you keep your body guessing. In this way, HIIT workouts are strategically designed to help you get an efficient workout in a shorter amount of time than low-intensity steady state cardio.
Benefits of HIIT
The health benefits of high-intensity interval training include boosting your metabolism, burning calories (which can encourage weight loss), and building strength and muscle. Because there are hardly any pauses in a HIIT workout, you can reap these benefits in less than half the time of steady-state…
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