Are High Intensity Interval Training Workouts Designed For Fat Loss Or For Lean Muscle Growth?

By Russ Hollywood


Unless you have been living under a rock for the last three-to-four years, you have probably already heard about high intensity interval training. However, one of the biggest questions surrounding this training method is quite difficult to find an honest answer to - can you build lean muscle with it or is it reserved for fat loss workouts?

For years, it was believed that performing high intensity cardiovascular activity was a sure-fire way to waste all of your efforts when it came to lifting weights. []

This has now been proven incorrect, as the benefits of modern science have become very important to many professionals within the fitness industry. Thanks to these benefits, we can now see that HIIT is indeed one of the best approaches when it comes to both fat loss and lean gains.

That's right, performing a high intensity cardio workout is actually superior not only for burning fat but also for building lean tissue! While this is probably music to the ears of all those gym enthusiasts who find cardiovascular activity to be somewhat dull, it does come with a few warnings.

If you are going to make the most of this great training method you need to understand a little about how it works. How many times have you seen bodybuilders jump onto bikes after a weight lifting session and pedal for upwards of 45 minutes to burn off body fat? This approach is now also considered to be yesterday's advice. Not only should they be doing high intensity cardio, they should be doing it prior to their weights. If you have been training for a while, this news will probably be a major shock to you because despite the fact there's a wealth of proof to back this approach up, most people do their cardiovascular work after resistance training.

The study which discovered this information was actually completed back in 2001, but was under-reported in the media at the time. As a result it has gone largely unnoticed by the general population and most fitness instructors, who still follow the old belief that doing cardio work before a weights workout will fatigue the muscles.

One other aspect which has to be taken into consideration here is the increased difficulty of a high intensity interval training session versus a steady state cardio session. This means your body will need additional time to recovery. You shouldn't be performing intervals every single day, because you can get better results by letting your body recover fully. Three-to-four sessions per week is enough for most people.

Furthermore, research shows that high intensity interval training burns of 6 times as much fat as regular cardiovascular activity, making it a sensible choice if you are trying to figure out how to build muscle while maximizing your fat loss in the process.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment