HIIT it hard.

I've been reading and researching a LOT lately.  From many sources, I've seen and read that the best way to burn fat (in order to show off those muscles you've been working for) is HIIT.

 

 

For those that don't know, that stands for High Intensity Interval Training. 

 

Basically, you go balls to the wall for 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, however long you choose your interval to be, then you take it back for another interval.  You repeat these intervals for however long you want your workout to be. 

 

Make sense?

Check out this chart that shows how long your burn fat after regular cardio (red), versus HIIT (blue). 

 

 

An example of some HIIT I did on the elliptical on Tuesday was 60 seconds hard, then 60 seconds "rest."  I use quotations because it's not like you stop moving for the rest period.  You just take the intensity down for that interval.  For example, I went 60 seconds at 160 or more reps per minute on the elliptical for my HII, then for my rest interval, I kept it above 120 reps.  I did that for 30 minutes, at level 7 out of 20 levels.

 

Thus far, as I mentioned in my very first post, I've been running.  I've been doing endurance cardio.  That was great for me for a while, but I want to burn off a few percentage points of body fat now, so I feel like I need to lean more toward HIIT.

 

This is why:

 

 

My goal is to do several different HIIT workouts and/or circuits so that I don't get bored or burn out.  So if you know of any great ones that really get your heart pumping, let me know!

 

Ohh, and speaking of heart rate - on my HIIT on the treadmill this morning, I got my heart rate within 4 beats of my max.

 

(Max heart rate is 220 - your age.  So mine is 220-29 = 191.)

 

I was holding pretty steady at 183, then on my last interval, it got up to 187.  Holy sweat, Batman. :)