High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) - Pros and Cons

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If you're an athlete, you very likely know about High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).  Hopefully, you've already read my link on Interval Training and Growth Hormone.  If so, you already know the basics of what HIIT is, alternating combination of short intervals of high intensity exercise (but not super high) for a short period followed by a lower intensity period of exercise (or sometimes more or even a period of rest).  NOTE:  Often, HIIT is referred to as Sprint Interval Training - it depends on the author.

Besides athletes, HIIT is sometime used by as a time management technique: in many ways, it basically let's achieve basic exercise goals in much less time. In other words, in many ways doing HIIT for 20 minutes is worth about 40 minutes of cardio. For example, HIIT has been shown in several studies to build fitness levels very quickly.  One study showed the HIIT rapidly improves cardiovascular function, oxygen consumption, endothelial performance and glucose tolerance. [1]  It is probably for these underlying reason that HIIT significantly improved time trial speeds and power output in highly trained cyclists. [2]  Furthermore, the same things has been verified in untrained athletes as well.  [3]  In fact, the above study found that HIIT increases muscle glycogen and fat storage. Again, you don't need to tell athletes that HIIT works and that's why it is widely adopted in many sports.  (By the way, it's even been verified in kids.)

CAUTION:  Be careful about ever shortening your exercise period as constant activity and standing throughout your day is how your body clearly operates best according to the latest research.  I have already asked the question, "Why Sit When You Could Just Smoke Instead?"

High-Intensity Training has also been shown to accelerate weight loss.  It actually boosts your metabolism so that you "burn fat" for more hours than other training methods. [7] Researchers put participants on a repeated cyle of "sprinting" on a stationary bike for 12 seconds and then pedaling much more slowly for 12 seconds and so on for twenty minutes three times per week. [8]  This very minimal amount of exercise significantly reduced body fat and controlled blood sugar metabolism.

So how does it do all this?  Well, for one thing, researchers have found that it actually increases the number and size of your mitochondria. [4] How about that?  Remember that there is a whole Theory of Aging based on mitochondrial damage and loss.

The bottom line is that HIIT is a great addition to anyone's exercise routing, but don't substitute it for all your road or gym or trail or court time...

REFERENCES:

1) Strength & Conditioning Journal, Dec 2009, 31(6):44-46, "High-Intensity Interval Training: Applications for General Fitness Training"

2) Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Nov 1996, 28(11):1427-1434, "Improved athletic performance in highly trained cyclists after interval training"

3) Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, Dec 2008, 33(6):1112-1123(12), "High-intensity aerobic interval training increases fat and carbohydrate metabolic capacities in human skeletal muscle"

4) Self Mag, Oct 2010, p. 88.

7) Intl J of Obesity, 2008, 32:684-691, "The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women" n"

8) International Journal of Obesity, 2001, 25:332-339, "Impact of high-intensity exercise on energy expenditure, lipid oxidation and body fatness"