Notes
In this high-intensity cardio bodyweight workout, you’ll spike your heart rate with high-knees, fast feet, and star jumps; plus work your core and lower body with jumping lunges and planks – at home! No equipment is needed!
Warm-Up
- Toe Tap
- Skater
- Squat
- Mountain Climber
Core-Exercises
- Star Jump
- Fast Feet
- High-Knee
- Power Jack
- Toe Tap
- Hand Walk-Out
- Squat
- Jumping Lunge
Carry out each of these exercise with 30 seconds interval.
What is HIIT?
HIIT is a cardio workout that consists of short bursts of very high intensity followed by equal or longer intervals of recovery. Consider sprinting for 30 seconds to a minute, then strolling or moderate jogging for a minute or two. You’ll have completed an HIIT workout if you repeat this cycle for 10 minutes.
“We now have more than a decade of data showing HIIT yields pretty much the same health and fitness benefits as long-term aerobic exercise, and in some groups or populations, it works better than traditional aerobic exercise,” says Todd Astorino, a kinesiology professor at California State University, San Marcos, who has published more than a dozen study papers on HIIT.
HIIT appears to be as helpful as much longer durations of moderate-paced jogging, cycling, swimming, or other types of traditional cardio in improving fitness, lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease, losing weight, strengthening skeletal muscle, or helping keep your blood sugar under control. HIIT may be the best technique to improve physical performance for well-trained athletes.
A tiny research of healthy but sedentary persons revealed that just one minute of HIIT three times a week for six weeks significantly improved blood sugar levels and aerobic capacity, a measure of physical fitness. On a stationary cycle, study participants did 10- to 20-second bursts of “all-out” pedalling, followed by a few minutes of rest. From start to finish, the workout took 10 minutes.
According to other research, HIIT may outperform regular cardio in terms of fat removal. According to study author Stephen Boutcher, an associate professor of medical sciences at the University of New South Wales in Australia, an HIIT-induced surge in your body’s levels of growth hormones and other organic compounds “can increase fat burning and energy expenditure for hours after exercise.”
It isn’t just for the fit, young, and healthy. HIIT increases cardiorespiratory fitness nearly twice as much as longer stretches of moderate-intensity running, cycling, or other aerobic activities in adults with heart disease, according to one review research.
How can HIIT accomplish so much in such a short period of time?
“The heart cannot pump enough blood to satisfy all the muscles” during high-intensity exercise, according to Ulrik Wislff, a HIIT researcher and leader of the cardiac exercise research group at the Norwegian School of Science and Technology. According to him, the lack of oxygen in the muscles triggers a “cascade of molecular responses in most organs of the body,” resulting in a larger training response than more leisurely bouts of exercise.
According to Astorino, any level of exercise activates genes that promote the expansion of mitochondria, the cell’s power producers, as well as all of the other favourable biological changes associated with physical fitness. “However, standard cardiovascular activities require quite large or protracted sessions to activate these genes,” he explains.
Even extremely short bouts of training appear to switch on those genes with HIIT, making it an efficient workout.
Resource: An Article by TIME.
