Whether you are a beginner or an expert in exercise, I’d like you to take a minute to review and consider trying High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). This has been shown to provide the most well rounded health benefits in the shortest amount of time. HIIT workouts are considerably shorter than most workouts and involve as little as four minutes of intense activity combined with rest for a total workout of only around 20 minutes. Because HIIT is so intense, you should only do it two to three times a week, making it a workout that even the busiest and most ‘time-crunched’ individuals can fit in their schedules. Use the other days of the week to round off your exercise program with core work, strength training, stretching, etc.

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To achieve all of the wonderful benefits of HIIT, follow these time parameters:
• Warm up for three minutes (fast walk, jog, jump-rope, treadmill, jumping jacks, butt kicks, etc.)
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate. (sprint, climbing stairs, jump squats, mountain climbers, burpees, plank to pushups, etc.)
• Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance (similar to warm up exercises)
• Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times. (When you’re first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high-intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight during your 20-minute session)
I recommend HIIT as a key strategy for improving your health, boosting weight and fat loss, promoting Human Growth Hormone production, and improving strength and stamina.

*The types of exercises that you choose to program your HIIT with can vary greatly and are by no means limited to the examples shared here. The possibilities are endless!

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Some of the many benefits of HIIT
Studies show that 27 minutes of HIIT 3X/week produces the same anaerobic and aerobic improvement as 60 minutes of cardio 5X/week!
Stimulates muscle tissue at a cellular level, changing mitochondrial activity in the muscles
Reduction of visceral and total body fat
Boost your aerobic power
Improve your heart health
Improve insulin sensitivity
Another study found that unfit but otherwise healthy middle-aged adults were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of interval training.
A follow-up study also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity. In fact, the study involved people with full-blown type 2 diabetes, and just ONE interval training session was able to improve blood sugar regulation for the next 24 hours!

Life is motion. Exercise offers too many health benefits to pass up.

Kelly Baltuska, DC