“Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.” Emile Zatopek

We are busy folks travelling through the world at a super fast pace.  Therefore, we are often impatient and want immediate results!  This rings true even with our health and fitness.  Some believe that the best way to achieve a healthy, sculpted bod is through 30 to 6o minutes of traditional cardio exercise, but there’s a better way…a quicker, more efficient way, and that is high intensity interval training, or HIIT.

HIIT is a fat scorching, fitness boosting exercise strategy, wrapped up in a short, intense workout.   It starts with a warm up, followed by six to ten intervals of high, then medium intensity exercise and ends with a cool down, lasting only about 15-20 minutes.

Long duration cardio causes the body to enter a ‘steady state,’ where it adapts to the fixed speed.  While this does improve endurance, HIIT does NOT allow your body to adapt to a regular pace.  It trains the body to respond and recover from a multitude of demands, making it a healthier and more efficient machine, with far better endurance than that of regular cardio!

In terms of muscle definition, HIIT builds a more muscular and toned body than steady state cardio.  Our bodies are built for stop and go movements, not for long, steady motion.  That is why sprinters and long-distance runners have such different physiques!

As for that spare tire around your waist?  Steady state cardio does burn fat at about 500 calories for 30 minutes of training, and post workout, will continue to burn calories for about 30 to 60 minutes.  This is good, but interval training is better!  It revs up your metabolism and keeps it up for hours after your workout, burning a TON more fat than traditional cardio!

Also, HIIT helps build your cardiovascular AND anaerobic systems, resulting in faster speed and more power – a double whammy!  Therefore, runners who want to improve their speed should integrate some interval training into their workouts.

If you’re not convinced yet, here’s more!   One study suggests that HIIT may cause appetite suppression, while regular cardio can (yikes!) increase it.  Another study has shown that HIIT may be better at preventing diabetes than regular cardio.  Apparently, short sprints remove glycogen from the muscles and excess glucose from the blood.  Lengthy jogs remove blood glucose, but have zero effect on the muscles.

What’s great about HIIT workouts is that they can be done in many different ways:  by running on a track or treadmill, swimming, with an exercise bike, elliptical or with your own bodyweight.  Not to sound like your Mother, but you should always consult with your doctor before starting any new exercise program.  To exhaust your muscles of stored energy, use a 60 second split time for HIIT, and build up from six to ten intervals depending on your fitness level.

Example:   Hop on your exercise bike and warm up your body for five minutes at a nice, easy pace.  Then ride like hell for 60 seconds at a pace so intense that your muscles burn and the last few seconds seem undoable.  Drop your speed to a medium intensity pace for 120 seconds (beginner) to 60 seconds (advanced), and repeat this pattern through six sets (beginner) to ten sets (advanced).  Cool down with your nice and easy warm up pace for five more minutes.  End with a stretch of those tired muscles, and enjoy a little couch time while your body continues to burn calories!

With our crazy, busy lives, many are opting for HIIT to get lean and fit.  It is effective and in my opinion, more efficient than steady state cardio.  But the bottom line is:  minimal time commitment + variety = a more enjoyable workout!

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Here’s a question for you:If you had to limit yourself to only ONE type of workout for the rest of your life, what type of workout would you choose?

My answer would definitely be “bodyweight circuits”. Why? Because in my opinion they’re the perfect mix of resistance training and interval training combined into a short, intense workout.

So what exactly are bodyweight circuits? A typical bodyweight circuit would consist of about 8 different bodyweight exercises done in an interval fashion with a little rest in between each exercise. When you’re done with the 8 intervals you would allow yourself to catch your breath for a few minutes and then start all over again. Then repeat this process for as many times as you can.

The only thing that would make me hesitant towards choosing bodyweight circuits as my workout of choice is that I’m going to have to accept the fact that I’m literally going to be torturing myself several times a week. Bodyweight circuits are HARD!

Before I started exploring the world of bodyweight circuits, the hardest type of workout I knew of was sprint intervals or HIIT. But let me tell you, even though I was in pretty decent shape and could easily pull off 10 30-second all out sprints with 30 seconds of rest in between, the first time I tried a real bodyweight circuit I was still gasping for air 10 minutes after I was done.

The reason they are so friggin’ tough is due to the fact that you’re not only putting a strain on your heart, but your muscles too, to a much higher extent than you do when you’re doing for example a sprint interval type workout.

In addition to the joys of self-torture, here are some other benefits of bodyweight circuits:

1. Can be done pretty much anywhere. All you need is your own body and about 8×8 feet of free space!

2. Require very little time. Instead of spending 45 minutes in the gym followed by a cardio session, you can kill two birds with one stone by doing a bodyweight circuit – and cut the workout time down to less than 20 minutes.

4. Safe and easy on your joints. Bodyweight workouts are a much more “functional” and safe type of workout compared to your regular gym routine.

Here’s a video by Craig Ballantine of Turbulence Training, outlining a great bodyweight circuit which is very similar to the routine I do. Check it out!

Let me know what your own experience with bodyweight exercises and circuits is in the comments below!

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