High-Intensity workouts have become the latest and greatest craze in the fitness world. Crossfit, personal trainers, and fitness experts all over the world now incorporate these short bursts of max effort followed by even shorter rest periods into their fitness programs. Why? Because they work. Scientific evidence has proven that this style of workouts not only burns serious calories, but they also have the potential to torch fat and rev up your metabolism for up to 72 hours (The American Academy of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Journal 2013). Alternating short bursts of high-intensity exercises and rest periods less than 30 seconds appears to have a substantial impact on subcutaneous fat, suggested to be due to a rise in growth hormone and catecholamines in the blood.
Please note that this style of workouts is not suggested for beginners or certain health conditions. Please consult your health provider prior to beginning any workout regimen. Using your body weight as resistance increases the level of intensity and utilizes multiple muscle groups to optimize results in a short amount of time.
How to build your workout
Each workout should consist of 9-12 exercises, lasting a little longer than 7 minutes, The 7 minute workout can then be repeated 2-3 times. It is important to warm up and stretch the entire body prior to beginning your workout to reduce the risk of injury and reach max intensity levels for the entire 7 minute workout. Each 30 second exercise is followed by only 10 seconds of rest. 30 seconds on average has been tested to be a sufficient amount of time to maintain max heart rate without compromising proper form. Failure to reach max intensity during each exercise compromises the effectiveness of the program. In order for HICT to have the greatest level of effectiveness, the level of intensity used to perform each exercise should be at max effort for 30 seconds.
Workouts should be well rounded by targeting a multiple muscle groups and opposing muscle groups should be used in concurrent exercises throughout the order of the workout. Example: complete push ups and rest period followed by squats. This will target your upper body for the first move and lower body for the second to allow muscle groups to have rest periods and help sustain proper form for the 30 second duration of each exercise.
Sample workout
Exercises are performed for 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of transition time between bouts. Total time for the entire circuit workout is approximately 7 minutes. The circuit can be repeated 2 to 3 times.
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