Is HIIT Primarily For Weight Loss Or Muscle Building?

By Howe Russ


There is so much conflicting advice in the gym that most people find it almost impossible to learn how to build muscle effectively. One of the biggest areas of concern surrounds HIIT.

Today we're going to be looking at this form of cardiovascular exercise and answering the all important question. Is it good for hypertrophy?

If most men were honest, they'd happily admit that they don't do enough cardiovascular exercise. It's often seen as the boring alternative to resistance training and they don't have the same level of drive for it.

This is largely because there is a false mentality in most gyms that cardio is for girls. Most guys deem it too boring and not engaging enough.

In fact, everybody needs to do some form of cardio if they want to get fitter and stronger. No matter whether your are a man or a woman, if you wish to get leaner you should be performing some form of cardiovascular exercise alongside your resistance routine. One of the best methods is high intensity interval training.

There is a massive difference between the steady pace of regular cardio, often billed as boring, compared to that of a high intensity session. Despite being performed on the same equipment, it's a completely different style of workout.

Interval training is very simple when you get down to the finer details of it. Basically your aim is to switch from a moderate level to a high level every so often, causing your body to be unable to adapt. This will have similar effects on your muscles to a resistance workout.

First of all, which energy system does your body use when you are training with weights? Your anaerobic energy system. During any high intensity interval workout you'll be tapping into the exact same energy resource.

Things get even better when you look at how your body burns calories during this type of training. During a normal session your body stops burning calories when you stop exercising. However, if you have performed an interval session your body will continue to burn calories at an increased rate for 16 hours afterwards! This is also known as 'the afterburn effect'.

Over the years it has been proven that HIIT helps you to lose more body fat than regular cardio workouts. If you are trying to figure out how to build muscle you should also be including this type of training in your workouts, as it has been proven that short bursts of high intensity activity will tap into your body's anaerobic energy system and make it easier for you to experience muscular hypertrophy.




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