High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT
A recent study from Queen’s University, demonstrated that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), was very effective in improving the fitness of the heart and the overall strength of the body, even with less than 30 minutes a week of exercise.
By training just 4 days a week, and doing a single whole-body exercise like, burpees, squat thrusts, or jumping jacks, for 8 x 20 second intervals, with 10 seconds rest in between, you can turbo-charge your metabolism and move up the health leagues.
From my own review of the research on HIIT, I was struck by how strongly it impacted upon all your Teams for Life, in particular your GenoTeam, by producing those biological balls important for Premiership Health and passing them around the body it can score some pretty impressive results in double quick time.
So, for instance, HIIT acts directly on the GenoTeam to produce PGC-1 alpha, a key player in the metabolism of energy. It also produces more Myokines, like IL6, crucial for making muscle, and nitric oxide which helps to lower blood pressure, along with the amino acid Lysine, which reduces fats in the blood.
It is not entirely clear how HIIT improves insulin sensitivity, though I suspect by speeding up the breakdown of glycogen (stored glucose) it allows new glucose molecules from the bloodstream to be deposited into the muscle, thereby reducing the need for insulin – in other words, it gives your pancreas a rest.
And, it does this more effectively than your bog standard jogging or cycling, because it uses more muscles and therefore more glycogen – around twice as much – as it engages not only the leg muscles, but also muscles in the arms, shoulders, back and abdomen.
This really is the most efficient and effective way to exercise for Premiership Health.
Video: Dr Mark Smith – HIIT
Scouting Report: HIIT Improves Glucose Control