High Intensity Training for the Busy Woman

It seems like everywhere you look, these abbreviations show-up; HIT (High Intensity Training) and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Just so you know, these terms are used interchangeably but in my experience, HIT is the most common. In a nutshell, high intensity training allows you the beauty of feeling like a track and field star but just for a few minutes. In fact, a complete HIT bout should take you about 25 minutes with 5-7 minutes of all out, sweat it to you make it, heart pumping work. Those minutes in-between are not a cake-walk either. Your heart needs to go into recovery mode and as your heart rate decreases, you’ll have the energy (so to speak) to go full out again.

The other great benefit about HIT is that it’s an efficient, time saver for busy women. For example, you can do 60 minutes on a treadmill and burn about 200 calories or do a 20 minute HIT workout and burn about 250 calories. Say what?! Yes, it’s true. This type of interval training utilizes the body’s different energy systems such as phosphagen, glycolytic, and mitochondrial respiration (Bryant, 2011). In a nutshell these systems are what is responsible for fat-burning and muscles sparing. It’s a win-win. Additionally, due to this type of workout your body continues to burn due to elevated levels of oxygen consumption (Bryant, 2011).

Your body continues to burn calories after an HIT workout so that’s the beauty of these hard but short workouts. Don’t start celebrating too hard though. Studies show that the extra burn you get from an HIT workout is about 50-85 calories. That equates to a couple of Hershey Kisses or an extra 4-5 sweet potato fries. Over the course of a week however, those extra calories make a difference. It’s all cumulative.

I recommend you limit your HIT workouts to 1-3 per week in order to avoid overtraining or overuse injuries. In my next post, I will give you some of my favorite HIT workouts, especially designed for the busy woman.