In order to really see changes in your body composition you must place a healthy amount of stress on your body through resistance training. Other factors come into place as well, such as eating the right diet and finding time to rest through sleep and downtime, but these methods alone won’t allow you to see real changes in your body. Regular exercise will benefit all body types whether you’re in need of losing fat or not. Ever heard of skinny fat? You can be skinny either through diet or genetics but you won’t be strong, vital and truly badass without adding lean muscle. And you can do this, effectively, through high intensity interval training.
High intensity interval training, sometimes referred to as HIIT, is superior to other types of training because it allows you to combine three main advantageous aspects for better health including:
- a cardiovascular workout to develop a healthy cardiovascular system
- resistance training to add lean muscle mass
- requires less time to complete within a hectic and busy personal schedule
In other words, in using this method of training you can improve your general overall health to help you to fight illness, have more natural energy and feel better as well as build muscle to burn more calories and look better and, the best part to many, all in less time; which turns out to be a more stimulating and fun workout that allows you to avoid long, boring cardio!
It is important, however, to start at your own fitness level. If you’ve been sedentary and want to start incorporating regular exercise into your life (kudos to you!) then you’ll want to start with less intensity, duration and resistance than someone who has been currently exercising but wants to take it up a notch or two to see progressive results (you keep on rockin’ your badass self!)
Within this type of training are many variations. Some of them are:
- timed intervals using different types of resistance including training with dumb bells, kettle bells, medicine and stability balls, sandbags and your own body weight
- resistance training with all of the above mentioned types of resistance using a set of number of repetitions and a determined number of set or rounds with little to no rest between exercises and minimal rest between sets
- sprint intervals either outdoors on a cardio machine for distance or time
Another aspect of HIIT that I particularly like is the great rush of energy I feel after a workout is completed as well as a surge of happy feel-good love! Whenever I train using HIIT I feel as though I’ve set my day off right and can handle stressful situations with greater ease. I feel upbeat and energized, ready to face any challenges the day may offer and enjoy life, as a whole, more fully. This attitude is what I call my inner badass and anyone can tap into this source of happiness and inner peace to discover their own inner badass using this method to completely change their outlook on life and self.
