David Martens asked: Whether you’re 20lbs overweight or 5lbs overweight, a HIIT training routine can help you burn belly fat fast. In my opinion, it’s the best cardio for weight loss. Yes, weight loss can be done by combining diet, steady state cardio and strength training, but HIIT will up your fat burning ability to the next level.
What is HIIT?HIIT, or “high intensity interval training” is the most effective workout technique you can do. To take advantage of the kind of fat burning you can achieve with HIIT, a person works out at a high intensity for a short time, followed by a brief recovery interval. Generally speaking, you may sprint for 30 seconds and then jog or walk for 1 minute. You would repeat this workout routine numerous times for the best effect.
The Benefits of HIITHIIT training provides many advantages that are not normally found with other workout techniques. Your legs will be worked good and hard with HIIT training. You may not even have to perform any other strength training for your legs, unless you want to develop larger leg muscles by just doing HIIT a few times each week! And HIIT increases your body’s fat burning potential Doing the intense intervals causes fatty acids to be released into the bloodstream where they will then be consumed as fuel. Additionally, HIIT results in increased HGH levels. HGH is responsible for preserving muscle mass and burning fat. To top it off, HIIT workouts create EPOC in the system, an after-burn effect which lets your body burn more calories for hours after you have finished exercising.
The Drawbacks of HIITHIIT is not a perfect system. For example, it is not meant to be done every day. It is easy to over train your body if you’re doing strength training for your leg muscles in addition to HIIT. This can be a serious condition where the muscles become over tired and more prone to injury. To avoid this, it is best to vary your cardio routine from day to day.
Sprint Interval LengthThere are a few components of HIIT that you can vary. First – change the length of your sprint intervals. Shorter intervals of 15-30 seconds allow you to exert more effort during the sprints. This increased exertion will help release more HGH into your system. You will also release higher amounts of fatty acids into the bloodstream.
Working harder for longer than 30 seconds requires more effort. These result in a greater number of calories burned. Additionally, these longer intervals deplete glycogen levels (carbs) allowing your body to burn more fat after the completion of a workout.
Recovery LengthThe recovery length also impacts the effects of HIIT. This is the walking or jogging portion of the workout that allows your muscles time to recover. The length of recovery is relative to the sprint interval. If your ratio is at 1:1, for example, if you sprint for 30 seconds and then recover for 30 seconds. If instead, you sprint interval is 15 seconds and your recovery interval is 45 seconds you have a 3:1 ratio.
The longer the recovery in relation to the sprint interval (2 or 3:1), the more effort you can exert in the next interval. Increasing your effort will produce higher HGH levels. Additionally, longer recovery reduces the risk of overtraining.
Lactic acid can build up in tired muscles as the carbohydrate glycogen is depleted. This results in a longer after-burn effect. However, this can lead to a greater risk of overtraining.
The Best Cardio For Weight LossI think that your best cardio for weight loss combines the ratio change of these HIIT training routines to give you all of the benefits, a strong HGH release, fatty acids in the bloodstream for fuel, calorie burning and glycogen depletion. The first part of the workout is short interval HIIT with a long recovery ratio. For these intervals, you sprint 15 seconds and recover (jog) for 45 seconds. This is the method that will release fatty acids and increase the level of HGH into your system. I do a 2 minute warm up, then perform this HIIT set 8 times, for a total of 10 minutes.
The second part of my workout is 25 minutes of steady movement cardio (an exercise bike or light paced jogging). This provides an active recovery for your muscles. The steady cardio follow up will burn the fatty acids that have been released into the blood by the HIIT.
End with long, high intensity intervals combined with shorter recovery periods. This will keep your glycogen levels low and prompt your body to burn fat for fuel. You will also be supporting a longer after-burn effect that will use more calories. As a final phase, some people perform a 1 minute sprint and a 1 minute jog, but work up to that if you are not able to do it right away. Your muscles should feel tired by the activity but not overtired and painful. It’s best to keep this final phase to around 10 minutes as well.
So there you have a 45 minute HIIT training routine that I believe is the best cardio for weight loss. Following this routine a few times a week will burn off the belly fat quickly, no matter what your weight loss goal may be.
