We do a lot of HIIT in our sessions and find that kettlebells are a great tool to use to maximise results.
HIIT as it’s often referred to is how we like to structure most of our training sessions. Now there are some really good reasons for doing this, and so I thought you may find it useful to have a little look at 5 of the best:
It’s time efficient. Most of the women that we help on a daily basis are busy. We’re busier now than ever before with second jobs, kids, extra-curricular activities etc and so time feels even more precious now than ever before. I see women do an hours zumba and they’re lucky if they’ve used 300 calories. Why do in an hour what you can get done in 20 minutes? Honestly 20 minutes of HIIT will have more of an effect on your health and fitness goals than an hour doing the tango!
Improves your aerobic capacity. What does this mean? It is also referred to as VO2 Max which stands for Volume of Oxygen Maximum and means the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilise during an exercise session. So it tests the efficiency of your lung capacity and ability to pass oxygen around the body to the cells and muscles while exercising. Just 2 weeks of HIIT will make a greater improvement to your VO2 Max than 6-8 weeks of endurance training!
Afterburn. This sort of demanding exercise on the body (especially if you’re using a kettlebell) will send your metabolism into hyperdrive and have it continuing to torch fat for up to 24 hours afterwards. You don’t get that with a steady run. In fact the production of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is said to increase by up 450% in that following 24 hours! – this also makes you look younger.
Lose fat and not muscle. That’s the beauty of HIIT. You won’t lose any of the good stuff. Look, you lose the good stuff (lean tissue) each year you get older and every time you go on a low calorie diet. If you then throw in some steady running, that nice lean tissue is going to disappear even faster. (have you ever seen a healthy looking marathon runner?)
You can do it anywhere. In your living room, in the park, at the gym. Wherever you like. You really don’t need much room to be able to have a good HIIT session.
A big fear that many have is that they haven’t exercised for years and the thought of doing this type of training (which in all honesty can sound a bit intimidating at first, no matter how great the benefits are) is scary. I totally agree which is why I would never encourage a beginner to try and complete a 20 minute, 400 calorie burning workout.
It’s like anything. You start off at a pace that is comfortable. You take more breaks throughout than someone that is fitter. Gradually as each week goes by you start to slowly increase the intensity. You shorten the breaks in between and after only 4 weeks, your fitness, VO2 max and energy levels are now much better. Now it’s time to increase the intensity again. You will be amazed at how simple yet highly effective this type of training is and the results come quickly.
A lot of our HIIT training programmes include kettlebells but they don’t have to. You can have a great HIIT workout with no equipment.
There is really no downside. Even if you’re a runner. I wouldn’t encourage you do this instead of running but certainly do it alongside it. I guarantee that you’re running times over all distances will start to improve within only 3 weeks.
Stay healthy,
Ricky
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