HIIT WORKOUTS ADD UP TO MORE ENDURANCE & STRENGTH (& LESS FAT)
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has become very popular in recent years due to the great results it produces in relatively short amounts of time. It basically involves periods of higher-intensity exercise (exercise intervals) alternated with periods of lower-intensity exercise (recovery periods) within the same exercise session for a total of just 15-30 minutes.
HIIT is not just for young athletes or CrossFit clients. Here’s an excerpt from the Mayo Clinic article Why interval training may be the best workout at any age: Mayo Clinic researchers studied the effects of HIIT on people over age 65. What they discovered may surprise you: Some age-related deterioration of muscle cells had actually been reversed.
HIIT seemed to change a cell’s DNA in a way that boosted the muscle’s ability to produce energy. It also triggered the growth of new muscle, helping counteract inevitable muscle loss that comes with aging.
These changes were more dramatic in the over-65 exercisers compared with a group of people under age 30 who did the same workouts. One possible takeaway: It’s never too late to start and see big gains.
Interval training doesn’t require special training or equipment. In one Mayo Clinic study, walkers who added higher-intensity intervals to their walking program improved their aerobic fitness, leg strength and blood pressure. They did it by simply alternating between three minutes of fast walking and three minutes of slow walking for 30 minutes or more four times a week.
Peers who walked twice as long but at a moderate, consistent pace made minimal gains in fitness or other measures — similar to a comparison group that didn’t exercise at all.
I began learning details on how HIIT works as part of the Functional Aging Specialist Certification program I’ve been working through. I’ve now added in a 30-minute HIIT segment to my biking twice a week and am also incorporating it into my swimming and jogging.
Here’s information pertinent to seniors from my certification course: “How challenging and how long HIIT periods last vary depending on your goals and level of fitness. Typically they are prescribed as a ratio such as 3:1 (e.g. 3 minutes of higher-intensity followed by 1 minute of recovery) or 2:1 (e.g. 60 seconds of higher-intensity followed by 30 seconds of recovery). The more intense the exercise is the shorter it needs to be (because intense exercise cannot be sustained for very long) and the longer the rest period (in comparison to the exercise interval period) needs to be. Think about it this way. An all-out sprint of 100 yards would take average persons about 15 seconds. But they would get so out of breath that they would need to rest for about 2-3 minutes or longer before they would be ready for the next sprint. That would be a ratio of 1:8 – 1:12. Conversely, if you just jogged the same distance and took 30 seconds to do so you might only need a minute before you were ready to jog again because you wouldn’t get out of breath nearly as much. That would be a ratio of only 1:2.
How does it Work?
“During the periods of high intensity exercise, heart rate and metabolism increase significantly. During the periods of recovery heart rate, oxygen usage and metabolism remain elevated above the level that you would expect from the low-intensity exercise. Imagine if you had to run a couple blocks in order to catch up to a friend. Once you got there you would be breathing hard with your heart pounding fast in your chest and it would take several minutes of rest before you recovered to normal levels. Even though you’re standing still you’re burning way more calories compared to what you were burning while standing still before the little run. We call this extra calorie usage the afterburn. The greater the intensity during the workout the greater the afterburn and the harder you exercise the more calories you burn afterwards.”
“In addition, the afterburn specifically targets fat calories due to an interesting physiological mechanism called the crossover effect. During high-intensity aerobic exercise the body uses more calories, as a percentage, from carbohydrates than from fat in the body. During lower-intensity exercise the body uses more calories, as a percentage, from fat than from carbohydrates in the body. It is easy to be misled in thinking that lower-intensity exercise would be better for fat loss because more fat is used as energy. However, this is false for two reasons. The first is that although the body uses a lower percentage of calories from fat during higher-intensity exercise it burns calories much faster so this partially offsets the change in percentage. Secondly—because of the afterburn—following a high-intensity aerobic exercise that uses lots of carbohydrates your body decides to save as much carbohydrate as it can and switches (or crosses over) to using fat as an energy source. Since the afterburn has been shown to last for 24 hours or more, you end up burning a lot more fat AFTER the exercise session than you did DURING the exercise session. The crossover effect combined with the afterburn is a very powerful 1-2 punch for losing body fat.”
Great HIIT Workouts for Seniors
Here are 3 sample gym workouts from Jeremy Ethier, creator of HIIT Your Body, in an article in DaiManuel.com (5 HIIT Workouts that are Perfect for Older Adults). You could also take these workouts outdoors.
** Please make sure that you have clearance from your doctor before performing any of the following exercises. Stop the exercise if you feel dizzy, sick, have muscle cramps, or have uncomfortable pain or pressure anywhere in your body.
Workout 1: The Treadmill
A treadmill is a great tool for interval training as it allows you to adjust the difficulty of your work interval. Here’s the workout:
The Treadmill workout (1:3)
Warm up: 5-minute walk or slow jog
Work interval: 30 seconds “sprint”
Recovery interval: 90 seconds walk
Repeat 4-6 times
Cool down: 5-minute walk
This is the basic structure of the treadmill HIIT workout. What you want to do is adjust the speed and incline of the treadmill during the “sprint” to suit your fitness level. When first starting out, you want to support a level in which you’re out of breath but can still hold up a conversation. And as you progress throughout several weeks of doing this, you want to work towards a level in which you’re so out of breath throughout the workout that you can hardly keep up a conversation. Ethier suggests that every week you either increase the speed or incline of the treadmill to keep your body improving every week.
You can do this workout once a week in the beginning, and build up to performing it 2-3 times a week. Go with how your body feels and adjust the workout accordingly.
Workout 2: Cycling
This is another great piece of equipment that allows you to easily do HIIT in a controlled environment. It’s also a great exercise for building muscle mass and strength in your leg muscles.
The Cycling workout (1:3)
Warm up: 5 minutes of light cycling
Work interval: 30 seconds of cycling at max intensity
Recovery interval: 90 seconds of light cycling
Repeat 4-6 times
Cool down: 2 minutes of light cycling followed by 2 minutes of walking
As in the sprints workout, you can adjust the resistance and intensity of your work interval to better suit your current fitness level. And as the weeks go by you can increase the resistance and intensity, or even add more work intervals into the workout to keep your body progressing.
Workout 3: Swimming
Swimming is an excellent way for older adults to incorporate HIIT. It provides the opportunity for those who are overweight or have arthritis to still exercise at higher intensities without the joint stress typically associated with high-intensity workouts.
Feel free to use whatever stroke (or combination of strokes) you’d like to during the workout. Major strokes include freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. If you’re new to swimming, the freestyle is usually the best option to start with. In the work interval it says to “sprint”, but as mentioned above you should choose the pace that suits your fitness level. Just make sure that you’re working at the highest intensity possible that doesn’t cause pain or extreme discomfort.
The Swimming workout (1:1)
Warm up before the workout for 5-10 minutes by swimming at a slow pace with whatever strokes you will be using in the workout.
Work interval: 1 lap sprint
Recovery interval: Slow swim 1 lap
Repeat 4-6 times.
Ethier recommends incorporating HIIT workouts for a maximum of 3 workouts a week. So to start, choose 1 of these workouts and try it out once a week. As your fitness level improves you can do more sessions and add different workouts.
The combination of challenges, intensities, interval periods, rest periods, modes (treadmill, elliptical cross-trainer, rowing machine, bike, outdoor walking, swimming, etc.) and total workout time means you are in complete control of your routine. And, if you crave variety, it means a virtually endless array of combinations so you never have to perform the exact same routine twice to get amazing results.
Merry Christmas!
