With Re-Boot right around the corner… You may be thinking to yourself, “why should this be part of my weekly fitness routine?” Or, “am I even ‘fit’ enough to do a high-intensity interval workout?” After almost a year of coaching Red Zone (a heart-rate targeted high-intensity interval workout) and several years of personal training with this style, I hear these questions all the time! And, they are super valid questions. So, to help you make those decisions, let me explain it’s purpose.

High-Intensity Interval Training (aka HIIT) is a training technique that provides you short intense “all-out” bursts of exercise followed by a short (sometimes active) recovery period. The short bursts can last anywhere from 20s to 8min. During this time of intensity, the goal is to push the heart-rate to 85-95% of max. During recovery periods, which are about as equally as long in duration as the exercise period, the athlete provides an opportunity for the heart-rate to come down around 40-50% of max. This interval effect will cause the body to need more oxygen during recovery and in turn create an oxygen shortage. It’s this EPOC (excess postexercise oxygen consumption) that super charges the metabolism and allows the body to continue to burn calories up to 2+ hours after the workout. This is why HIIT training is more effective at fat-burning than a steady-state aerobic workout. Also, the recovery times allow you to truly put in maximum effort during the exercise without totally fatiguing before the workout is over.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), HIIT training has been shown to improve:

• Aerobic and anaerobic fitness
• Blood Pressure
• Cardiovascular Health
• Insulin sensitivity (which allows the working muscles to utilize more glucose for fuel to create energy)  
• Cholesterol profile
• Abdominal fat and body weight while maintaining muscle mass

ACSM’s physical activity recommendations for healthy adults is at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (working hard enough to break a sweat, but still able to carry on a conversation) five days per week, or 20 minutes of more vigorous activity three days per week. Combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity can be performed to meet this recommendation.*

AND THIS is where RE-BOOT fits in! With our 30-min Monday, Tuesday, Thursday workouts you are guaranteed to achieve at least 20-min of vigorous activity through our HIIT style workout three days each week! Our daily programing is different and will be sure to keep you engaged and on your toes! Scaling options will also be available to accommodate ALL fitness levels!

So… “who” should do it and “why?”

The answer is simple: EVERYONE because who wouldn’t want all of those benefits listed above!

For more information about Re-Boot, click here! And, when you register before Christmas, you will receive an awesome special benefit!! Learn more at www.locomotionfit.com/reboot.

Hope to See YOU there,

Coach Larsyn

*Resource: https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/high-intensity-interval-training.pdf