hiit

look at a sprinter's body. now look at a marathoner's body. both are elite athletes. both train relentlessly. but the difference in body composition is stark — and it tells you something important about how you should be training.

high intensity interval training — HIIT — alternates between maximum effort and low-intensity recovery periods. and it consistently outperforms steady-state cardio for fat loss, muscle retention, and cardiovascular improvement.

why HIIT wins

when you jog at a steady pace for 45 minutes, you burn calories during the session and then... it stops. your metabolic rate returns to baseline relatively quickly.

HIIT triggers something different. the intense bursts create an "afterburn effect" (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC) that keeps your metabolism elevated for hours after you stop training. you're burning more calories while sitting on the couch than the person who jogged.

additionally, HIIT preserves muscle mass in ways that long-duration cardio doesn't. steady-state endurance training, over time, signals your body to shed muscle (it's heavy and expensive to maintain). HIIT signals the opposite — keep the muscle, burn the fat.

a simple HIIT protocol

you don't need complicated equipment or a certification:

1. pick any cardio activity — running, cycling, rowing, jump rope, even bodyweight exercises.
2. warm up for 3-5 minutes at an easy pace.
3. go all out for 20-30 seconds. genuinely maximum effort.
4. recover at a very easy pace for 60-90 seconds.
5. repeat 6-8 rounds.
6. cool down for 3-5 minutes.

total time: about 20 minutes. that's less than half the time of a typical steady-state session, with better results across almost every measurable metric.

the caveat

HIIT is demanding. it requires genuine intensity during the work intervals — not "kind of hard" but "i can't talk and i want to stop." if you're going through the motions, you're not doing HIIT. you're doing interval training, which is a different (and less effective) thing.

start with 2-3 sessions per week. your body needs time to recover from the intensity. more is not better here — quality of effort is what matters.

stop spending an hour on the elliptical watching TV. spend 20 minutes actually working. the results speak for themselves.

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