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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Can High Intensity Interval Training Be Used To Build Lean Muscle?

By Russ Hollywood


Unless you have been living under a rock for the last three-to-four years, you have probably already heard about high intensity interval training. However, one of the biggest questions surrounding this training method is quite difficult to find an honest answer to - can you build lean muscle with it or is it reserved for fat loss workouts?

For years, it was believed that performing high intensity cardiovascular activity was a sure-fire way to waste all of your efforts when it came to lifting weights. []

This has now been proven incorrect, as the benefits of modern science have become very important to many professionals within the fitness industry. Thanks to these benefits, we can now see that HIIT is indeed one of the best approaches when it comes to both fat loss and lean gains.

That's right, performing a high intensity cardio workout is actually superior not only for burning fat but also for building lean tissue! While this is probably music to the ears of all those gym enthusiasts who find cardiovascular activity to be somewhat dull, it does come with a few warnings.

It would be foolish to jump straight in, of course, without taking a few minutes to learn some of the basic principles which HIIT operates around. People often buy into opinions in the fitness world, rather than stone cold facts. They follow the advice of their friend purely because he's in shape, despite the fact that the advice offered little or zero scientific support. This is why so many people don't get results in the gym. For instance, most people do their cardio work after they hit the weights. Based on recent studies, not only should you be doing HIIT you should also be doing it before you hit the weights.

The study which discovered this information was actually completed back in 2001, but was under-reported in the media at the time. As a result it has gone largely unnoticed by the general population and most fitness instructors, who still follow the old belief that doing cardio work before a weights workout will fatigue the muscles.

One other aspect which has to be taken into consideration here is the increased difficulty of a high intensity interval training session versus a steady state cardio session. This means your body will need additional time to recovery. You shouldn't be performing intervals every single day, because you can get better results by letting your body recover fully. Three-to-four sessions per week is enough for most people.

While regular cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart and certainly still has it's value, high intensity interval training is superior for both fat loss and lean muscle gains. If your goal is to learn the most effective ways to build muscle this year, then HIIT is certainly something you should be trying very soon.




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