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Are High Intensity Interval Training Workouts Designed For Fat Loss Or For Lean Muscle Growth?

By Russ Hollywood


Learning how to build muscle is often a game of chance and opinion, with what works for one guy often not quite working for another. However, there are a few benchmark pieces of advice which have been proven by modern science when it comes to building mass and losing fat, one of which is high intensity interval training.

For almost a decade, HIIT has been restricted to those who want to lose fat while the people at your local gym stuck with regular cardio work. []

However, this is now considered as yesterday's advice. Modern science has seen high intensity interval training become one of the most sought after methods when it comes to fat loss, and more recent studies have also shown it to be an excellent method for those looking to increase lean muscle mass, too.

If you are one of the many people who finds their cardiovascular activity to be somewhat dull and repetitive, the discovery that HIIT can burn significantly more fat while also retaining lean muscle in a superior way to regular cardio should ring like a church bell. This is the news you have been waiting for, after all. Finally, you don't have to sit on the bike for an hour five times per week!

If you are going to make the most of this great training method you need to understand a little about how it works. How many times have you seen bodybuilders jump onto bikes after a weight lifting session and pedal for upwards of 45 minutes to burn off body fat? This approach is now also considered to be yesterday's advice. Not only should they be doing high intensity cardio, they should be doing it prior to their weights. If you have been training for a while, this news will probably be a major shock to you because despite the fact there's a wealth of proof to back this approach up, most people do their cardiovascular work after resistance training.

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.

If you have been trying to learn how to build muscle in the gym but were perhaps unsure of high intensity interval training due to the fat loss stigma which is attached to it, you need not worry. HIIT has been proven to retain lean muscle mass in a far superior way to regular cardiovascular activity, allowing you to slot it into your program and get the best of both worlds.




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