HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training simply means exercising at an intensity that keeps your heart rate high and taking only short breaks between each work interval so that your heart rate doesn’t drop back down by too much.
HIIT training can greatly affect the levels of hormones being released in your body and transform it from a fat storing environment to a fat burning one.
When you exercise at high intensity, the hormones adrenalin and cortisol are released within the body and this causes lactic acid to build up in the muscles.
A lactic acid build up in the muscles causes your building and burning hormones testosterone and Human Growth Hormone to be released too.
It’s the combination of all these hormones: adrenalin, cortisol, testosterone and human growth hormone, being produced in the correct amount, that promotes an overall fat burning environment within the body.
By far, the best thing about HIIT is the excess post oxygen consumption better known as the afterburn effect.
When you work at a higher intensity, more of your energy is coming from your glycogen stores than your fat stores. However, when the exercise session finishes your body has to replace those glycogen stores that you’ve used and to do that it burns fat.
For some of you, that fat burning will continue for up to 36 hours after your HIIT session ends.
So if you’re looking to transform your body shape the type of exercise you need to do is high intensity interval training.
Other less intense forms of exercise will get you fit, keep you healthy and are excellent for your mental well being but if you want to create hormone balance and burn fat then you need to exercise at a high intensity.
