Is HIIT Good For Muscle Growth?

By Russ Howe


Most gym users who want to know how to build muscle can't seem to get any further forward due to the amount of conflicting information out there. One such area of confusion is HIIT.

This is a form of cardiovascular activity with a major twist. Today we're going to look at this in more depth and answer the question everybody is asking. Is this a good form of exercise for muscular growth?

If most men were honest, they'd happily admit that they don't do enough cardiovascular exercise. It's often seen as the boring alternative to resistance training and they don't have the same level of drive for it.

Many individuals wrongly presume that cardio exercise is purely for weight loss, or they believe the age old misconception that treadmills are for women and weights are for guys.

In fact, everybody needs to do some form of cardio if they want to get fitter and stronger. No matter whether your are a man or a woman, if you wish to get leaner you should be performing some form of cardiovascular exercise alongside your resistance routine. One of the best methods is high intensity interval training.

There are several key differences between high intensity cardio sessions and steady state workouts. If you've ever used an exercise bike for an hour at a steady pace you've probably felt a little bit bored at certain stages. That's one of the main drawbacks to this style of training and something which high intensity sessions will eliminate.

High intensity interval training is based around constantly switching between moderate and high intensities, causing your body to tap into both it's aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. There are striking similarities between an interval training session and a resistance workout.

While performing a resistance exercise your body is tapping into it's anaerobic exercise. This is the same system you'll use while performing any high intensity cardio workouts, too.

Things get even better when you look at how your body burns calories during this type of training. During a normal session your body stops burning calories when you stop exercising. However, if you have performed an interval session your body will continue to burn calories at an increased rate for 16 hours afterwards! This is also known as 'the afterburn effect'.

Despite growing in popularity over the last few years, HIIT remains a largely unused form of cardiovascular exercise. Most gym users believe that they need to punish themselves with long, dull sessions on bikes and treadmills to lose fat and it is simply not true. If you are learning how to build muscle more effectively, this form of training will work very nicely alongside your resistance training.




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