Are HIIT Workouts As Good As The Hype?!

This past two weeks have been really nuts for us at DVRT! We have had the National Strength & Conditioning Conference AND the IDEA World conference that we were a part of. While we LOVE these opportunities they definitely make us want to lounge on the couch for a few days after!

One of the consistent themes happened to be discussions on Hight Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Seems like EVERYONE has a HIIT program that is right for you, they have the “secret”. Well, we also have another side of the fitness industry that don’t think HIIT workouts are all they are cracked up to be. So, who is right and how will it impact how you train?

This past Saturday, I got to help out Rachel Cosgrove of the renowned Results Fitness in Newhall, California. Rachel and her husband, Alwyn, have long touted the benefits of HIIT but not just from their own opinions, but TONS of research showing how much more effective for fat loss (realize I didn’t say weight, but fat loss) than more “traditional” cardio methods.

It probably isn’t too hard to “sell” you on HIIT workouts, but why aren’t people getting better results? As Rachel spoke about their are some keys to getting actual results and cool enough she spoke highly about how DVRT can be a big part of it.

How?

There are two ways to really take advantage of the positive hormonal responses we get from HIIT workouts. The more common is explosive based training. That is why we see a lot of HIIT workouts with jumping, burpees, kettlebell swings, etc. Okay, you are already doing that so what?

A key in really understanding the high intensity part of HIIT is making sure the training stays at that high level. How do I mean? If you are doing 20 seconds of explosive work how many reps are you getting. If you are getting around 8 reps your first few sets and then drop off to 5’s, that’s a huge drop off in performance and shows us the quality and effort is not what we want. So, what do you do?

One of the things we love about DVRT how easy it is to adapt as people get fatigued. For example, during our MAX Lunge we can go really explosive with a big swing, but as we get tired we often can’t keep the same level of performance. How do we keep the intensity? Simply we can reduce the swing, we can change the load position, we can add a pause and slow down the swing of the Ultimate Sandbag. All of a sudden we can adjust for the fatigue and keep the high intensity part still there!

Another concept that Rachel talked about in their fat loss training is that we don’t want to get really efficient with our fat loss workouts. For example, one of the reasons that people that run all the time the same distance, about the same time don’t ever change is their body gets too efficient at the movements.

You have to understand our bodies major goal is survival. That leads our bodies to trying to get more efficient at what we do so that we can expend less energy for survival reasons. Such a thing is great if you are training for a race, or competition. However, if fat loss is your goal you don’t want to get more efficient.

Sure, you can try to go heavier or do more reps, but both ideas are going to be eventually (and usually quickly) get stalled. There are so many repetitions you can perform in a given amount of time and if we could eternally increase the load we would be lifting thousands of pounds (which I don’t know about you, I’m not!).

How do we create, “inefficient” exercises? That is where the Ultimate Sandbag really stands out by itself. Due to being slightly unstable, every repetition is JUST different enough to make our body work at a high level each and every time.

That’s not it though, by challenging stability, power, and strength all at the same time we force our body not just produce force, but resist too. This leads to more muscles, more energy being expended, and overall more effective fat loss.

We believe DVRT system can make any fitness goal that much better, but especially when it comes to HIIT workouts. That is why we are so excited about our NEW DVRT HIIT workout program that combines kettlebells, bodyweight, and Ultimate Sandbags for the ultimate workout experience! Right now you can save 25% on our DVRT Warrior HIIT program of 30 workouts and 30 warm-ups with coupon code “strong” HERE OR save 25% and get almost 100 workouts with DVRT Warrior HIIT AND DVRT Strength and Muscle program HERE