Don't have enough time to use "high-intensity training" to lose weight quickly? If you don't pay attention to these 5 blind spots, you might be wasting your time
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become popular in recent years, solving the dilemma of office workers who sit for hours and want to exercise but have no time to use it. High-intensity interval training has been shown in many studies to reduce obesity and cardiovascular problems. In just 10-15 minutes, you can burn fat to the maximum extent and increase your maximum heart rate, but you still need to do it according to your ability.
The advantage of high-intensity interval training is that it does not require additional equipment or a very wide space, making it very suitable for practice at home. High-intensity interval training isn’t perfect, though. Wrong training plans may cause injuries and make it difficult to recover. It is recommended that beginners should pay attention to the following five things before training:
1. Do not overtrain and avoid excessive cortisol concentration.
Research published in “Cell Metabolism” points out that high-intensity training pushes physical fitness to the limit and increases cortisol concentrations. This may be beneficial for improving physical fitness, but excessively high cortisol concentrations for a long time can easily cause side effects, such as digestive problems, bloating, or weight gain.
2. Avoid training too late and affecting your sleep at night.
Most office workers can only perform high-intensity training at night, which means that the training time may be close to bedtime. High-intensity training can easily increase adrenaline and cortisol quickly, which will affect stable sleep patterns. If you have trouble falling asleep at night or wake up repeatedly, avoid bedtime training behaviors.
3. Rest appropriately, otherwise physical growth will stagnate.
When performing high-intensity interval training, the “glycogen” stored in the body will be depleted in a short period of time. Insufficient rest time between workouts means excessive glycogen consumption in the muscles and liver. Low glycogen will make the body more tired and weak during exercise, and it will be difficult for physical strength to return to normal levels.
4. Training for more than 150 minutes may affect the metabolism of the body.
Compared with those who perform high-intensity training for more than 152 minutes per week, those who perform more than 90 minutes have worse metabolic conditions, fluctuating blood sugar concentrations, and impaired mitochondrial function in cells.
Study author Mikael Flockhart believes that if the subject’s mitochondria are damaged, it means that they cannot produce enough energy to power the cells, which may indirectly lead to metabolic chaos.
5. Be aware of the risk of injury, especially to knees and shoulders.
Research from Rutgers University in the United States points out that without training and supervision, the knees and shoulders of high-intensity trainees are prone to injuries, and severe cases may develop into sports injuries such as arthritis, dislocation, strain or sprain. The research team believes that before conducting high-intensity training, personal flexibility and balance training should be improved, and stretching exercises should be increased appropriately, especially for the elderly and those who have suffered from joint diseases.
According to the recommendations of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), high-intensity training should not be the entire “training menu” for a week. It is best to still combine aerobic exercise and resistance training at the same time, and avoid training for more than 90 minutes a week (about 13-18 minutes a day). It is recommended that one person can perform 1-3 training sessions per week, and the interval between 2 training sessions should be at least one day.
In addition, Harvard Medical School reminds people over the age of 65 and patients with cardiovascular disease to consult a professional physician before taking exercise. Currently, more and more cardiovascular rehabilitation treatments include high-intensity training to avoid acute symptoms during exercise.
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