With a full load of academics, social life, work, family and many other obligations, the last thing on a college student’s mind is working out.
When the new year approached, a lot of students were striving to get the “perfect body” and getting in the gym was a main goal for them. However, when school started, that goal seemed to have gone out the window. Short intense interval workouts are appealing because they require so little time, but they also demand straining effort, according to an article published in New York Times.
High-intensity interval training, H.I.I.T., is a training technique in which you give all-out, 100 percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods, according to dailyburn.com, which is a membership site that helps individuals with their fitness goals.
PSUC sports and wellness assistant professor Andreas Stamatis said that H.I.I.T. is not something new. Some people knew about it in the 1950s and 1960s. The first record was broken in 1954.
“It’s something that we knew about, but now it’s a buzzing word,” Stamatis said.
Research conducted between a group that did endurance training, which means any activities that increase heart rate and breathing for an extended period of time. The group was then compared with a group that did H.I.I.T. training and they both had the same results found in fat loss and endurance training. Stamatis explained that while training for endurance, the heart has a better ability to pump out more blood. In the high intensity training, the muscles have a better ability to grab oxygen from the circulating blood.
Stamatis thinks that both trainings should be combined so while one is helping with the heart, the other is helping with the functioning of the muscles. Stamatis said that high interval training is about cardio and because it pushes you for a certain amount of time, the oxygen you use after you work out stays up higher than endurance, which helps burn more calories throughout the day.
This, he said, causes a higher level of E.P.O.C., or excess post-exercise consumption, which makes H.I.I.T. effective for fat-burning. E.P.O.C is the amount of energy our body consumes following a bout of exercise that is in excess of the pre-exercise oxygen consumption baseline level.
Stephanie Saccone, a PSUC criminal justice major said that H.I.I.T. is effective if you have time. From being a mom, school work, a job, driving her kids to daycare and her husband to work, Saccone has no time to work out. When Saccone learned about H.I.I.T. and its effectiveness, she said that she would work out at night when the kids are sleeping, this way she would spend less time but still intensively working out.
PSUC hotel, restaurant and tourism management major, Nikeitha Louison said she agrees with short intervals of intense working out because bursts of energy accelerate the fat burning process.
“When exercising, you are supposed to work harder not longer,” Louison said.
Louison stated that her workout routine is eight to 10 minutes of high intense cardio and then 20 to 30 minutes of weight-lifting.
“My goal is muscle toning, so I perform 10 reps of four sets on the relevant circuit equipment,” Louison said.
For students who want to start working out but can’t seem to find the time, Louison said to find time to create a schedule and stick to that schedule.
“When the schedule is made, the best thing for a beginner is to hire services of a trainer,” Louison said. She said that with the aid of a trainer, one can discuss his or her goals and the trainer can steer him or her in the right direction, and teach how to properly use the equipment.
Saccone said that she heard on the radio that you’re making excuses if you don’t make time. It’s important for students to not assume that H.I.I.T. is the solution to working out quickly and seeing progress. Stamatis warned that there are higher risks associated with high intensity training. He said that students have to be sure that their fitness level is at that point. The point of a workout routine is to do better not injure oneself.
“We are working out to be better, not to become worst,” he said. Students shouldn’t have any excuses that prevents them from working out and reaching their fitness goals.
Stamatis said: “Perfect timing is when you don’t have a lot of time. During finals, when you are travelling, high intensity is not the solution. Students have to do endurance and high intensity.”
He suggested that if students cannot do high intense training, they can increase their fitness level and then try it.
Email Raheal Neeqyaue at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
