If you’re looking to improve your fitness or lower your risk of heart disease, consider High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). This popular approach to working out consists of intense bursts of high-intensity exercises (such as sprints, kettlebell swings, and burpees) followed by short periods of rest or milder activities, like walking. Here’s why you should adopt this routine. 

What Are the Advantages of HIIT?

1. More Calories Burned

Because it involves such intense exercises, your body must burn more calories to recover from HIIT than from longer, slower activities, such as a steady jog. Burning calories helps you lose excessive weight. By maintaining a healthy weight, you’ll decrease your risk of a variety of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and some cancers. 

2. Enhanced Mood 

Many people who engage in cardiovascular exercise, particularly running, report an intense feeling of happiness after their workout. This mood shift occurs because exercise causes your brain to produce endorphins, which are neurotransmitters that trigger your brain’s reward system and reduce pain. HIIT can produce these same feelings in a much shorter amount of time. 

3. Improved Heart Health

Like all forms of cardiovascular exercise, HIIT strengthens your heart and lowers your risk of heart disease by increasing the amount of blood your heart pumps per beat (stroke volume). However, because it features short bursts of very intense exercises, HIIT boosts your stroke volume faster than longer, slower exercises. In other words, HIIT can lower your risk of heart disease just as much as other forms of exercise, even though it requires less time. 

If you want to improve your cardiovascular health and wonder whether HIIT is right for you, contact Premier Cardiology Consultants in Dothan, AL. Nidal Yunis, M.D., and his caring team prevent and treat a variety of heart diseases and conditions in patients throughout Dothan, Andalusia, Ozark, and Enterprise. They’ll evaluate your cardiovascular health and help you design a personalized plan. Learn more about their services online, or call (334) 699-6396 to schedule an appointment.