Can High Intensity Interval Training Be Used To Build Lean Muscle?

By Russ Hollywood


Learning how to build muscle is often a game of chance and opinion, with what works for one guy often not quite working for another. However, there are a few benchmark pieces of advice which have been proven by modern science when it comes to building mass and losing fat, one of which is high intensity interval training.

For years, it was believed that performing high intensity cardiovascular activity was a sure-fire way to waste all of your efforts when it came to lifting weights. []

If you are trying to gain size you can get fooled into believing you only need to work hard on the weights, or that cardio work is dull and boring. However, recent studies show that muscle gains were massively increased thanks to the incorporation of HIIT into weekly resistance workouts in place of dull, regular cardiovascular activity.

If you are one of the many people who finds their cardiovascular activity to be somewhat dull and repetitive, the discovery that HIIT can burn significantly more fat while also retaining lean muscle in a superior way to regular cardio should ring like a church bell. This is the news you have been waiting for, after all. Finally, you don't have to sit on the bike for an hour five times per week!

It would be foolish to jump straight in, of course, without taking a few minutes to learn some of the basic principles which HIIT operates around. People often buy into opinions in the fitness world, rather than stone cold facts. They follow the advice of their friend purely because he's in shape, despite the fact that the advice offered little or zero scientific support. This is why so many people don't get results in the gym. For instance, most people do their cardio work after they hit the weights. Based on recent studies, not only should you be doing HIIT you should also be doing it before you hit the weights.

The fascinating study which discovered this was completed by Dr. Peter Lemon back in 2001 thanks to a fascinating Canadian project. This study was then grossly under-reported in fitness circles, causing it to go unnoticed by the general public. In theory, it should alter the way almost everybody trains in the gym.

One of the worst mistakes made with HIIT is the temptation to overdo it. Suddenly you have this wonderful fat loss tool in your hands and you will want to use it all the time. It's only beneficial when you are at your full ability, so try to limit your HIIT workouts to no more than four days of the week on average.

While regular cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart and certainly still has it's value, high intensity interval training is superior for both fat loss and lean muscle gains. If your goal is to learn the most effective ways to build muscle this year, then HIIT is certainly something you should be trying very soon.




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