5 Benefits of Interval Training

Looking to eliminate boredom, burn more calories, and add some intensity to your workout? Interval training may be the way to go. Here's why.

You need to shake up your fitness program and lose weight, but you don’t really have any more time to devote to it. The perfect answer could be high-intensity interval training or HIIT for short. Interval training is not just for elite athletes anymore — everyone is doing it.

High-intensity interval training requires interspersing bursts of intense activity into your regular fitness program. “It’s a form of fitness training that alternates high-intensity work efforts with low- to moderate-intensity ‘recovery’ efforts,” explains Leigh Crews, a personal trainer in Rome, Ga., and a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise.

Don’t confuse interval training with circuit training. Circuit training is moving from station to station to complete a set of exercises. Circuit training can be all aerobic exercise, all strength training, or alternating between cardio efforts and strength training. “Many people mistakenly call this interval training when, in fact, it is a circuit,” Crews says.

When you’re circuit training, you don’t rest between the exercises that you do in sequence. When you’re interval training, you want to take short rests between intense repetitions of a single exercise.

How Interval Training Helps

Adding interval training to your fitness program has both mental and physical benefits

You lose weight faster. The more vigorous your exercise, the more calories you will burn, so even short bursts will help you lose weight.

It eliminates boredom. By varying the intensity of your exercises, it changes things up. Not only will your fitness program go by faster, but you won’t experience the drudgery that can come from doing the same routine every day.

No extras needed. You already have the equipment you need for your interval training because you’re already doing the basic workout. Interval training requires no special skills — the only thing needed is more effort on your part.

You increase your fitness levels. You will improve your ability to exercise and increase your stamina over time.

You reduce the time spent on exercise. You spend less time exercising, but you burn the same or more calories as with your normal routine.