Heart Rate Variability is a measure of your overall cardiovascular health. And by far the most efficient way to increase cardiovascular fitness is through High-Intensity Interval Training.
High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT can give you the stimulus that you need to keep your heart strong, in as little as 10 minutes! When your heart and nervous system are robust you are able to deal with stress no matter where it is coming from.
Many people spend hours on the treadmill, “jogging”, without seeing any real results. It is not to say that exercise like that is bad. Any level of physical activity is better than nothing, but unfortunately for most people, it does not provide the strong stimulus that our bodies need in order to activate the hormetic pathways that will lead to increases in our cardiovascular fitness.
Why is HIIT so effective then?
Because it allows you to get a higher intensity than you would be able to achieve with other types of exercise. In other words, you can really push the intensity of the exercise that you are doing because you only do it for 20 seconds to 1 minute at a time.
Then you recover until you are ready for the next round.
This sequential strong stimulus will cause your body to respond by growing new blood vessels, raising testosterone, building muscle, and turning on a bunch of health-promoting pathways.
As your body adapts to these sequential stressful events you become more resilient and this will be seen in your heart rate variability scores.
What this means is that over time your heart and nervous system will become better at dealing with high-stress situations and be better at bringing you back down to baseline during the rest intervals. Which is exactly what it means to have a healthy cardiovascular and nervous system, and is what HRV is measuring.
You need to be able to do both.
You need to be able to ramp it up when you are in a high-pressure situation and then bring it back down to baseline once the stressful event ends.
Think of HIIT not as an exact workout plan, but as a way of exercising.
You can add HIIT training to weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, running, walking, biking, or swimming, whatever it is that you like to do.
This will guarantee you the strong stimulus you need in order to maximize the benefits of exercise.
But please remember, “The best form of exercise is the one you will actually do!”
If you enjoy riding your bike do that. If you like to lift weights, by all means, keep doing it.
Find what you enjoy and stick to it.
That is what is going to keep you fit enough to live a long healthy life.
If you are interested in learning more about HIIT and want me to show you exactly how to implement it today including what apps I use, how long to set the intervals for, plus a bunch of bonus content make sure to sign up for my Free HIIT Masterclass on my website. I’ll be detailing all of the benefits of HIIT and how to get started NOW so you can stop wasting your time and start getting real results. Check it out by clicking the link below or going to CatalystImpacts.com
Again this is Floyd Meyer reminding you to Live Better so you can Do More!
References
Gebel, K., Ding, D., Chey, T., Stamatakis, E., Brown, W. J., & Bauman, A. E. (2015). Effect of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity on All-Cause Mortality in Middle-aged and Older Australians. JAMA Internal Medicine,175(6), 970. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.0541
Gibala, M. J. (2007). High-intensity interval training: A time-efficient strategy for health promotion? Current Sports Medicine Reports, 6(4), 211-213. doi:10.1007/s11932-007-0033-8
Karlsen, T., Aamot, I., Haykowsky, M., & Rognmo, Ø. (2017). High Intensity Interval Training for Maximizing Health Outcomes. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2017.03.006
Kessler, H. S., Sisson, S. B., & Short, K. R. (2012). The Potential for High-Intensity Interval Training to Reduce Cardiometabolic Disease Risk. Sports Medicine, 42(6), 489-509. doi:10.2165/11630910-000000000-00000 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2707428
Catalyst Impacts 