Despite being very popular, HIIT is a subject which many people low very little about. It requires you to take a slightly different approach in your training in order to get the most from the multiple benefits it has to offer. If you're trying to discover how to build muscle with this style of exercise, then this is crucial.
The main area which needs to be looked at is pre-workout nutrition. There are many individuals who are more than prepared to go all out in the gym on a daily basis, but lack the nutritional knowledge to get the rewards their hard efforts deserve.
If you have been working out for some time already then you'll already understand how important it is to give your body the correct type of nutrients to make the most of each session you do. However, many people don't realize that high intensity training requires a slightly different tactic than regular exercise. []
The first thing you must do to get the right nutrients before a hard workout is look at which energy source you'll be using in your session. While long, steady-state cardiovascular workouts tend to slowly chip away at your body's fat storage, intervals do not do this. Instead, they mainly use your glycogen (carb) stores.
The real benefits of this training happen after you leave the gym, where your body continues burning off calories at an increased rate for up to 14 hours. You may have heard this phenomenon called the afterburn effect. Instead of slowly chipping away at your fat stores and then ending the process when you leave the gym like regular cardio exercise, a high intensity workout depletes your carbohydrate stores first before going to work on fat stores. In doing this, your body enters a process called EPOC after your training has finished. It protects what little carb stores you have left and burns off excess fat instead. This process lasts an incredibly long time, and one calorie burnt during a high intensity session equates to around nine calories burnt during a long cardio workout.
So, the key thing we want to achieve is to help you burn through your body's excess carbohydrate stores while you are working out in the gym. For this very reason, consuming a high carbohydrate meal before a workout would make very little sense.
This is why many people choose to workout on an empty stomach. But is this approach really the best way to maximize results?
Actually, no it's not. While it is more effective than training after a carb heavy meal, there is an ever more superior method. Research shows that consuming a good source of protein before a workout increases both fat loss and muscle retention even further. Remember, in the absence of enough carbs to handle your workout there is a chance your body will turn to protein as a fuel source. By consuming a whey protein shake before a workout you buffer your body's supply and hang onto your hard earned muscle tissue.
Furthermore, many people like to add a BCAA supplement to their post-workout nutrition. Not only is it more beneficial to take it before you train, but it's actually recommended that you swap out the BCAA's for EAA's. The BCAA products you see on the market only contain the three main branched chain amino acids. However, BCAA's are like a car, they need all parts in order to function properly. Essential Amino Acids contain everything your body cannot produce by itself and have been shown to increase uptake into the muscles by 30%.
Furthermore, consuming your serving pre-workout as opposed to post-workout has been shown to increase muscle uptake by around 27%. Combined with a whey protein shake, you'll be able to protect your body from any lean tissue breakdown and fight off any feelings of hunger while performing high intensity training and burning through those carbohydrate reserves.
The topic of HIIT is as popular now as it has ever been in the past, but learning how to build muscle or lose weight with this approach often comes down to your nutrition plan surrounding those tough workouts. Now you have the key scientific research on the crucial pre-workout period, you'll be able to take your own results one step further.
The main area which needs to be looked at is pre-workout nutrition. There are many individuals who are more than prepared to go all out in the gym on a daily basis, but lack the nutritional knowledge to get the rewards their hard efforts deserve.
If you have been working out for some time already then you'll already understand how important it is to give your body the correct type of nutrients to make the most of each session you do. However, many people don't realize that high intensity training requires a slightly different tactic than regular exercise. []
The first thing you must do to get the right nutrients before a hard workout is look at which energy source you'll be using in your session. While long, steady-state cardiovascular workouts tend to slowly chip away at your body's fat storage, intervals do not do this. Instead, they mainly use your glycogen (carb) stores.
The real benefits of this training happen after you leave the gym, where your body continues burning off calories at an increased rate for up to 14 hours. You may have heard this phenomenon called the afterburn effect. Instead of slowly chipping away at your fat stores and then ending the process when you leave the gym like regular cardio exercise, a high intensity workout depletes your carbohydrate stores first before going to work on fat stores. In doing this, your body enters a process called EPOC after your training has finished. It protects what little carb stores you have left and burns off excess fat instead. This process lasts an incredibly long time, and one calorie burnt during a high intensity session equates to around nine calories burnt during a long cardio workout.
So, the key thing we want to achieve is to help you burn through your body's excess carbohydrate stores while you are working out in the gym. For this very reason, consuming a high carbohydrate meal before a workout would make very little sense.
This is why many people choose to workout on an empty stomach. But is this approach really the best way to maximize results?
Actually, no it's not. While it is more effective than training after a carb heavy meal, there is an ever more superior method. Research shows that consuming a good source of protein before a workout increases both fat loss and muscle retention even further. Remember, in the absence of enough carbs to handle your workout there is a chance your body will turn to protein as a fuel source. By consuming a whey protein shake before a workout you buffer your body's supply and hang onto your hard earned muscle tissue.
Furthermore, many people like to add a BCAA supplement to their post-workout nutrition. Not only is it more beneficial to take it before you train, but it's actually recommended that you swap out the BCAA's for EAA's. The BCAA products you see on the market only contain the three main branched chain amino acids. However, BCAA's are like a car, they need all parts in order to function properly. Essential Amino Acids contain everything your body cannot produce by itself and have been shown to increase uptake into the muscles by 30%.
Furthermore, consuming your serving pre-workout as opposed to post-workout has been shown to increase muscle uptake by around 27%. Combined with a whey protein shake, you'll be able to protect your body from any lean tissue breakdown and fight off any feelings of hunger while performing high intensity training and burning through those carbohydrate reserves.
The topic of HIIT is as popular now as it has ever been in the past, but learning how to build muscle or lose weight with this approach often comes down to your nutrition plan surrounding those tough workouts. Now you have the key scientific research on the crucial pre-workout period, you'll be able to take your own results one step further.
About the Author:
About the author: Russ Howe PTI is an established personal trainer who shows people how to build muscle in the gym. The new guide to hiit will help you to increase fat loss quickly.