HIT principles are used by elite athletes the world over
In a study of elite cyclists, HIT led to improved respiratory function
HIT has been proven to help generate athletic, powerful muscle
“WE MUST ESTABLISH A COMMON VOCABULARY TO AVOID FANCY MARKETING NAMES FOR PROGRAMMES THAT HAVE EXISTED FOR 40 YEARS”
And now it’s coming to our gyms in the form of HIT. So how do we defi ne HIT?
DEFINING HIT Len Kravitz, PhD and Lance Dalleck, MS – researchers at the University of New Mexico, US – defi ne interval training as “high-intensity, short duration training sessions performed at workloads above the lactate threshold, marked by an abrupt increase in blood lactate that forces the muscle to revert from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism”. Clearly this is hard to measure within a
gym environment. However, in a review paper undertaken in February by New Zealand’s AUT University (see info panel 2, p42), HIT is defi ned as either working at over 75 per cent of heart rate maximum (HR max) or 75 per cent of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 followed by rest periods.
max), july 2012 © cybertrek 2012 Intervals vary from 1:1 (work:rest)
ratios, to 2:1 or other variations depending on fi tness levels. The rest phase can either be complete rest or dropping back to a moderate intensity to enable recovery. “However, 75 per cent HR max and 75 per cent VO2
max are very different
intensities and not to be confused as being the same,” stresses Randy Huntington, global director of marketing, performance, education and research at Keiser. So no clear-cut guidelines there as yet, other than that the work phases should be ‘hard’ or ‘very hard’. Huntington, meanwhile, categorises HIT as a form of circuit training. “In 1953, R E Morgan and G T Anderson at the University of Leeds created circuit training – of which interval training is a subset – with Manfred Scholich going on to write the bible on interval/circuit training in 1986,” he explains.
“There are many ways to do circuits and Scholich has already labelled them quite well, setting a series of criteria: sets, reps, load, type of exercise, order of exercises, number of exercises, rest interval, work interval and density. “It’s important that a common
vocabulary be established within the fi tness industry, otherwise we’ll end up with fancy marketing names for programmes that have actually existed for over 40 years – and in some cases, where the roots are over 100 years old.”
BENEFITS OF HIT But if precise terminology and parameters are still to be decided, there does seem to be broad agreement on the benefi ts of HIT. “Research shows that HIT delivers
results that surpass conventional, steady-state training,” says Bryce Hastings, technical consultant for Les Mills International. “These include accelerated aerobic conditioning, getting you fi tter faster; an improved anaerobic threshold, letting you go harder for longer; improved insulin resistance and growth hormone changes, with enhanced hormonal responses; and the generation of athletic, powerful muscle, giving you
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 41
ALI MUFTI /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
NEALE COUSLAND /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
MASHUROVI /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84