Personal trainers have been using HIIT for years to achieve the best possible fitness outcomes for their clients. This sort of training involves shorts bursts of exercise that are designed to be completely intensive, quickly followed by brief recovery periods. Often the recovery periods still involve some intense activity.
The training centres on abs, biceps and calves through exercises such lunges, squats and jumps. Most people doing HIIT do it on their own or with a personal trainer but across the UK 30-minute exercise classes are giving those who need guidance on doing the training correctly the opportunity to learn how to do the exercises in the company of other people while being pushed to their physical limits.
One particular set of classes, run by the Les Mills fitness company, are called GRIT classes and are aimed at time-poor people who want an exercise hit in half the time. The classes focus on either plyo, strength or cardio, using weights and exercises such as lunges and jumps to work all the major muscle groups, boost participants’ metabolism and burn fat.
Plyo is short for plyometrics, which is described as a way of pushing the muscles to their maximum strength or effort in a very short time. Athletes use plyo to improve power and performance.
The half-hour GRIT classes are designed to push participants to their limits over a very short period of time in such a way that they continue to feel the benefits in fat burning and boost the metabolism for hours afterwards.