What’s More Effective: HIIT or Steady-State Cardio?

HIIT vs. LISS appears like an upcoming Marvel summer blockbuster, but it surely’s actually certainly one of the more interesting — and still-evolving — fitness debates in recent times. It hinges on the everlasting query/sigh: “How much cardio do I really want to do?”

HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and LISS (low-intensity regular state) are cardio workouts that provide seemingly conflicting answers to that query.

At one point, cardio guidelines were easy: Do 150 minutes of blood-pumping exercise per week for general health. If you desire to shed pounds, do more. The HIIT vs. LISS smackdown arose from researchers’ attempts to get more high-tech.

In a HIIT workout, you alternate bursts of intense exercise (80 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate) with temporary recovery periods.

A LISS cardio workout might involve jogging on a treadmill or swimming laps at a gentle speed, topping out at 60 percent of your maximum heart rate for at the least half-hour.

HIIT struck it big within the mid-2010s, with a surge of studies that contended it was superior to LISS for calorie burn, weight reduction, and cardiovascular health.

To a time-crunched world, the suggestion was irresistible: The same (or higher) ends in half the time? Could it possibly be too good to be true? Let’s review the research.

What Is an “Effective” Workout?

First, let’s define what makes a workout “effective,” something that’s as depending on goals because it is on workout type.

You might wish to tone up a bit, or it is advisable to lose 20 kilos. You might wish to get shredded. Or you would possibly just wish to stay in good cardiovascular health and chase the mood boost that cardio provides (for a few of us, anyway).

“There are so many things that dictate what’s essentially the most efficient or effective exercise, including fitness level and experience,” says Trevor Thieme, C.S.C.S. “The most appropriate workout and training strategy for you actually will depend on your goals.”

For the needs of HIIT vs. LISS cardio, the aspects most frequently evaluated are: weight reduction, fat loss, aerobic capability (VO2 max), and time-efficiency.

HIIT vs. LISS: Pros and Cons

The web is noisy with arguments on each side of the HIIT/LISS debate, but here’s the most recent consensus.

Fat loss (advantage: HIIT)

A review published within the  compared the results of HIIT and moderate-intensity continuous training (MOD) on body fat, analyzing 36 studies involving greater than a thousand people.

While researchers didn’t find differences in the proportion of body fat burned between those within the HIIT and MOD groups, they did find “a superiority of interval training within the reduction of absolute total fat mass.”

Weight loss (draw)

Studies comparing high- and moderate-intensity training uncover little difference in weight and body mass index (BMI) results between the 2.

But in the event you’re laser-focused on the size, you might be missing the forest in favor of the trees; body composition is a greater gauge of your workout’s effectiveness.

So if HIIT delivers greater fat loss at the identical weight,  should be accounting for the vacated mass…

Muscle gain (advantage: HIIT)

Exercises performed at high intensity necessarily place greater stress on skeletal muscle.

But add resistance training to HIIT — be it through free weights or body weight exercises — and you possibly can trigger some truly meaningful muscle growth while concurrently constructing endurance.

Cardiovascular function (advantage: HIIT)

Perhaps essentially the most reliable measurement of fitness is VO2 max, which represents the cardiorespiratory system’s ability to soak up oxygen and deliver it to muscles.

A 2014 study found that each high- and moderate-intensity exercise improved participants’ levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, but HIIT did so by an element of greater than two.

Accessibility (advantage: LISS)

There’s absolute confidence that low-intensity, steady-state cardio is the more accessible of the 2 protocols.

If you’re a beginner, have plenty of weight to lose, or just haven’t worked out shortly, you would possibly have to start out with LISS before advancing to HIIT, which can prove too difficult.

“Once you turn into moderately fit,” nonetheless, “you’ll must look to higher intensity training methods such HIIT to proceed your transformation,” says Thieme.

What’s the Metabolic Difference Between HIIT and LISS?

The biggest difference on your results between HIIT and LISS comes right down to their effects on the body’s energy systems.

Research has found that HIIT workouts increase your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, also generally known as EPOC or more simply the “afterburn effect.” The premise is that it takes your body longer to get better after a more intense workout.

The longer it takes your body to return to “normal,” the longer your metabolism will remain elevated and the more total calories you’ll burn.

HIIT vs. LISS: The Final Verdict

When it involves results, HIIT has an upper hand — with a catch. “When you’re talking weight reduction, muscular endurance, and stamina, HIIT has the advantage,” says Thieme. “Evidence shows there’s a greater and longer-lasting metabolic effect from HIIT than LISS.”

But HIIT is simply appropriate for individuals who have already built a foundation of fitness. “If you’re just entering into exercise, HIIT could potentially do more harm than good by increasing your risk of overtraining,” says Thieme. “But when you construct a solid fitness foundation, HIIT can potentially maximize your results and optimize your progress towards your cardio and weight reduction goals in minimal time.”