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Article by Infofit

HIIT Maybe All You Need in Training for Tough Mudder or a Marathon

Study’s suggest short bursts of intense exercise provide lasting health benefits.

Try HIIT For Your Next Tough Mudder or Marathon

Training for a tough mudder or a marathon can be done without dedicating time typically invested to hard and long endurance training.

Experts claim that you can get some the benefits of endurance distance running training without ever needing to train over 5 miles a session. Add years to your life and have the comparable conditioning to running for hours daily with a HIIT or high intensity interval training for nearly 10 minutes. In fact, scientists learned that training in this method by investing less than an hour week, will have the same healthy heart benefits to people who run for more than 3 hours a week.

HIIT Provides Long Lasting Health Benefits

In addition the findings suggested that short bursts of intense exercise provides long lasting health benefits not only in terms of muscle building but for a healthy heart, particularly for patients with coronary artery disease which helped them regain better heart function than the traditional workout exercise routine. The same goes for individuals with diabetes with just an hour of walking interval training with three minutes of brisk walking and three minutes of stopping, dramatically improved blood sugar levels, than walking continuously at the same pace.

Deemed far healthier than performing long runs for the similar training results achieved, the interval trained athletes had better peak uptake of oxygen. The concern is that running long distances have unhealthy side effects, from digestive issues, reduced immune function from over-training and the body’s natural ability to fend off respiratory infections including the flu. 70% of distance runners experience indigestion, acid reflux, a condition with effects like heartburn, coughing, hoarseness, and asthma during or after a run.

Improves Immune Function

The successful outcome for individuals training for Tough Mudder or a marathon is that HIIT improves the immune function, delivers better conditioning in a shorter period of time than a long-distance running session.

References:

  • https://www.jssm.org/vol11/n3/17/v11n3-17pdf.pdf
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00125-014-3334-5
  • https://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleID=1891600
  • https://acsm.ideafit.com/acsm/acsm-september-october-2014-health-fitness-journal
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01184.x/full
  • https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltex /2013/050/HIGH_INTENSITY_CIRCUIT_TRAINING_USING_BODY_WEIGHT_.5.aspx