LOOOOOONNNG Overdue, I know!  It’s been 8 days since I told you about all those crazy hormones that help to regulate your weight and body fat.

Now … It’s time to talk about Part 3: Doing the RIGHT type of workouts, at the RIGHT time of day.

Let me start off by saying, “no type of exercise can really be considered the wrong type of exercise” simply because if you’re doing SOMETHING, it’s better than doing NOTHING (which, unfortunately, most people do very well).

But you … you, you, you … you’re different.  You already do “something”.  You do a lot of “something” and you want to know exactly what it is you need to be doing to be experiencing your absolute best fat loss results possible.

So what is it???  When should you do it???  Why should you do it???

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “HIIT” or “High Intensity Interval Training” somewhere over the past couple years,

HIIT Can Also Help to Battle Type 2 Diabetes

whether it be on the news, from a friend or from another trainer.

Basically, HIIT is a form of exercise (which can be either cardio training, strength training or both) in which you pair short, intense bursts of effort with either a rest period or an “active rest” period, going back and forth between the two for a specified period of time.

HIIT can take on many different forms, including

• HIIT strength circuits
• HIIT cardio workouts (elliptical, treadmill, cross trainer, stair climber … anything really)
• Tabata training routine (my FAVORITE!)

And while this just a short list, there are several other forms as well.

You may have also heard HIIT referred to as “Metabolic Training” or “Metabolic Circuits” … It’s basically the same thing.  HIIT is Metabolic Training and Metabolic Training is HIIT.

Both achieve the same goal: creating an “afterburn” effect that raises your metabolism so that you burn excess calories for up to 36 hours AFTER you complete the actual workout.  Sounds pretty sweet, right?  I think so too

The “technical” term is Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), but for our purposes we just need to know that when we kick ass in our workouts and leave drenched in sweat and we’re sore as hell the next day … It means we’ve created an awesome “afterburn” effect that will help us to burn extra calories for almost another day and a half.

Good shit.  I know.

So now you know what type of training you should be doing and you know why you should be doing it.  The last question is, what time of day should you be doing it?

Ideally, the best time to perform your HIIT workouts is first thing in the morning.  And the reasoning isn’t because you haven’t eaten for an extended period of time, it’s because your body’s metabolism is primed for fat loss first thing in the morning.

This is especially true for men because testosterone levels are at their peak early in the day, making it the optimal time for strength workouts.

In terms of weight loss, the morning has been proven to be the best time to workout because of it’s link to improved sleep patterns.  Your quality of sleep is directly related to weight loss. If you aren’t getting good sleep (which is the case for many people who exercise in the evening or at night), those hormones that I talked about in Part 2 of this series are thrown off, making it more difficult to lose fat.

BUT … Some people just can’t get up to workout in the morning.  To those people, I say, “SUCK IT UP!” … Just kidding

Seriously, though, the best time of day to exercise is, first and foremost, going to be the time of day that works best for you schedule.  When it all boils down, if you can’t realistically fit it into your schedule at a time that you are likely to do it, you’re probably not going to maintain it for any period of time.

The end result is going to be falling off your training program, not reaching your goals, feelings of disappointment, extra bowls of mac and cheese, bigger muffin tops.

And that would just suck.

If you ever have questions about putting together a specific HIIT workout, feel free to email me and I’ll hook you up!

LOL …

Check back soon (I promise this time!) for Part 4: Essential Elements of Fat Loss

Committed to Your Health & Fitness,

Corey

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