High Intensity Interval Training & Metabolic Resistance Training: What Does It Mean?

Here comes The Science Bit…

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) & Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT) are buzzwords in the world of exercise geeks right now. What are they, how do you do them & why should you care?

You've got to sweat a little...

All sounds a bit hard core doesn’t it? So I’m going to start with the last question – why should you care? Because its the most interesting. You don’t need to remember the jargon (that’s my job) but you might care because:

• You’re busy & you haven’t got time to waste doing exercises that don’t show results
• You want to lose fat, but you don’t just want to be just skinny, you want some shape

These objectives describe most mums I know (including me!), so I’ll move on. You see this Arnie-sounding training stuff is actually perfect for middle aged mums too (& I’m definitely including myself as one of those!).

High Intensity Interval Training means that you work at a high intensity (ie you’re working HARD… as in sweating ) but for short periods (intervals) of time. Then you slow down, get your breath, & go again. An example would be running on a treadmill (most have an ‘interval training’/ programme option) at varying speeds & inclines. You run as hard as you can for say a minute, sometimes less, then you take it a little easier for a minute – then you go again.

Classic HIIT consists of short bursts of predominantly cardio exercise, such as running, swimming or cycling. Bursts of fast & hard exercise, followed by short rest periods, but never completely resting in between intervals.

It has been proven many times that unless you want to run very, very very long distances on a regular basis, there is no need & no benefit to running slow & steady for an hour or more at a time. It’s boring, it’s by no means the most efficient or effective way to lose fat, & it won’t give you the body shape you probably want. You will of course eventually drop fat if you run far enough & long enough, but if that’s ALL you do, you’ll just look kind of… scrawny.

So High Intensity Interval Training is much more effective than steady cardio.

So if you go to the gym & slog / potter away on cardio machines… please stop. Unless you only go to the gym to catch up on a soap opera on the TV, there are INFINTELY more effective & fun ways to exercise! Not only that but because you elevate your heart rate so much more intensively during interval training, your metabolism stays high after you’ve finished exercising. So you’re still burning calories at a higher rate even when you’re all showered & done! On the other hand after steady cardio, you recover quickly, & your metabolic rate comes back down right away.

High Intensity Interval Training came along a while ago & blew the whole steady cardio ‘fat burning zone’ rubbish out of the water. But it was still just cardio.

And we know that you don’t get SHAPE from cardio. You might get thinner, & fitter, but you still won’t look like you want to in a bikini.

You need  resistance training too if you want to shape your body. This means using weights, or your own body weight. We have known for a long time that cardio alone doesn’t cut it – we need to be strong too! Lean muscle = shape.

Muscle also requires more energy to ‘just exist’ than fat. That means that a person with more lean muscle mass than fat burns more calories just sitting on the sofa, than a person with more fat than muscle. Muscle is our friend.

Combine the 2 – intervals training techniques of short burst of high intensity exercise – with resistance training, & you’ve got a workout that WORKS starting to take shape!

The principle  of Metabolic Resistance Training has been honed & tweaked by Craig Ballantyne  – the man’s pretty hard core. Don’t mess. The science is as rock solid as the man’s abs & his brand of MRT ‘Turbulence Training’ adds a new dimension for athletes who mean business.

MRT involves whole body, resistance exercises, done in quick succession with little or no rest in between. It often alternates non-competing muscle groups, to minimise the rest periods in between exercise. So for example you might do press ups or a prone arm row or similar upper body weight exercise, followed (without any rest at all) by squats – a complete lower body weight exercise.

Reps (how many of each exercise you do) are kept low, but intensity is high. So you night only be able to do 8-12 of each exercise, but you’re working really hard. this is much more effective (& efficient) than doing lots & lots of repetitions using a very light weight.

It’s all about using your whole body, making your core do the job it was designed to do & working to drop fat & build lean muscle & shape… in the shortest possible time.

Sound good? I believe so.

Which is why these are the exact principles on which  MuTu System workouts are based. Watch some free taster videos here! They have the added tweak however of having been very specifically designed to re-balance & re-shape a woman’s body after having children. Lack of core strength, abdominal muscle separation (diastasis recti), pelvic floor weakness & the postural shifts  of pregnancy & motherhood are all factored in. MuTu System uses moves that multi-task (mums are good at that ) the above progressive training principle with yoga techniques to resettle your pelvic organs & tone your abdominal & pelvic floor muscles from the inside out. MuTu System also deals with your food because (& I know you know, but just sayin’) all the exercise in the world won’t get you a flat tummy if you eat too many cakes.

MuTu System workouts train you hard enough to get the results you want, whilst keeping you safe & with a full understanding of the physiological & emotional mothering process. Don’t worry Lovely Lady, we’ve got you covered x