High intensity exercise suitable for women

One important element of effective exercise is the intensity of the exercise, which is how much energy the body exerts when exercising. If during exercise you need more air, it means that there is an increase in the intensity of physical activity. However, what kind of high-intensity exercise is good for women?

HIIT, the best high intensity exercise for women

Basically, high intensity exercise can be done with any type of exercise. However, if you are confused about how to design your workout plan, HIIT is an exercise "package" that you can choose from. HIIT is also suitable for career women who have busy schedules, because the time required is quite short.

HIIT aka high intensity interval training is a combination of high intensity training and low intensity physical activity that is done alternately in a short period of time at one time. Most of the routine takes about 20-50 minutes. You don't have to do HIIT in the gym. You can do HIIT yourself at home.

How do you do if you want to do HIIT yourself?

You can start by doing a sport that you enjoy, such as cycling. Interestingly, if you don't like running, then don't include running in your interval training routine.

If you choose to go overboard first, increase your cycling speed by 1 minute and 30 seconds. Increase the intensity, then pedal the bike as fast as possible for 45 seconds. Get back to your first pace. Then return to the starting speed with a more relaxed cycling as a recovery phase for 2 minutes. Repeat these steps and attempt to cycle for 20 minutes, gradually increasing your time and speed.

You can combine several types of sports in one routine, from jogging, planks, squats, cycling, jumping rope, lifting weights, to hiking. What matters is the combination of intensity.

The duration for the high and low intensity is not always 60 seconds and 2 minutes, so the overall duration is also not always 20 minutes. It all depends on your sports skills, in essence the duration ratio is 1: 2.

However, if you want even more intense intensity, you can reverse the duration to 2: 1, where the phase when heavy intensity training is longer than during lower intensity training.

Benefits of doing HIIT for women

HIIT improves body fitness

HIIT workout packages consist mostly of cardio exercises that aim to strengthen the heart and increase the heart rate. When the heart muscle is strong, the blood vessels can flow more and faster blood so that more oxygen can flow to the muscle cells.

Increasing heart fitness will ultimately have an impact on increasing stamina and body metabolism so that your physical fitness during sports and when doing daily activities is maintained.

HIIT helps burn body fat

Increased cardiovascular fitness allows cells to burn more fat during exercise and at rest. One study reports that doing 15 minutes of interval training burns more calories than running on a treadmill for an hour. In fact, research has found that the higher the cardio intensity you do, the more calories you burn.

Tips for safe doing HIIT for women

Although HIIT has many benefits, high-intensity exercise can be discomforting to your joints. So do not be surprised if this type of sport is very susceptible to causing injury if it is done carelessly by people who are not used to sports.

Here's a safe guide that you need to pay attention to:

Before jumping right into doing HIIT or other types of high-intensity exercise, it's a good idea to do light to moderate intensity exercise for a few weeks before starting HIIT training. Do not immediately force it to do HIIT if you have never exercised before.
Do just 1-3 days a week HIIT workout to avoid overexertion syndrome symptoms include fatigue, insomnia, headache, loss of appetite.
Always warm up and cool downto prevent injury.
It is better not to do HIIT during menstruation. The reason is, high-intensity exercise can be draining which can aggravate PMS symptoms. Pain can make your workout sessions less effective.