You’ve sweated through it, counted down the seconds until rest, and left the entire workout furiously panting. That’s a standard HIIT workout, and it’s one we’ve had a love-hate relationship with for years.
Yes, it’s a serious bang-for-your-buck workout, and there’s no denying that for the small amount of time you put into the session, you get an impressively great workout. No doubt, it’s an efficient way to build up a sweat and have it count as your daily exercise.
But, as new research shows, you don’t necessarily have to lace up your sneakers or head to the nearest studio to feel the effects of a HIIT workout. Called HIIPA (it stands for high-intensity incidental physical activity), this style of workout is one you may be doing already… without even realizing it.
Do you chase after your dog? Or climb several flights of stairs to your walk-up apartment? Or even work up a serious sweat while shopping or doing housework? Congratulations, you’ve done a HIIPA workout.
The paper, written by researchers across several universities, came as a result of the 2018 U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines, which did away with the requirement that said a physical activity only counts as a physical activity if it’s completed for 10 minutes at a time. With that eliminated, it means that so many other daily activities can add up into a standard workout.
“On top of ‘move as often as possible and sit less’, public health and clinical practice could emphasise simple messages analogous to ‘huff and puff regularly,'” the writers say.
By making these workouts far more achievable, we can quickly meet our daily goals. It could all just come down to parking our car a few spots further from the entrance and talking the stairs instead of an elevator.
