Not all active people can be described as FIT. It has different meanings for individual athletes in the context of their fitness goals and chosen sport.

Take the thin, low body weight of the FIT marathon runner vs the muscly, strong yet FIT sprinter. Both are classed as FIT in their own sports.

Athletes and recreational gym goers are incorporating the latest craze into their exercise regime. High Intensity Interval Training.

High Intensity Interval Training involves very intense bursts of exercise incorporated with low intensity exercise. Training of this nature allows you to exercise at high intensities for a much longer period of time than a steady state, ultimately helping you burn more fat.

Associated Benefits of Metabolic Interval Training

Improved fitness

Greater strength

Peak performance

Delayed ageing (and in many cases, rewinding the body clock)

Reduced risk of illness

Increased energy

Lean muscle

On the other hand, long distance runners body types adapt to running greater distances over time and inevitably lose weight on the scales, but this is often both fat and muscle.

Losing muscle can result in:

Decreased strength

Poor performance

Early ageing

Reduced immunity

It must be made clear, any exercise that gets people moving is better than sitting on the couch. However, the latest research shows integrating a combination of both aerobic (endurance) and anaerobic exercise (interval training) results in the best outcome for both fitness and health.

I recommend a balanced approach to training for my clients to keep things fresh and interesting to suit your fitness goals.

Laursen and Jenkins, 2002

Summary of HIIT training methods

Training until muscle fatigue to stimulate new muscle growth

Short concise training 45 minutes or less

Training each group of muscles for no more than once a week and allow rest periods for the muscles to grow

Each repetition should demonstrate correct technique and control. For example, not using momentum to complete the exercise.

Complete exercises at a slow pace to ensure the greatest number of muscle fibres are being recruited during a muscular contraction.

Recovery period differs from person to person. If you do not see results, it is possible that you have overtrained the muscle group.

A high quality nutrition regime is as important as a high quality training program.

Herodek et al., 2014