HIIT is now the most effective way to burn fat, gain muscle and improve your physical condition quickly… and at any age!

And in anti-aging, it is important to lose the accumulated fat mass but also to maintain muscle mass which inevitably melts with the years. At the same time, keeping a good cardiovascular condition is important.

The latest studies have highlighted 2 fundamental physiological benefits very favorable to health and longevity:

• The increase in growth hormone
• The preservation of telomeres (ends of our DNA strands/chromosomes).

Increase your growth hormone with HIIT

How HIIT Increases Your Growth Hormone Levels

High-intensity interval training significantly increases blood levels of growth hormone (HGH), also known as the “fitness” hormone. We can even double the production of HCH within 24 hours of practicing a HITT session of 10 to 30 minutes!

This increase is strictly related to the intensity of the exercise. It is necessary, in fact, to go in a level of intensity beyond the threshold of production of lactic acid by the muscle. For this, it is necessary to recruit, in an intense muscular effort, not the slow and fast muscle fibers (red fibers used in long and not very intense efforts such as jogging) but the very fast muscle fibers (white fibers) which are the only ones to have an impact on your growth hormone production (see: practice of interval training).

Why increase your Growth Hormone with HIIT?

HCH promotes muscle synthesis and construction as well as the burning of fatty tissue. It also plays an important role in health and longevity.

When you are over 30, and worse if you have a sedentary lifestyle, you enter a phase called somatopause (age-related HCH deficiency). At the same time, your growth factor type 1 (insulin-like growth factor-1 or IGF-1) also drops, which contributes to accelerated aging.

According to one study (Berryman 2008), calorie restriction and repression of the HGH/IGF-1/insulin axis are the two interventions that most increase longevity in animals.

The author explains:

“In humans as in other species, a reduction in the production of the HGH/IGF-1 hormonal axis is correlated with an increase in the percentage of total fat mass and visceral fat mass, a reduction in muscle mass, a reduced physical fitness, decreased immune function and physiological decline in plasma estrogen and testosterone concentration. Therefore, the natural decline in HGH and IGF-1 that accompanies the age-related degenerative process means that the HGH/IGF-1 hormonal axis is a determining causal factor”.

The anti-aging benefits linked to the increase in HGH

They are generally observed after a month of well-conducted HIIT practice, at the rate of 2 to 3 sessions of around 30 minutes per week:

• Reduction of total and visceral fat mass

• Increase in muscle mass and tone

• Improved athletic performance

• Increased vitality and libido.

These health benefits are all the more important as the increase in HCH production by HIIT is maximized by the adoption of nutritional measures such as:

• Avoid high fat meals before HIIT

• Promote the intake of vegetables and proteins of high biological quality

• Not be deficient in vitamin D

• Avoid sugar as much as possible, in particular fructose within 2 hours following the practice of HIIT: this point is indeed fundamental because fructose – and therefore especially certain energetic drinks loaded with fructose syrup – increase the production of Stomatostatin hormone that lowers HGH levels!

Preserve the aging of your DNA with HIIT!

Aging and shortening of telomeres

The ends of our DNA (or telomeres) get shorter every time our cells divide and this, from the conception of the embryo. An embryo telomere is made up of 15,000 bases. Once reduced to 5000 bases after the multiple cell divisions of our lifetime, we essentially die of old age.

One theory of aging is that thewe age because our cells age. Therefore, if we can control the aging process of our cells, we must be able to control our own aging. This is where the theory of slowing telomere shortening comes in.

There is an inevitable rate of telomere shortening to keep us alive. So, even with a perfect diet and physical activity, no one is older than 120. However, exposure to deleterious environmental factors such as free radicals, “trans” fatty acids, cigarette smoke and other toxins can actually accelerate this rate of shortening to the point that you can die of “old age” at 70!

HIIT can slow telomere shortening and therefore aging

It was thought that the process of telomere shortening could not be changed or stopped by good eating habits or physical activity. Now researchers have shown thatbetter diet and specific physical training may be able to modify telomere shortening (i).