Plateau Breakthrough: High Intensity Continuous Training (HICT)
For those, who don’t know about this important phenomenon, let me explain it to you. Plateau is a stage in training (either it’s a muscle building workout or fat loss program), where you stop seeing any further progress in your fitness goals. This is when your body gets used to the workout regime, making the workout inefficient to bring about any more change.
In this article, I will tell you how to break through a fat loss plateau by doing High Intensity Continuous Training.
High Intensity Continuous Training (HICT)
Let’s face it. We have been doing conventional cardio, even high intensity interval training (HIIT), a lot, lately. It is due to the over use of a regime that renders it ineffective. So there comes a need for a completely different workout technique, one, that is intense enough to torch fat while being different enough to break through a plateau. High Intensity Continuous Training is the modern answer.
The basic concept of HICT is to do one explosive rep of a heavy load exercise (examples given below), rest for a few seconds and repeat the same for about 5 to 8 minutes. This will keep your heart rate in the range of 150 beats per minute and your body will stay in an aerobic state. As, HICT makes the fibers work hard without exhausting them, this will increase endurance and stamina of your fast twitch muscle fibers, the fibers, which are most capable of growing and help lifting weight.
The workout, although explosive, has a very slow pace. This helps you in many ways. The aerobic workout is not strenuous for your muscles or for your nervous system, it just increases the blood flow, hence, helps in recovery due to which you can perform better next time. The repeated explosive movements are very effective to torch the fat and build up muscle endurance.
Following are a few examples of workout you can do:
- With dumbbells in hand, start from a deep squat position and explosively lift up and do an overhead shoulder press. Imagine this to be a very advanced burpee. This will be your one rep. Rest for a few seconds and repeat over and over again for next 5 – 8 minutes.
- With dumbbells in hand and a bench (or a box or a step) which is about the height of your knees in front of you, place your right foot on the bench and push through the heels of this foot until the right leg is straight (Your left leg should be in the air throughout) then lower yourself by first placing the left foot on the ground followed by the right foot. Repeat for the other leg. This is one rep.
- Attach a rope to an exercise sledge with weights-or a tire on a rough surface if you are as desi as me- and pull by moving one hand after another. This is your one rep. Repeat but make sure the sledge is always at a considerable distance from you.
Try this new explosive yet not so straining workout and break through your fat burning plateau.
(More about plateau visit: http://htv.com.pk/fitness/5-ways-can-overcome-workout-plateau)
