17 Oct 7 top benefits of body weight interval training

It is estimated that adults start to lose an average of six pounds of lean muscle mass for every decade of life. Your metabolic rate also takes a nosedive and decreases by anywhere from three to eight percent every decade after you reach 20 years old. However, despite these dismal facts, you can still maintain a strong physique by building muscle mass and strength through bodyweight interval training. Pushing your body with high-intensity-interval-training (HIIT) improves your muscle tone and rids your body of unwanted fat. Using bodyweight exercises is customizable and can be done anywhere and at any time. You do not need equipment or a gym membership. In fact, you can reap physical benefits by working out less than 30 minutes per day.

Why should you do bodyweight interval training?

Cardio (also called aerobic) exercises have their health benefits but they do not build muscle. Bodyweight exercises are a form of strength training that create and maintain body muscle. It also helps prevent muscle loss through natural aging. Also, maintaining lean muscle is highly beneficial for your overall health such as your heart, brain activity, blood vessels, and even hormone production.

Here are 12 reasons why you should consider bodyweight interval training:

1. Creates muscle mass
2. Increases energy
3. Promotes better sleep
4. Lowers stress levels
5. Controls blood cholesterol levels
6. Levels out blood pressure
7. Improves oxygen use by the body’s muscles
8. Reduces bone and joint pain
9. Optimizes insulin sensitivity
10. Removes metabolic waste during muscular resting periods
11. Raises the resting metabolic rate
12. Decreases the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases/mortality

Muscle mass and Yo-Yo dieting

Yo-yo dieting that spans years has a negative effect on your body. While dieting you lose not only fat but muscle mass. A low-calorie diet fails to supply enough nutrients to keep the muscles strong, so they start to deplete right along with the fat cells in your body. Prime muscle is metabolically active tissue. It requires calories to thrive and stay active. When denied nutrients due to yo-yo diets that have exceptionally low calories the muscles start to shrink away. Rebuilding your body’s muscles using bodyweight exercises naturally promotes fat loss and creates a pleasing body silhouette.  

7 top benefits of body weight interval training

Here are seven top benefits of body weight interval training:

1. Build Muscle Mass: Building and maintaining muscle mass is crucial as you age. You will increase your lean muscle mass that would naturally decline. The healthy muscles help you maintain your weight and body’s metabolic functions. Many people do not realize that muscles burn more calories than fat. Individuals who maintain their muscle mass have a much higher basal metabolic rate, so they can consume additional calories.
2. Growth Hormone Increase: Growth hormones have come to be referred to as the body’s natural fountain of youth. They help your physique retain its fat-burning capabilities and boast a lean body mass. The increased hormone production promoted by body weight interval training truly does appear to keep you younger longer!  
3. Day-to-day Physical Benefits: Yes, cardio keeps your cardiovascular system healthy, but bodyweight interval training enhances your physical strength and improves your body’s performance. Building strength in your core helps you run better, improves your swimming, helps you maintain balance, and creates a far more stable structure. The overall enhanced strength within your core means you will not be growing old and feeble, so you can better avoid falls, fractures, and other age-related accidents that are a direct result of weakened muscles.
4. Heart Health: Any time you are working out you are improving your cardiovascular system. Your blood pressure level drops and your body’s circulation start to flow. Remember, your heart is a muscle so strengthening it improves its capacity and health. The heart gains strength and improves its performance through bodyweight interval training exercises. In addition, your blood cholesterol levels benefit. Recent research by the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at the Democritus University of Thrace in Komotini, Greece shows that patients suffering from chronic heart failure even benefit from bodyweight strength training. In clinical trials, chronic heart failure sufferers experienced an improved quality of life by performing the exercises.
5. Diabetes: According to the World Health Organization (WHO),  as of 2014 422 million people around the world suffer from type II diabetes. The prevalence has been increasing dramatically. A natural remedy and diabetic preventative are weight control and exercise.  
6. Improves Your Mood: Exercise releases endorphins through the body which naturally improves your mood. When your body starts to feel good your energy levels increase, and you just feel better about the world around you.
7. Bone Density Boost: As you build your muscle mass, your joints and bones become stronger. Pain in your hips, knees, back, and ankles lessen as your bone density and strength increase. Bodyweight training improves your skeletal frame to prevent future, age-related fractures. Such a bone boost is highly beneficial for women who frequently suffer from osteoporosis. Bodyweight interval training takes only 30 minutes out of your day and significantly improves your long-term health. If you genuinely want to slow the hands of time, then this is the exercise course for you. You can combine bodyweight interval training with cardio to make a dramatic difference not only in your current physical performance but also your long-term health. Ideally, you will want to achieve reduced body fat and improved muscle performance. The rest of the health benefits of bodyweight interval training are added icing on the cake that cannot be ignored. Maintaining your body’s muscle mass is genuinely like tapping into the fountain of youth by maintaining a younger and more muscular physique into your golden years.