You hear it all the time “It’s not possible to build muscle and melt fat at the same time.” They say that building muscle involves an increase in calories while burning  fat requires a decrease in calories. This old school wisdom is based partially in fact, but the beliefs are being shaken up with research into interval workouts. The truth is you can accomplish muscular weight gain at the same time as you burn fat if you add high intensity interval training sessions to your free workout routines.

Interval training isn’t entirely new but it’s more widely understood, accepted, and practiced as of late. Whereas standard cardiovascular training has been looked at as the only reliable way to burn fat and the only effective workouts for endurance athletes high intensity interval training has recently proven to be beneficial to athletes of all kinds and for folks with all types of goals.

Old school cardio activity is often referred to as “steady state” exercise which means that you work up to a predetermined intensity level and maintain that level for the duration of the session. During the workout, your body pulls 50 percent of its energy through your fat stores and gets the rest through your oxygen system and by cutting into your glycogen and muscle stores.

Interval training sessionson the other hand involve brief high intensity intervals followed by lower intensity recovery periods. HIIT sessions spare your muscles and are quick but they are extremely effective. A 15-minute HIIT workout can raise your resting metabolic rate for a whole day enabling you to keep burning higher levels of fat for up to a day.

The bottom line is that regardless of your fitness goals, HIIT sessions can help you improve your overall level of fitness in very short sessions. If your goals include muscle building and fat loss adding HIIT to your workout schedule is a no-brainer and a good addition to your free workout routines.