It’s not hard to see why high intensity interval training, or HIIT, is such a popular style of workout. It’s short and savagely effective in burning calories and improving fitness, making it the ideal option for someone with a busy lifestyle who struggles to regularly fit in long, steady cardio workouts.
It’s also not hard to see why HIIT can be very hard to do effectively solo. Pushing your heart rate up to 85 or 90% of its max requires serious motivation, and that is easier to do in the company of others or under the careful eye of a coach. Fortunately, the new Apple Watch on EE can act as both company and coach for your HIIT sessions, making it the perfect training partner for those who love to push themselves to the limit.
The recent software update to watchOS 4 brought with it a dedicated HIIT training mode within the latest Apple Watch’s native Workout app. This uses new motion and heart rate algorithms to ensue your HIIT workouts are tracked correctly. If you’re looking to spike your heart rate to burn calories fast, it’s handy to be able to see your heart rate and calories burned right on your wrist at any point of the workout.
Another new addition to the latest Apple Watch feature set is the more in-depth heart rate tracking, which includes details on how fast you recover after a workout and your resting heart rate, both of which are excellent measures of your overall fitness.
Make no mistake, HIIT training is tough, and requires both dedication and motivation, and the new Apple Watch can certainly help you with the latter. Thanks to the mobile connectivity delivered through EE, the only network offering this feature in the UK, you can also now stream music directly through the Watch from both your personal library and Apple Music. This a killer feature for HIIT fans in particular, as you’ll need all the musical motivation you can get to keep pushing yourself to the limit. The new Apple Watch makes it easier than ever to listen to your music on the move. And it’s a great way of making the most of your 6 months of free Apple Music that you can get with your iPhone’s EE pay monthly plan.
And if you really want to get the best from that Apple Music streaming direct from the Apple Watch 3, Apple’s AirPod truly wireless earphones are the ideal partner in crime, eliminating tangled cables while you run and providing great sound quality. EE also offers the AirPods on its Add to Plan scheme, saving you £5 off the retail price. With 40 million tracks to stream direct to your Apple Watch and wirelessly to your Apple AirPods, there’s no excuse to cut your workout short.
HIIT workouts are a well-established method of improving your fitness and cardiovascular health, and with the new Apple Watch on EE you can follow your progress over time to see the effect they are having. If your resting heart rate is getting lower over time it means you heart is becoming stronger and more efficient due to your training. Similarly, if you notice that your heart rate is returning to normal more quickly after a workout following a few weeks of training, you can be sure you’re getting fitter.
As well as improving fitness, HIIT workouts are renowned for their ability to burn huge amounts of calories compared to steady state sessions like easy runs or cycles. This is especially true in the period after a workout, as the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect of HIIT sessions keeps your body burning more calories than usual for a few hours after your training has finished. Due to the intense nature of interval training, the EPOC effect has been shown to be 6-15% greater in terms of calories burned than steady state training.
As the new Apple Watch is designed to be an all-day tracker and smartwatch as well as a workout tracker, it will capture your total calories burned from a HIIT workout accurately, so you can stay on top of your stats for the day.
Thanks to the unrivalled range of fitness apps available on the new Apple Watch, you can also use it to do more than track your HIIT session – it can become your personal coach. This is a great way to stay motivated and on track with HIIT, because the benefits of the training rapidly diminish if you don’t push yourself to the max – if you’re taking a HIIT session easy, you’re just doing a short steady state workout.
HIIT can be done with any kind of training, but if it’s bodyweight workouts in particular you’re looking for, then the new Apple Watch has some excellent apps to choose from. These include a range of seven-minute workout apps that have plenty of bodyweight training sessions that can be squeezed into the tightest of schedules wherever you happen to find yourself.
The J&J Official 7 Minute Workout app has 22 preset workouts involving 72 exercises, all of which can be followed easily on your wrist using the latest Apple Watch. You can also set reminders to make sure you stick to your workout schedule.
Another great option is Sworkit, which again has a variety of workouts to follow on your wrist, all of which can be configured to last from five to 60 minutes. On Sworkit you can also use the huge bank of exercises to create your own custom workouts.
Both Sworkit and the J&J Official 7 Minute Workout app are great for HIIT beginners who are looking for guidance on what they should be doing in their session, but if you are already an expert who loves planning out your workout, then the Intervals app might be more up your street. Intervals allows you to create very detailed workouts for any kind of activity, and then beams them across so you can follow them from your wrist.
If you’re a runner looking for HIIT guidance, the Nike+ Run Club app, which is deeply-integrated into the Apple Watch, has audio-coached sessions that put you through your paces, all of which can be followed and listened to directly on the Watch. Some of these are even coached by star athletes like Mo Farah, which should be all the motivation you need to push yourself to the max.
All of these apps give a breakdown of your workout afterwards including your calories burned, with all the info syncing seamlessly to the Apple Health app so it contributes to filling your activity rings on the Watch.
Whatever kind of HIIT you prefer, be it bodyweight exercises, hill sprints or all-out blasts on the rower, the last thing you want is to have a clunky smartphone either strapped to your arm or flapping around in a pocket, so the connected nature of the new Apple Watch, on EE, will appeal.
With mobile data only available through EE you can stay connected to the world without needing a phone, taking calls, sending and receiving texts and emails. Imagine how productive you’ll feel reading emails on your Watch in the 20-second break between intervals!
Whether you’re a HIIT beginner or well-versed in how to push your heart rate to the max, the new Apple Watch is the ideal training partner. It will coach you through intense workouts, track every stat that matters and show how your fitness is progressing over time. And it will do all of this while giving you access to unlimited music and keeping you connected to the world without a phone in sight thanks to EE.
The Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + 4G), uses the same number as your iPhone, so both the iPhone and your Apple Watch need to be on EE if you want to call, message, use apps and stream music, without having your iPhone on you. If your iPhone is on another network and you buy the Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + 4G), you simply won’t get access to all of the great 4G functionality.
EE offers the Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + 4G) from just £25 per month with unlimited data, and customers require an iPhone 6, SE (or later) on a EE pay monthly or EE SIM Only plan.
