As far as cardio training goes, high-intensity interval training, a.k.a. HIIT training, has been exactly that among serious fitness enthusiasts-a big hit.

HIIT training has nothing to do with becoming a Mafia assassin, although your body fat may feel like you finally have it in the crosshairs.

This novel form of cardio intersperses intervals of high-intensity exercise (such as sprinting) with intervals of either low-intensity exercise (such as walking at a slow pace) or complete rest. This style is a departure from continuous steady-state (slow and steady) cardio that most people do at a moderate intensity for 30 to 60 minutes.

With HIIT, you’ll be running (or cycling or whatever) like a bat out of hell for brief stretches, but the net effect when all’s said and done is better results in less time.

Ronnie Coleman is about as hard to miss as a locomotive chugging full speed ahead when your car just stalled on the tracks. His massive yet extremely ripped body is nothing short of a geological oddity (the man is a rock).

With 8 straight wins as Mr. Olympia, Big Ron has etched his name into the history books as the greatest bodybuilder of all time. Think he’s just a freak of nature and that you could never accomplish the same feat? Well think again!

Ronnie was a police officer with no future in bodybuilding until the owner of a world renowned gym gave him a free lifetime membership to train there. Obviously the gym owner saw something in Ronnie that he didn’t even see in himself.

Carb deplete slowly because you still need carbs to function throughout the day. Deplete carbs all at once, and you’re going to feel like somebody just unplugged your body from a wall socket.

Fat has twice the energy (9 calories per gram) that carbs and protein do (4 calories per gram apiece). But think of carbs as your quick energy source and fats as your long-term energy source. So the key to staying energized when cutting carbs is going to be bumping up your protein and fat intake.

Just make sure that your physical activity level is higher during that time, allowing you to burn off that extra energy. Otherwise, you’ll store those calories as body fat, the opposite of your goal.

“Don’t overtrain! You’ll only set yourself back and won’t make any progress.” We’ve all heard that one before. The way some gym dudes preach about the dangers of overtraining, you’d think it was the Bubonic Plague.

Today, we’re throwing all that overtraining stuff out the window, because every once in a while, you just gotta open the hatch and drop some seriously explosive work on your body.

I’m not saying you need to engage in scorched-earth policy on your muscles day-in, day-out, but running your body through the workout ringer every once in awhile is what the pros do, and it might just put some hair on your chest (just kidding, ladies). To ALL my brothas and sistas—I challenge you to take a walk on the wild side and blast your muscles into oblivion.

Vital Stats:

Name: Kaila Lea

Email: kailaleabiz@yahoo.com

Bodyspace: DynamicKaila

Before: Age: 15 Weight: 165 lbs Measurements: 36-30-40	After: Age: 17 Weight: 122 lbs Measurements: 32-24-35

Why I Got Started

I had been overweight for a majority of my life. I started really packing on the pounds when I was seven years old. My grandmother had just lost her stable where I had spent a lot of my time and that was how I was getting a lot of my exercise.

Vital Stats

Name: Sam Gonzales

Email: spursfan01@hotmail.com

Bodyspace: grindinhard

Before: Age: 15 Height: 5’6″ Weight: 181 lbs Body Fat: 14.5% Waist: 34″ Thighs: 25″	After: Age: 17 Height: 5’8″ Weight: 173 lbs Body Fat: 10.42% Waist: 32″ Thighs: 23″

Why I Got Started

I began wanting to lift weights to put on some muscle to gain playing time for my basketball team. I never really saw myself as being fat, but I wanted to gain muscle to improve my game, and initially for girls.

As I began my journey, I learned that cardiac failure was the leading cause of death in America, and didn’t want to become a statistic.

How I Did It