EPOC or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption
EPOC or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption is one of the great benefits of high-intensity strength training. Your body continues to work after the workout to restore itself to your pre-exercise state.
“The evidence suggests that a high-intensity, intermittent-type of training (interval training) has a more pronounced effect on EPOC (Haltom et al. 1999). Also, it appears that resistance training produces greater EPOC responses than aerobic exercise (Burleson et al. 1998). The research suggests that high-intensity resistance exercise disturbs the body’s homeostasis to a greater degree than aerobic exercise. The result is a larger energy requirement after exercise to restore the body’s systems to normal (Burleson et al. 1998), and thus an explanation for the higher EPOC. Studies have also shown EPOC can increase your metabolic rate 13% up to 3 hours post exercise and 4% up to 16 hours post workout.” –Resistance Training and EPOC Jeff M. Reynolds and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
“THE BENEFITS OF HIIT AND EPOC
1. Time-efficient way to burn calories - HIIT can result in 25–30% more calories burned than other exercise forms. (Falcone PH et al., 2015)
2. Elevated metabolism - HIIT has an impressive ability to increase metabolic rate for hours after exercise. (Wingfield HL et al., 2015)
3. It can help with fat loss (to some extent)- Body fat can be reduced with HIIT, despite the relatively low time commitment. (Sijie T, Hainai Y, Fengying Y, Jianxiong W., 2012)
4. Muscle gain - HIIT training can result in increases in muscle mass in the muscles being used. (Osawa Y et al., 2014)
5. Improved oxygen consumption - Eight weeks of exercising on the stationary bike using HIIT increased oxygen consumption by about 25%. (Skutnik BC et al., 2016)
6. Reduced heart rate and blood pressure - A growing body of evidence shows an improvement in cardiometabolic factors. (Batacan, R. B., et al., 2017)
7. Blood sugar reduction - HIT appears to improve metabolic health, particularly in those at risk of or with type 2 diabetes. (Jelleyman C et al., 2015)”- NASM
Long duration, aerobic exercise, performed at “a conversational pace”, has far less effect on EPOC than the short, very high-intensity training like CrossFit.
Make those minutes during your short intense metcon count.