BOISE — With busy schedules, it can be hard to find time to exercise.
Terry McLaughlin grew up being active and eventually joined the military which required him to be physically fit. After he got out, he says he gained weight.
"Doctors were always worried about my heart. They said, hey your heart is kind of struggling here. There's a little murmur," said McLaughlin.
He found a gym with high intensity interval training. Colleen Shackelford, a nurse practitioner says she's been seeing more patients asking about the type of exercise the last three years.
"We see a higher fat burning when you have that higher intensity exercise, but then it also is short bursts of time so you're not having significant muscle breakdown," said Shackelford.
"I was able to bring that all down and bring my blood work to a good healthy level," said McLaughlin.
He says it not only helps him physically but mentally.
"You miss some of the stuff from the military for myself or you're dealing with stuff from the military, you can go in and have a sense of accomplishment, a sense of purpose," said McLaughlin.
Zach braddock, a sports physical therapist at St. Luke's says the goal of the workout to get to a higher max oxygen uptake.
Although he says it's not for everyone, there can be benefits to the type of exercise.
"I think there's a lot of camaraderie that comes with it too so being able to workout in a high intensity workout environment together and with that allows people to work harder," said Braddock.
He says before jumping into a class, it would be beneficial to get some individualized training for a basis of the workout.
"I think being able to have at least a specific baseline fitness and move in patterns of a squat, a deadlift, know how to lunge. If they can do those types of things then they can potentially be successful ya," said Braddock.
