HIIT is one of the most effective ways to get the absolute most out of your workouts. The acronym stands for “High-Intensity Interval Training” and has been shown to burn more calories than most other exercise strategies. It’s easy to incorporate into your home workouts: just try doing a 10-minute HIIT workout three times per week and see the difference!

The Cardio in HIIT

If you are using HIIT to increase your cardiovascular health, there are a few different ways you can do it. The easiest way is to simply alternate between a short burst of high-intensity exercise and lower intensity exercise for the same amount of time, or making the lower intensity time slightly longer or even double the high intensity time. For example, if you want to work out for 15 minutes, alternate running as fast as possible for 1 minute, and do a light jog for a minute, for the entire length of your workout. You can also perform HIIT on aerobic machines. One to try is an elliptical machine or cross-trainer, or to try some of the top spin bike options which have adjustable speeds so you can push yourself as hard as you want. You can try to work up to 20 minutes of HIIT, and include a 2-minute warmup and 3-minute cooldown.

Just remember to always build it up gradually!

The Strength in HIIT

Adding short bursts of high-intensity exercise to your lifting routine is one of the best ways to build muscle, decrease body fat, and increase cardiovascular health. The best way to add HIIT to your strength training is to perform a HIIT workout immediately after a strength training session. Just try doing one set of your strength-training exercises, then immediately following it up with a HIIT cardio exercise. For example, if you were going to do squats for your leg day, try adding in some sprints on the treadmill or stationary bike right afterward.

You can even replace the sprints with something like burpees or jump squats if you prefer.

When it comes to strength or weight training and even calisthenics or bodyweight training, there are many ways to incorporate HIIT style principles into it. A simple way would be to do as many reps of an exercise as you can for a specified time, then take a rest for a small period of time and repeat for sets.

Another way could be to do a heavy (or advanced) exercise for reps and then drop down to a very light weight and perform more reps and then take a short rest in between. These principles can also be known as drop sets or super sets for example. A little exploration and research can go a long way and help you get creative with how you structure your workouts.

Can’t Get Enough? Give Tabata A Try!

One of the most popular forms of HIIT is called Tabata that has been shown to burn nine times as many calories as other forms of exercise. It is a very intense form of training and should only be performed 1-2x per week. The best thing to do is follow an hour-long workout with a Tabata routine. To perform it, you need to use a stationary bike or rowing machine (rowing machines are preferable), then perform an all-out effort for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This will be one set, and you should do eight total sets to complete your workout.

Increase Your HIIT With Plyometrics

Plyometric exercises are extremely high impact but also help improve speed and agility while increasing cardiovascular health. When performing plyometric exercises, you need to try and jump as high as possible, then absorb the weight of your body by landing in a controlled position. You’ll be using all the muscles in your legs, which is great for increasing speed and strength so you can work out harder with Tabata or HIIT.

Set Up Your Workout Station and Schedule 

You don’t need a lot of equipment to get a good HIIT workout, but there are some essentials that you should have. If you’re doing bodyweight exercises, it’s best if you do them outside on the grass perhaps for safety reasons. Just make sure that whatever area you use is clear of any potential hazards like rocks or sticks that could cause an injury. It’s also important to wear comfortable clothing and footwear for your workout.

Most people find it best if they exercise in the morning before they eat breakfast because this gives them more energy throughout their day, but experiment with different times to see what works best for you. Working out at night may seem better since it will help tire you out so you can fall asleep faster, but you might find that you’re too tired to do the workout at night.

There are many different ways to HIIT it effectively at home with minimal equipment needed. The most important part of any workout routine is lifting heavy weights or doing bodyweight plyometric exercises. When trying to incorporate a HIIT session immediately afterward, use an elliptical machine or cross-trainer combined with some light jogging or sprinting on a treadmill/stationary bike. And if you want to try one of the most intense HIIT workouts, try Tabata and plyometric exercises to keep your body fit and healthy!

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If you are looking for watch words that could precisely describe the popularity of High Intensity Interval Training, they would be “less is more”.

HIIT has been an enormously popular type of workout in recent years since it is the workout that combines two types of training. It triggers the afterburn effect (calorie burning up to 48 hours after), and HIIT increases resting metabolic rate (RMR) for the next 24 hours due to excess post exercise oxygen consumption, and it can also improve your VO2 Max. This is called High Intensity Training, and the other aspect of it that builds muscle mass and enhances metabolism is termed, Interval Training.

The two main reasons behind the growing interest in HIIT are:

• The methods save time and they are the most effective, especially when it comes to weight loss.
• We prefer training regimes that bring faster results and are not time-consuming; however, people take different approaches to HIIT’s methods, arguing which one is the best.

So, which one is better: a session of four 30-second bouts of all-out on stationary exercise bicycle, or a workout of 45 minutes including body weight exercises? Is it better to perform such methods two to three times a week, or to work out almost every day? Something that has to be remembered is that HIIT methods might not be for everyone, and every person needs to experiment to find exactly what works best for them, and what they enjoy doing the most.

Depending on your goals and preferences, you can decide on which method is best for you.

What do you need to know?

Tabata Method:

If you are in good shape and have little time.

If you stick to this plan, in the longest four minutes of training, you will push yourself as hard as you can, and increase strength, improve flexibility, and lose weight.

Dr. Izumi Tabata of the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo discovered this training method, and the structure of the program is simple:

Workout hard for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, and repeat all exercises in eight rounds.

An example of common exercises include push-ups, squats, rows and sit-ups, although you can do pretty much any exercise you wish, including those on exercise bikes. However, the truth is that the exercises that activate the largest set of muscles are highly recommended, like your compound movements, such as squats, deadlifts, or OH Squats, Burpees etc.

When Dr. Tabata conducted research on two groups of athletes, the one group trained at a moderate intensity level while the other group trained at a high intensity level. The group that worked out at a high intensity level for four days a week for six weeks, had an increase in their anaerobic system by 28 percent. The high intensity group’s workout lasted four minutes and 20 seconds as opposed to the moderate intensity group’s workout which lasted for an hour.

How to do it?

• Warm up for 3 minutes
• Then 20 seconds of sprinting and 10 seconds of walking.
• Or, start with push-ups, rest 10 seconds, and back to push-ups for 20 seconds, rest for a minute and move on to squats or something else.

Remember you can do the Tabata method for cycling or other cardio exercises as well, 2 to 4 times a week.

Tabata Cardio Example:

• Warm up: Slow run for 3 minutes
• Workout: Sprint for 20 seconds
• Workout: Walk or Stand still for 10 seconds
• Repeat workout 8 times

HIIT Cardio Example:

• Warm up: Slow run for 3 minutes
• Workout: Sprint on Rower for 30/45/60 seconds
• Stop for 30/45/60 seconds
• Repeat workout for 12 minutes

This can also be done outside for example,  sprint up a hill, then walk down, or sprint from one lamp post to the next and walk to the next lamp post. You can be creative and set up to suit your fitness level and increase as you go on.

Tabata workout programme example:

Do as many push ups as you can for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds and repeat 8 times, then do the same with pull ups, then squats, then crunches in order to cover the whole body in your workout.

Example HIIT workout:

• Bench Press 8 Reps at 70% 1RM
• Box Jumps 8 Reps
• Rest 30 seconds and repeat.

(Or try it with Squats for 8 reps and Pull Ups for 8 reps.) There are many examples of how to do this, but you can do a full body workout every time or focus on one or two muscle groups at a time, depending on your schedule.

Little Method:

If you wish to have a flexible routine with maximum results.

In 2009, Dr. Johnathan Little and Martine Gibala developed this method, which consists of:

60 seconds of high intensity workouts followed by 75 seconds of low intensity, for a total of 12 cycles (27 minutes), three times a week.

This is a very demanding method; it requires discipline, and the fact that this method includes hard muscle work, which produces 95 percent of one’s VO2 (the highest amount of oxygen a body consumes during exercising), fat burning is maximised. When you work the body close to its VO2, your body continues to consume oxygen, that is, the afterburn effect is very high, and thus, this, ‘Little Method’ is for those whose goal is to lose weight.

How to do it?

• Warm up: Slow run for 3 minutes
• Workout: Cycle or sprint for 60 seconds
• Workout: Followed by 75 seconds of slow cycling or walking
• Repeat the workout for 27 minutes.

Turbulence (Circuit) Training:

If you have a bit more time and prefer body weight exercises.

Craig Ballantyne, an exercise physiology researcher, developed Turbulence training, a 45-minute workout of cardio and body weight set of exercises. This method is created to get the best results in weight loss (fat burning) and muscle composition, being more efficient than traditional methods, for instance, an hour of body weight exercises. The combination of exercises does not only increase strength and influence on body composition and muscle shaping, but also raises the metabolic rate more than other cardio workouts.

How to do it?

• Warm up: Slow run for 5 minutes
• Workout: Start with 8 reps of weight training sets,
• Workout: Followed by intense cardio exercises for 1-2 minutes (one minute of mountain climbers or burpees for example),
• Repeating a full-body strength routine for 45 minutes.

If you have time, and wish to lose weight while increasing strength, Turbulence training is the best method.

Depending on your goals, you can experiment with different methods and incorporate different exercise styles.

However, if you are a beginner, HIIT methods might be too much to handle. So if you’re a beginner make your working phase shorter or lighter and your rest period a few seconds longer, work it up to where you work at full capacity and your rest becomes shorter and shorter.

If not, these methods are quite a challenge, so, challenge yourself! When these workouts are done correctly, you will reach your goals in no time.

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Many people think losing fat and getting in shape is such a complicated process since you have to deal with figuring out an effective diet with x amount of protein and x amount of calories and then you need to figure out what to eat and what not to eat, and then you have to put together a training plan and whats the best form of cardio and aaahhh!

It can become quite disorientating and confusing, but it really does not have to be so complicated.

Here are 6 very simple tactics which you can slowly start to implement in your everyday life to get you on the right track to losing fat and becoming healthier without us even talking about a ‘diet’ or specific training programme.

Now don’t think you are going to find some magical information here,

you probably already know or have heard of most of these tips, but now YOU need to put them into practice!

1. Drink more water.

Drinking more water has so many benefits.  It will keep you and your skin properly hydrated which will keep your skin soft and can help to reduce wrinkles.  It also helps with providing you with more energy, as when you are dehydrated your energy levels and your mind’s ability to focus often take a dip to compensate for the lack of water.  Drinking more water also helps with controlling your appetite allowing you to feel fuller for longer.

2. Reduce processed foods and sugar in your diet.

Now notice I said REDUCE rather than completely eliminate.  We are only human and thus I know how difficult it is to completely eliminate these types of foods from our diets especially in this day and age; and more often than not, if we suddenly go on a very strict diet which requires us to stop eating specific things, it’s more likely that we will develop cravings much quicker.

The reason to avoid processed food, is because there are so many different ingredients in the products these days which can be quite detrimental to our health.  They also contain a lot of useless calories and hardly any vital nutrients which our bodies really do not need. And YES fast food does fall under processed food!

The thing to take away here is that yes you can have that piece of chocolate every now and again, just do not over do it, and try to opt for ‘healthier alternatives’ such as choosing home made biscuits rather than processed biscuits from a shop which are loaded with trans fats and preservatives.

3. Eat more vegetables and fiber.  

Natural, organic vegetables are full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals all necessary for a healthy mind and body.  They also contain a vital nutrient, fiber.  Fiber helps with ‘cleaning’ the inside of your body and helps with keeping you fuller for longer, also aiding in reducing cravings.  Your body actually uses more energy to digest some vegetables which are high in fiber, for example broccoli, than are in the actual vegetable!  So in some sense you are burning a few calories while you eat it!

4. Start some form of weight training.

Weight training builds muscle and burns calories.  Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.  Therefore BUILD MUSCLE!  When you train with weights, especially when doing the big movements (deadlifts, squats etc) you stimulate the release and production of growth hormone.  Growth hormone is responsible for many things within your body, from increasing muscle size, fat burning, reducing wrinkles, to growing strong hair and nails.

So we can see why it is a good thing to try to maximize growth hormone production within our bodies.  Also weight training burns A LOT of calories, more than most forms of cardio at the same time as building muscle.  There are many different forms of weight training, all you have to do is find something that you enjoy and which works for you.  Now why wouldn’t you want to weight train?

5. BUILD your cardio up.

Too often people have the idea that in order to lose fat they need to do hours and hours of cardio.  So once they have decided they want to get in shape they immediately start doing cardio 7 days a week for an hour or so a day.  Then after a few weeks they wonder why they have not lost much weight since they are exercising so much.

You see the body is a highly adaptable ‘machine’ so in order for you to continually progress and lose fat, in this instance, there needs to be room for change and additions.

If you are already doing cardio 7 days a week it is quite difficult to add anymore cardio into your schedule as it will become far too excessive.  So instead rather start with adding some cardio 2 or 3 days a week for around 20 minutes and work on improving or adding to this every week or every two weeks.

You can do this by raising the intensity slightly, or increasing the number of minutes, or adding one more session of cardio on a different day or changing to a more HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) style of cardio.  By doing this you can continually progress and will not allow your body to become stagnant and too used to one thing.

6. Be consistent with everything that you do.

I think this is extremely vital when it comes to doing anything.  In order for you to lose weight you need to ensure you are consistent with your eating, with your training and resting.  If you start exercising and eating better then you stop for a period of time and then start again, then stop again, you will never achieve the results that you want.

There is no quick way of getting in shape, it does take time and it does take consistency and commitment.  That’s why it should really become your ‘life style’ and not a two month course.

You need to be focused, disciplined and dedicated to what you want to achieve.

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