Get fit with HIIT this year and lose weight faster than ever before. HIIT is short for high-intensity interval training and is a type of workout gaining lots of popularity, because you don’t need a gym or a lot of time to get it done.
But it also burns TONS of calories!
The objective is to give each exercise a quick and intense all-out one hundred percent effort, followed by short recovery periods. This technique keeps your hear rate up and burns more fat in less time.
HIIT workouts can be done 2-3 times a week as long as you get 24 hours of recovery between sessions. On your HIIT days off, you should be doing resistance training or some other type of physical activity if your aiming to work out more than 3 days per week.
The wonderful thing about HIIT is that it targets the whole body by building muscle and shredding the calories.
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Why Does HIIT Work?
Because you’re working at 100% intensity and performing exercises involving a lot of muscle mass, a lot more oxygen is needed during both your work intervals and rest periods.
Your body burns calories at a rate of 5 calories per liter of oxygen consumed, so you can see why you’d burn a ton of calories during a HIIT workout if your body is requiring more oxygen.
Anaerobic interval training (which is what HIIT is) will use your body’s energy reserves, which is mostly stored in fats. After a workout your metabolism will stay elevated. Because of this, your body continues to burn calories a lot longer after your workout than a brisk walk on the treadmill would.
So when you’re doing HIIT, you might want to scream because of the high intensity of your workout, but you’ll actually feel so accomplished when you are finished. Your body will metabolize fat for fuel during and post-exercise recovery period. This equals faster weight loss!
Find out below how you can get fit with HIIT to lose weight fast!
What Should My Workout Look Like
The best part about HIIT is by far the little amount of time you have to set aside in your day to complete a workout. A single HIIT session should last anywhere between 4-30 minutes.
There are different ratios you can use during your workout, and these depend on how long are you performing the exercise and how long you are resting.
For example: If you are doing jump squats for 60 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of rest along with a series of other exercises being done in the same time frame, your work-to-recovery ratio is 1:1.
Say you decide your HIIT workout is going to include jump squats, squat thrusts, walk out push ups, and jump lunges. It will take you 4 minutes to perform all the exercises and 4 minutes of rest spread out in between each of the exercises. That’s a total of 8 minutes you will spend working out that will bring you amazing benefits.
Usually you will perform 4-6 exercises with rest included in a the circuit, and repeat 2-3 times. Any exercise you choose to do can be HIIT, as long as it’s intense and you put in max work.
Starting Out:
When you are first starting out with HIIT, it is recommended that you spend more time in rest intervals than work intervals. This will ensure you are working as hard as possible during your exercise interval. The ratio should be 1:2, meaning you double your rest from your work.
Starting out your workout should look something like this:
- 20 seconds work: 40 seconds recover, or some variation of this.
Eventually you will progress to a 1:1 ratio:
- 40 seconds work: 40 seconds recovery, or some variation of this.
And as your body adapts to HIIT you should be working for longer than your recovery time.
Personally, I do a 2:1 ratio of 60 seconds work: 30 seconds recovery. I do four exercises and repeat the circuit 2 times. That means I work at maximum intensity for 12 minutes and rest for 6 minutes total. Without warm up and cool down included in the numbers, my workout lasts 18 minutes.
Who doesn’t have 18 minutes to spare in their day?!
Try this 18 Minute HIIT Work Out
We’ll use my 2:1 ratio when it comes to timing intervals, but feel free to change the numbers to make this workout more personalized to your needs and fitness levels.
Each exercise is done for 60 seconds, followed by a 30 second rest interval.
Exercise #1: Jump Squats – 60 seconds
- Start with your feet slightly wider than hip-distance apart.
- Bend at the knee and drop down into a seated position keeping your chest upright.
- Jump up as high as you can, and land softy and immediately lower into the next rep.
- Do as many reps as possible in your 60 second window.
Rest – 30 seconds
Exercise #2: Squat Thrusts (Also called burpees) – 60 seconds
- Start standing with your feet hip-distance, and drop to the ground bringing your palms to the floor.
- Jump your feet back positioning yourself in high plank, while keeping your core tight.
- Bend your elbows to perform 1 push-up.
- Jump your feet back up to your palms and stand up progressing into a jump as high as you can while bringing your arms over your head.
- Do as many reps as possible in 60 seconds.
Rest – 30 seconds
Exercise #3 Walk Out Push-Ups -60 seconds
- Start in a standing position.
- Bend down placing your palms on the ground and walk your hands forward until you are in a high plank position.
- Perform 1 push up.
- Walk your hands back towards your feet and lift up until you are in a standing position.
- Do as many reps as possible in 60 seconds
Rest – 30 seconds
Exercise #4: Jump Lunges – 60 seconds
- Start with your feet alternating one in front and one in back of your core.
- Bend both legs keeping your body upright, but lowering yourself towards the floor.
- When front knee is at a 90 degree angle, explode up as high as you can and switch position of legs so your back leg is now in front and your front leg is now in back.
- Do as many reps as possible in 60 seconds.
Rest – 30 seconds
Repeat this circuit two more times bringing your HIIT workout to 18 minutes.
I 100% recommend doing a warm up and cool down to prevent injury and do not forget to stretch post workout. I like to end with a few different yoga poses to keep my body strong. If you are on the fence if yoga is right for you, check out my blog post detailing the benefits.
So Are You Ready to Get Fit With HIIT and Lose Weight?
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