Why should you include HIIT in your training program? High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is a type of training in which total effort is given in short, intense bursts, followed by a brief rest period.

This type of training keeps your heart rate high throughout the workout and has been shown to be one of the most effective training methods available.

It doesn’t matter if you want to burn fat, have better endurance or develop muscle mass. The list of benefits of HIIT is extensive, explained in the following points:

1. Efficiency. Not enough time? Tight schedule? In today’s busy world, we don’t have much time left for ourselves. The first thing we drop from our to-do list when we are running out of time is to exercise. HIIT takes only 10 to 20 minutes. You can do it before work or even during lunch (and have time for lunch).

2. It burns more fat. Not only does HIIT burn a lot of calories during your workout, but the catch with HIIT is that it activates your metabolism to hyper-pulse and you will burn calories several hours after you finish your workout. This effect is called excess oxygen consumption after exercise (ePoC), which is the amount of oxygen needed to restore your body’s metabolic functioning at rest. COPD is accompanied by increased fuel consumption. Your body’s response to intense exercise is to break down fat stores and release free fatty acids (FFA) into the bloodstream.

3. No equipment is needed. You can perform HIIT training in the comfort of your own living room using only your body weight. While you can do HIIT with equipment such as speed rope, kettlebells or a rowing machine, you don’t necessarily need any of these. Body weight movements such as burpees, squat jumps, or mountain climbers are perfect examples.

4. easily varied. Only the sky is the limit when it comes to HIIT training! You can change the time ratio, movements and duration of your workout. Do a 4 minute Tabata squatting exercise session after your strength training session or a 20 minute full body training session with different movements. All that will make your heart rate high is what you need.

5. preserves muscle mass. Everyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows how difficult it is not to lose muscle mass at the same time. Because of its duration, HIIT shortens the time your body is in a catabolic state (a state that includes the breakdown of muscle mass) and therefore is a better option for preserving muscle than a long, steady pace of cardio while on a diet.

6. elevated levels of human growth hormone (hgh) HIIT increases your HGH levels during training and hours afterwards. HGH is responsible for growth, reproduction and cell regeneration. Some of the benefits of elevated HGH levels are fat loss, higher energy levels, lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol profile, stronger bones, and a superior immune system.

7. increase your vo2max. HIIT is a great way to boost your vO2max! vO2 stands for oxygen consumption and vO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can assimilate and use during exercise. Better vO2max means you can use more oxygen during your workout, leading to slower fatigue, higher heart rate and better endurance.

8. increased metabolism. HIIT is a great way to boost your metabolism due to the fact that you consume more oxygen during exercise than during a long, steady heart rate. This can increase your metabolism after exercise and burn more calories after you finish your workout.

HIIT training will put your body under a lot of stress. Because of this, recovery time is longer and that is why it is not recommended especially for beginners to do HIIT more than twice a week. Give your body at least 48 hours to recover before doing your next HIIT workout and increase training times gradually. If you are familiar with HIIT, you can do it three to five times a week – just listen to your body and remember that most of the magic happens while you are recovering!

Bodyweight HIIT

Perform as many repetitions as possible of the given exercise in 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat the circuit 5 times.

• Burpees
• Push ups
• Star Jumps
• Squats

Heavy HIIT

For this training you need a tire and a Russian weight. If you do not have access to a tire, you can substitute the movement with kettlebell sumo deadlift high pull. The weight of the Russian weight should be a challenge, but be careful not to go too heavy. After all, the idea of training is to keep your heart rate high and perform as many repetitions as possible with good form. Do as many repetitions as possible of the given exercise for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds. Repeat the circuit 4 times.

• Pull flips
• Goblet squats with kettlebell
• Kettlebell swings
• Strict press

Sprint HIIT

Sprint 5 x 100 meters with 45 seconds rest between sprints. Rest for 3 – 4 minutes Sprint 4 x 100 meters with 45 seconds rest between sprints.

Additional round

Rest for 4 – 5 minutes. Sprint 3 x 100 meters with 45 seconds rest between sprints.

That’s it, I hope that with all this information you will be encouraged to include HIIT in your training.