Get FIT in 15-20 minutes or less (HIIT training)

Introduction:

Fitness has various forms to it from running, swimming, biking, weightlifting, gymnastics, MMA & even walking. Everyone has their preferred way of exploring fitness, but there is one form of fitness that has become very effective and much healthier on the body, High Intensity Interval Training. In today’s article I am going to be teaching you what is HIIT, what it can do for you, and how you can begin to use HIIT to your advantage.

What is HIIT training?

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) combines short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest or lower intensity exercise. HIIT is a form of intense cardio that allows you to get in a great workout in a little amount of time. In recent years the so called 7-minute workout emerged creating a whole new style of working out. It is where you pick 12 different exercises that you do in just seven minutes. You complete each exercise for 30 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. Since this emerged so many people have developed programs around HIIT and it has shown to be very successful with weight loss, better cardiovascular health, and also gives you more energy.

How can you burn fat more efficiently?

When it comes to losing weight, you probably think about doing hard intense exercise to achieve ultimate weight loss. We usually begin to dive deep into heavy weight training, running long miles, or even doing crazy long intense cross fit workouts. When all you need is literally 15-20 minutes a day to be able to burn fat. By doing short but intense workouts you not only burn more fat, but you also save time as well.

- Stated in the Washington post,” Can HIIT reduce stomach fat? The answer is yes, according to a 2018 meta-analysis, which looked at 39 studies involving 617 subjects. “HIIT significantly reduced total (p = 0.003), abdominal (p = 0.007), and visceral (p = 0.018) fat mass,” the study’s authors said.”

Doing HIIT also has shown to save you hours. From travelling to the gym, & spending hours waiting on machines. Not to say that going to the gym can’t give you a great workout, but being able to save time and get a great workout in is the goal.

How can HIIT help you?

Burns more body fat

HIIT has been shown to decrease body fat, in a 2012 study, HIIT may decrease body fat more than steadier forms of exercise, such as running.

A 2012 study looked at the effects of HIIT on 46 males with overweight. The participants, who had an average age of 25 years, took part in three 20-minute HIIT sessions a week.

After 12 weeks, those in the exercise group had a significant decrease in abdominal fat compared with those in the control group.

A more recent study found that HIIT workouts using a hydraulic resistance system may burn more calories than equal periods of steadier forms of exercise. These findings suggest that HIIT may help people burn more calories in less time.

Improves Mental health

A 2015 study looked at the effects of HIIT training on people with chronic schizophrenia. The research found that many people with psychiatric conditions had low motivation to exercise and felt that exercise was too time consuming.

Time Efficient

HIIT is an efficient way to exercise, and it may, therefore, be a good choice for people who find it difficult to fit physical activity into their schedule.

According to a 2014 study, a commitment of doing HIIT for 30 minutes (2-3) times a week could be beneficial.

Beginning to implement HIIT into your training

HIIT can be used in so many ways, not just as a way to train efficiently, but you can add it into your current training schedule. By using HIIT as a warmup cardio, where you take 5-10 minutes to do something intense to bring up your core temperature and get blood flowing to muscles to help prepare for the workout. By incorporating this, you can save time on having to take 20-30 minutes to warm up on a treadmill or elliptical.

You can also use HIIT as a workout itself, by taking a list of exercises that you can do with just your body weight or if you have access to weights. You can put together a great workout in just 15-20 minutes. How, well here are some forms you can use;

HIIT has many forms, like Tabata workouts which are short intense intervals. The way Tabata works is you go as fast as you can for 20-30 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds, you repeat this for an allotted amount of time, a normal round is 4-5 minutes. An example of a Tabata round:

(30/10) for 5 minutes’ x 3 rounds= 15 minutes.

- Jumping jacks

- Pushups

- Squats

- Bear crawl

- Lunges

- Sit-ups

- Sumo squats

- Bird dogs

Another form of HIIT is a EMOM (every minute on the minute) which is where you perform a certain amount of reps of an exercise within 60 seconds. For example, the exercise is pushups and you have to complete 30 reps in 60 seconds and let’s say you get 30 pushups in 30 seconds then you can rest the rest of that minute. This is a great way to do 5 exercises for 5 minutes then repeat for 3 rounds, giving you a 15-minute workout. An example of a workout you can do is;

5 minute EMOM: (x3 rounds)

- (1st minute:) Pushups 30 reps

- (2nd minute:) Squats 30 reps

- (3rd minute:) Plank 30 seconds

- (4th minute:) Jumping jacks 45 reps

- (5th minute:) Burpees 30 seconds

Another great form of HIIT is called AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), you set a timer to certain amount of time and perform one or multiple exercises for as many times as possible within the amount of time you have. This is great for setting a 5-minute timer and then completing a list of exercises as many rounds as possible for 15 minutes. An example workout:

Set a timer for 5 minutes: (x3 rounds)

- 15 burpees

- 15 squat jumps

- 15 mountain climbers

- 15 pushups

- 15 reverse lunges

Summary

Exercise doesn’t have to be hard nor does it have to take time from your life, you can make it fun and make it fit into your daily lifestyle. All it takes is just 15-20 minutes a day to move your body. Now that you know a little bit about HIIT and what it can do for you, take the first step today and try a round or two of the workout above and it make all the difference. We were designed to move and be active so make it fun and move your body!!