You’re probably wondering about what you can to do make some amazing changes to your body. I know you’d love to get rid of a few extra pounds and get a lean, sculpted body with a 6 pack. But wouldn’t it be frustrating to have to spend hours upon hours on a treadmill just to get that desired body?
Well, it’s not completely necessary to do so. You can have shorter workouts by using high intensity interval training (aka HIIT), which can give you quicker and more significant results. Studies have been conducted on this method, and they have shown that people who use HIIT workouts have lost substantially more body fat in comparison to people with low intensity workouts. Fat is able to burn away more easily during a high intensity exercise due to the fact that you continue to burn additional calories even after you’re done working out!
High intensity interval training is able to boost your metabolism, which will allow your body to burn extra calories at rest. So if you’re looking for the best way to shed some pounds and boost your results, then you should think about using HIIT in your workouts instead of long, boring cardio workouts.
Now that I’ve told you about how HIIT can help you out, you can try these basic outlines and apply them to your next workout.
Here are a few HIIT workout examples:
1. Stretch and warm up for approximately 5 minutes. Do some low intensity cardio for about 8 minutes to get your body working. Then exercise at a high intensity for 1 minute, and then switch to low intensity for 1 minute to give yourself a breather. Repeat this cycle for 8-10 times. When you’re finished, cool down and stretch for about 5 minutes.
2. Do some stretching and warm up for about 5 minutes. For this exercise, it will build up overtime until it gets very tough. After you’re done with the warm up, just do about 7 minutes of very low intensity cardio. When you’re ready to start the HIIT, do your exercise with high intensity for 30 seconds, and then have 1 minute of low intensity. Then you want to exercise at high intensity for 45 seconds, with 1 minute of a low intensity exercise. Keep going higher by 15 seconds on the high intensity exercises until you reach 90 seconds. Then, like a pyramid, go back down by 15 seconds on your high intensity exercises. (So your high intensity workouts should look like this: 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 75, 60, 45, 30 seconds)
3. This one is very tough, and is only recommended if you have good stamina: Do the usual warm up, and when you’re ready to do your high intensity interval training workout, have a 2 minute high intensity exercise, followed by 60 seconds of moderate intensity, followed by 2 minutes of low intensity.
I know that if you’re looking at those examples, they look difficult! But keep in mind that I want you to find your OWN intensity level. If you’re starting out, you should begin by using the first example… the second and third ones are for when you gain a higher level of fitness.
If you find that you need to extend your period of low intensity workout, then do so! Slow down if you need to! You want to achieve a pace where you’ll be able to complete your exercise without pulling your hair out. As you get stronger, change your workout a bit to make it tougher.
Remember to keep challenging your body!
