If you don’t have a lot of spare time, but want to improve your fitness, then you need High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in your life.
Incredibly efficient, short, intense sessions are the name of the game.
Hard work? Yes. Dripping with sweat? Oh yes. Worth it? Totally.
HIIT: The Basics
High Intensity Interval Training can take many forms, but these are the essentials:
- Intense bursts of activity at near maximum effort
- Fixed periods of low-intensity activity or complete rest
There are many different options for the ratio of work to rest.
Examples of work : rest ratios
- 90 seconds work / 3 minutes rest
- 60 seconds work / 2 minutes rest
- 45 seconds work / 45 seconds rest
- 45 seconds work / 15 seconds rest
- 30 seconds work / 15 seconds rest
- 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest
If you are just starting out, choose something with a longer rest phase. If you are a seasoned HIITer, then I dare you to give Tabata a try….
Real life tip: for experienced exercisers looking for a challenge, give tabata a try: 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest. Repeat 8 times for 4 minutes total. You need to push yourself to your LIMIT in every round
How many rounds?
The number of rounds of work and rest you do is dependent on many things such as how much time you have available and your experience level.
A good starter workout is running as fast as you can for 1 minutes and then walking for 2 minutes. Repeat five times for a 15 minute workout.
Below is an example of a 30 minute HIIT workout, including a warm up and a stretch.
How many times per week?
If you are doing it right, HIIT is a very intense workout.
Your body needs time to recover from this type of exercise, so I recommend that you do HIIT a maximum of 3 times per week.
How to do HIIT right
HIIT is all about INTENSITY.
You can’t half-heartedly jog for 45 seconds then stop for 15 seconds and expect to achieve any kind of fitness gains.
The working phase of the training needs to be TOUGH. You need to be working close to your maximum intensity.
A simple way to gauge if you are working hard enough is to use a method called the “Rate of Perceived Exertion” or RPE. For a true HIIT session you need to be working at almost your maximum – around an 8.5 to 9.
| Score | Level of exertion |
| 0 | No exertion at all |
| 0.5 | Very, very slight (just noticeable) |
| 1 | Very slight |
| 2 | Slight |
| 3 | Moderate |
| 4 | Somewhat severe |
| 5 | Severe |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Very severe |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Very, very severe (almost maximal) |
| 10 | Maximal |
If you do it right, HIIT can be a great way to improve your fitness efficiently and effectively. Believe me, it’s gonna hurt, but it’s totally worth it.
If you are relatively new to exercise make sure you build it up slowly. I recommend starting with a longer rest phase, to give yourself plenty of time to recover. That way you can work hard again in the active phase.
My favourite things about HIIT
The sessions are short
For me, one of the best things about HIIT is that the sessions are short, which means you can always squeeze in a session, even when you have a super-busy life.
It is so easy to let your training routine go out the window when life gets busy, but with HIIT you can get an intense workout done in a few minutes – no need to slog it out in the gym for hours and hours on end.
It is super-efficient
HIIT sessions are short, but you can burn a lot of calories and achieve excellent fitness gains.
Just to be clear – HIIT is not better or worse than LISS (low intensity steady state cardio, such as jogging), BUT it is quicker i.e. the sessions don’t need to be as long.
The EPOC effect
When you train hard you get to take advantage of the EPOC effect: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
Simply put, this is the amount of oxygen required to restore your body to its normal resting level of metabolic function (homeostasis).
When you train very hard, your body ends up with an oxygen deficit. Until this oxygen is replenished, your metabolic function will be higher, leading to a higher calorie burn even after you stop training.
You can do it anywhere
One of my favourite things about HIIT is you can do it absolutely anywhere.
At home. At the gym. On a bike. In a park. On the beach. On a running track. In a hotel. In a swimming pool. Wherever you are, a HIIT session is possible.
You do not need much space, as the exercise choices can be adapted to the space you have available.
For example, I once did a HIIT session in a miniscule hotel room. You know the type – a city centre hotel that somehow manages to fit 50 hotel rooms into a space that is really designed for half that.
The only exercises I could squeeze into the space were high knee running and squat jumps, so I just rotated through those exercises 10 times each. Boy was I a sweaty mess by the end!
It is very adaptable
HIIT can be done with practically any exercise that takes your fancy. Swimming, cycling and running are all simple options.
If you prefer to do a variety of exercises (like me) then you can do a routine of different exercises: burpees, squat jumps, sprints, high knees, skate jumps, high jumps, jumping lunges…..
You can do it with no equipment at all, or you increase the intensity even more and add weights to make it a weighted HIIT session. Kettlebell swings, squat with shoulder press, weighted lunges are all great exercises for HIIT sessions.
Cardiovascular fitness
Check out this post to learn more about cardiovascular training, why it is important, and recommendations about how much you should be doing.
As a quick reminder, cardiovascular fitness is “the ability of the heart, blood cells and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscle tissues and the ability of the muscles to use oxygen to produce energy for movement.”
My real life translation is that it’s about making your heart, lungs and muscles more efficient at doing their job.
The quickest and most efficient way to build cardio fitness is through HIIT.
Conclusion
If you are serious about getting fit, fast, then you need HIIT in your life. It is an extremely efficient way to improve your fitness: sessions are short and it can be done anytime, anywhere.
To do it right you need to push yourself to your limit and work super-hard. If your heart feels like it’s about to jump out of your mouth then you know you’re doing it right.
Have you ever tried HIIT? Do you enjoy this type of training?