Who wants to workout for less time and get incredible results for their body? Yes please! If you shudder at the thought of ‘cardio’ or dread the idea of having to join a gym to get fit, then adding HIIT workouts into your weekly routine are the perfect solution. HIIT is ideal for busy mums, and women who don’t have access to a gym.
What are HIIT workouts?
HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. The idea behind this style of training is to reduce the amount of time you exercise, and at the same time achieve incredible results for your health and fitness. The clue is in the title: high intensity. What this means is the workout needs to be high intensity. As the workout is for a short period of time it needs to be effective at helping you get the results you desire, so that means you need to workout at a higher level of intensity.
HIIT is perfect for you if you are short on time, want to workout at home, don’t have access to equipment, are traveling, love to exercise with intensity, want great results for your body composition, or simply want a different challenge in your weekly training routine.
Another benefit of doing HIIT workouts is it is great for working the cardiovascular system and firing up your muscles. This is the perfect solution to boosting your metabolism and getting a strong lean body that feels energised and healthy.
There are many ways to do high intensity interval training, but the concept is always the same: work hard for a few seconds to get your heart rate up, and then take it easy to recover. Repeat for a specific amount of rounds. Simple, effective and fun!
Another great benefit of HIIT training is that there are so many ways to do it, you could do a different HIIT workout every week and never repeat the same one.
To get you started, here are 5 HIIT workouts:
Follow the same format for workouts 1 to 4. Do 3 to 4 sets in total. The work time is 40 seconds with a 20 seconds rest between each exercise. After completing each full set of 6 exercises take a rest of 30 seconds, then start the circuit again.
Workout 1: HIIT Full Body
- High knees jogging on the spot
- Side lunges
- Mountain Climbers
- Reverse lunges, alternating
- Normal squat then wide squat, repeat
- Plank
Workout 2: HIIT Upper Body
- Inch worm
- Plank position shoulder taps
- Push ups (full or on the knees)
- Tricep dips (using a chair, bench or step)
- Mountain climbers
- Plank jacks
Workout 3: HIIT Lower Body
- Squats
- Reverse lunges, alternating
- Squat jumps
- Glute bridges
- Curtsey lunges, alternating
- Plie squat
Workout 4: HIIT Ab Blast
- Squats
- Plank forearm to hands, and from hands to forearms, repeat
- Bicycle crunches
- Tabletop crunches
- Plank jacks
- Lateral plank walks
Workout 5: HIIT Tabata
A Tabata is one movement for 8 rounds with 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest.
For the first exercise to perform for 8 rounds:
- Tabata 1: mountain climbers
Once all 8 rounds are completed rest 1 minute, then:
- Tabata 2: squats
Once all 8 rounds are completed, rest 1 minute, then:
- Tabata 3: squat jumps
Once you’ve gotten the hang of HIIT, feel free to make up your own HIIT workouts to keep your training fun and challenging. You can use equipment, such as dumbbells, kettlebells or resistance bands. Choose exercises that can be done in one place so that you don’t waste time going from place to the next. The most important part is to enjoy your workouts, get the results you want and feel incredibly fit!
What is your favourite HIIT workout to get fit?
Rebecca is a personal trainer and health & wellness coach who is passionate about helping women to feel healthy, happy and LOVE life. As a coach with a huge passion for vegan nutrition, holistic health, enjoying exercise and self care, Rebecca is on a mission to help women thrive!
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