HIIT for Beginners
You’ve probably heard of high intensity interval training, or HIIT before. It’s been around for over a decade, but it has become hugely popular in the last few years. HIIT started out as a method of running on the track, but is now being applied to all sorts of types of training, including bodyweight and resistance exercises. In this article, we’ll explore how to incorporate HIIT training into a beginner training routine.
4 Reasons to do HIIT?
Maximum fat loss – With HIIT, you will burn a lot of calories while you are training. But, you will burn even more calories after the workout. That’s because HIIT brings on the excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect, which boosts your metabolism for 48 hours after your session.
Very little time required – From go to woah, your session will take 8 minutes (and half of that will be warming up / down). HIIT is, in fact, the most time-effective cardio that exists.
Do it anywhere – You can do HIIT in the gym on the track or in your living room. That means that you no longer have any barriers – or excuses.
Lose weight, not muscle – HIIT training is intense. It will activate muscle tissue, engaging both your fast and slow twitch fibers. That means that you will retain your muscle tissue as you burn off the body fat.
Sample HIIT Workouts for Beginners
The original HIIT workout was done on an exercise cycle. It involved a 20-second sprint followed by a 10 recovery, repeated eight times. This protocol can be done not just on an exercise bike, but with all sorts of equipment, including no equipment at all.
Here are a couple of sample HIIT workouts for beginners, one with no equipment and the other on a treadmill.
HIIT Workout A: Burpees
The burpee is a great exercise to use for HIIT as it trains your entire body and yet can be done in a few seconds. Here’s a refresher on how to do them:
Stand with arms by your sides. Drop to the floor and kick your feet out behind you so that you are in a push up position. Immediately bring your feet back in. Now jump back up to the start position.
Now onto the HIIT workout:
Set your stopwatch to beep every 20 and 10 seconds.
Warm up by jogging on the spot for 2 minutes.
Do as many burpees as you can in 20 seconds.
Recover for 10 seconds.
Continue until you have done 8 rounds of this workout.
Cool down with a 2 minute warm down.
HIIT Workout B: Treadmill
Warm up by walking on the treadmill for 2 minutes. Gradually increase the speed until at 2 minutes, you are sprinting.
Sprint for 20 seconds.
Throw your legs out to the side of the running belt and rest for 10 seconds.
Repeat for 8 rounds.
Wrap Up
HIIT workouts are short and intense. As a beginner you should do them twice per week, with a couple of days rest between them. On other days, perform strength training and longer, less intense cardio for a complete training program.
