Want to shred fat, lose weight, and get results faster?
Before you do anything else, check your calories and macros for the day. Are you on track? Do you have some meals already prepped and ready to eat?
Getting your diet right is always going to come before training, especially when it comes to shredding fat.
But once that’s taken care of, you can seriously level up your training, speed up your metabolism, and shred fat faster with high-intensity interval training, also called HIIT.
Shred Fat Faster with HIIT
There’s a reason high-intensity interval training earned the number one spot on the annual list of top fitness trends published by the American College of Sports Medicine.[1]
It’s a highly effective way to burn fat faster than traditional steady-state cardio workouts like walking, jogging, or trying to get through a mind-numbing treadmill session.
Here’s how one expert in the ACSM survey explains the rise in HIIT:
“With time being a barrier to physical activity,…HIIT…provides time-efficient options that are versatile and engaging, providing flexibility and combating boredom (another barrier), all of which helps to support adoption and adherence,” says Gina Cortese.
Short on time? HIIT can help you get results in half the time of a traditional workout. But that’s not the only benefit of HIIT.
Research shows that high-intensity interval training can help:[2,3]
- Build muscular endurance
- Elevate metabolism
- Burn more calories and fat in less time than steady-state cardio
- Increase excess post-exercise oxygen consumption
- Eliminate excuses, because HIIT workouts can be done without equipment
- Avoid muscle catabolism associated with steady-state cardio
- Improve cardiovascular health
- And in non-medical terms, help you shred fat faster
How to Set Up a HIIT Routine
Wondering how to set up your own HIIT routine? It’s actually pretty simple. Here’s the format:
Duration. How long do you want your HIIT workout to take? I typically recommend HIIT workouts take about 25 minutes.
But if you’ve only got 15 minutes, or you want to hustle a little longer, that’s fine too. Set a time for the duration of your HIIT session.
Work/Rest periods. HIIT workouts have two parts. A work session, and a rest period.
In the work session, you really hustle. On a scale of 1 to 10, you want your intensity level to be around a 7 or even a little higher.
During the rest period, you can stop and catch your breath, or keep moving, but at a lower intensity, until the rest period is up.
For beginners, your work session might be 1 minute, followed by a 2 minute rest period.
If you’re in better shape, you might go with something more like a 1-minute work session, followed by a 30 second rest period.
Use a timer. The only other thing you really need for HIIT workouts is a timer. A clock with a second hand will work. Or a watch with a seconds display. Some watches actually have interval training timers. And if you prefer mobile, search your app store for something like, “HIIT timer,” “interval training timer,” or “tabata timer.”
Choose Your HIIT Exercises
Figure out the duration of your HIIT routine, and your work/rest periods, and then choose your exercises.
One of the great things about HIIT, is that it’s easy to incorporate almost any exercise into a HIIT workout.
Some popular exercises used in HIIT training include:
Bodyweight HIIT exercises
- Jumping Jacks
- Burpees
- Mountain Climbers
- Bodyweight Squats
- Jump Squats
- Squat Thrusts
- Push-Ups
- Plank-to-Push-Up
- Stair Climbing
- Sprinting
- High-Knees Running
- Jump Lunge
- Speed Skaters
- Swimming
HIIT exercises with equipment
- Rowing
- Cycling
- Kettlebell Swings
- Jumping Rope
- Box Jumps
- Step-Ups
- High-rep, light-weight lifting exercises
- Medicine Ball Slams
- Battle Ropes
- Heavy Bag Boxing
5 HIIT Workouts from Team RSF Members
Inside my private Facebook group, you’ll find a supportive community of people on their own fitness journey who share progress pics, discuss diet and training strategies, and dish out a whole lot of encouragement.
We recently asked Team RSF members to share their HIIT workouts with the group. The results: Proof this community is hustling with HIIT to get results. Give these HIIT workouts a try:
HIIT Workout 1 – Lucy G.
00:45 Jumping Jacks
00:15 Rest
00:45 Mountain Climbers
00:15 Rest
00:45 Skipping Rope
00:15 Rest
00:45 Burpees
00:15 Rest
00:45 Fast Squats
Repeat 4x
HIIT Workout 2 – Anirban N.
00:25 Deep Squat
00:05 Rest
00:25 Push-Ups
00:05 Rest
00:25 Burpees
00:05 Rest
00:25 High-Arm Plans
Repeat 5x
HIIT Workout 3 – Shaunak B.
50 Skips
20 Burpees
20 Jump Squats
15 Box Jumps
20 Medicine Ball Slams
1:30 Rest
Repeat 6x-8x
HIIT Workout 4 – Ben F.
50 Lateral Runner
12 TRX Knee-Tuck Push-Ups
20 Bench Hops
15 Burpees
1:00 Rest
Repeat 4x-5x
HIIT Workout 5 – Tony NL
00:45 Treadmill Spring
01:15 Rest
00:30 Speed Cycling
01:00 Rest
00:30 Sled Push
00:30 Rest
00:20 Battle Ropes
00:40 Rest
01:00 Jump Rope
00:30 Rest
Repeat 8x-10x
Looking for more ways to burn fat, build muscle, and get results? Join my private Facebook group to learn more.
References
1. Walter, T. (2017). Worldwide survey of fitness trends for 2018. American College of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Journal. From: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2017/11000/WORLDWIDE_SURVEY_OF_FITNESS_TRENDS_FOR_2018__The.6.aspx
2. Foster, C., et al. (2015). The effects of high-intensity interval training vs. steady state training on aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657417/
3. Boutcher, S. (2011). High-intensity intermittent exercise and fat loss. Journal of Obesity. From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/