HIIT–Burn fat faster with shorter exercise time

Exercise less, burn fat faster. A dream? Here’s one area where your too-good-to-be-true instinct is wrong. You can indeed lose weight faster while reducing the time you spend exercising. This is what HIIT does for you. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It is basically a form of cardio where you push yourself and exercise with full intensity for a short time interval and then recover with lower intensity exercise for the another time interval. This method of alternating from high intensity to low intensity and back again helps you burn more fat than jogging does!

How does it work?

Interval training allows you to exercise at higher intensities for a much longer period of time than steady state, so you burn more fat. This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time. A high-intensity workout increases the body’s need for oxygen during the effort and creates an oxygen shortage, causing your body to ask for more oxygen during recovery. As an added bonus, there’s also an after-burn effect known as EPOC (excess-post exercise oxygen consumption). You increase your metabolism and burn more calories for up to 24 hours after interval training, whereas going for a jog burns almost NO calories after. HIIT training gives your metabolism a boost like never before.

If you feel up to the challenge, here’s a sample HIIT workout for you.

The workout below calls for a 20 second high: 20 second low split. If you are just beginning you can change the split to 10:20, or for the more advanced a 30:30. Pick an interval length that fits your current athletic ability but is still challenging. During the low intensity portion you will jog in place, pumping your arms as active recovery. Do not stop moving, you want to allow your heart rate to come down a little bit but still be elevated.

6 Rounds - 20 seconds low intensity: 20 seconds high intensity - 30 Minutes Total

Low – Jog:      High -- Mountain Climbers

Low – Jog:      High -- In and Out Jump Squats

Low – Jog:      High -- Jumping Jacks

Low – Jog:      High -- High Reach Jump Squats (Wide Stance)

Low – Jog:      High -- Skater Lunges

Low – Jog:      High -- Body Drops

Rest 1 minute between rounds.

REMEMBER: Always warm up and cool down for 5 minutes before and after a workout.

If you want to follow a more structured, guided HIIT workout, I would suggest you check out the HIIT DVD Workouts below. They have proven to be very effective and have led to some major fat shredding.

              

Exercise less, burn more fat! Have fun.