What is HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training?

Dieters are often on the lookout for the best exercises for burning fat. Time and again, hiit, or high intensity interval training, has been identified as the best fat burning exercise; bar none.

Many dieters find that they have difficult shedding fat with low intensity exercises.

Though their fitness improves by simply walking or swimming, they just don’t see the fat loss that they desire. But, hiit has been shown to really burn the fat.

What is HIIT?

Hiit is simply the combination of periods of very high intensity activity along with lower intensity training. The periods of high intensity work, such as running or jumping rope get your metabolism and your heart pumping. This starts the fat loss process.

Hiit can be performed with any cardiovascular exercise. Many people use a combination of walking and running for hiit, but you could use swimming, jumping rope, aerobics, dancing or cycling, too.

Because you’ve jumpstarted the fat loss process with the high intensity work, your body has the ability to continue to burn fat even as you have lower intensity workout periods, provided they are alternated with working really hard.

The Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training

Hiit is possible for people of all fitness levels because you can start with shorter periods of high intensity work, and increase the number of high intensity intervals and the length of them as you progress.

This ability to modify your hiit workout easily is one of the appeals of the training. It’s easy to alter the workout routine as often as your body requires, without any new equipment or help from a professional.

In addition to the incredible fat loss you can see, hiit works well for many people because, particularly in the beginning, the workouts take only a little bit of time. You can get an effective hiit workout in about 15-20 minutes when you’re a beginner.

No special equipment is required, and you don’t need to join a gym. You can run, jump, swim or ride your bike. And, you can change up the exercises to that you don’t get bored.

A Simple High Intensity Interval Training Workout

Here’s a really simple beginning workout that uses only walking and running.

You’ll perform 5-8 high intensity intervals in this routine:

1. Walk for 3-5 minutes at your normal pace to warm up.
2. Walk for 30 seconds at a medium pace (about 50%).
3. Run hard for 30 seconds.
4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 – 4 to 7 more times.
5. Repeat step 1 to cool down.

As you can see, this routine will only take you about 15-20 minutes. But, it will really burn the fat, especially if you perform it at least three times a week.

As your endurance improves, either increase the number of high intensity intervals or add more of them to the workout. This will keep your body in fat burning mode even as your fitness increases.

The Reasons For Performing HIIT