I recently did a poll with my Facebook community (you can follow my page HERE and my private community HERE ) and found that one of the reasons people don’t workout is they are too short on time.  They feel like a short little workout isn’t going to do anything to improve their fitness so why bother? Well, I am here to tell you today that ALL movement is worth it!

HIIT workout

Before I give you this quick, effective workout I want to tell you why it is so effective.

HIIT workouts will blast your metabolism from here to breakfast…Tomorrow’s breakfast!

No joke!  HIIT (High intensity interval training)  will give you BIG bang for your metabolic buck.  Studies have shown over and over that HIIT training out performs regular old steady state cardio.  Steady state cardio is that workout where you hop on a machine, grab a  good book or magazine and go at a moderate pace for 45-60 minutes.

The reason for this is that during HIIT while you are mainly burning sugars for fuel BUT…

HIIT training increases the metabolic rate to a point where it is burning fat as a fuel source long after the workout.  By a long time I mean 24-36 hours AFTER your workout!

Steady state cardio might burn more calories and fat DURING the workout but then you are pretty much done.  There is a minimal afterburn effect (also called EPOC – Excess post oxygen consumption) with steady state cardio (~ approx 2 hours post workout).

In general, steady state moderate cardio (65-80% of max effort) burns about 10 calories per minute

HIIT training (85%+ max effort) burns about  15 calories per minute

If you were to do 45 min of steady state cardio you may burn 450 calories…Cool.

Let’s say you were to do 20 minutes of HIIT training – because if you are really going at an 85%+ effort level you could not sustain it for much longer… You might potentially burn 300 calories…Hmmm, doesn’t seem to measure up to steady state cardio does it?

But wait, there’s more to know about HIIT workouts…

Studies have repeatedly shown that HIIT training burns more calories post workout than steady state cardio (here’s one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8883001)  So after a HIIT while you are hopping in the shower, driving to work, working all day, playing with the kids later in the evening…you are still ramped up and burning calories to the tune of 100 more calories per day!  I’m down with that!

Read on for more HIIT tips and your workout!

Steady state cardio has its’ time and place depending on your goals and current health status (ie, not under a lot of stress, eating enough protein, endurance goals)  But if you goal is getting in and out of your workout in a little time as possible and getting the biggest metabolic bang for your buck…HIIT is IT!

Now, keep in mind that HIIT training is something to work up to.  Always check in with your doctor to make sure your heart is up to it.   HIIT is intense so make certain to allow enough recovery time.  Give yourself about 2 days in between HIIT workouts for full recovery.  This is not a case of “more is better”

Another important thing to note is that because of the hormonal stimulus that HIIT workouts produce (Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone) , you will retain your hard earned muscle.  That muscle will be fueling itself with your fat stores while you rest!

Now, about the strength portion of this workout…  I chose compound exercises and large muscle group exercises.  Compound exercises work the upper and lower body muscles together (such as the squat with press) giving the heart the extra work of pumping blood to both areas at the same time.  This gives us a big calorie burn as does using the large muscle groups in the Step Up, Push Up  and Bent Row exercises.    Make sure you use heavy enough weights that you get a good burn so as to  stimulate the right hormones to produce muscle and burn fat.

Ok, ready to workout?

Don’t forget to warm up.  When performing HIIT workouts you MUST make sure to give the heart time to warm up as well as the muscles.  Do about 5 minutes of light exercise that gets your heart rate inclining gradually (example: High knee walks, butt kickers, walking lunges, squats, jumping jacks)

Start with the HIIT portion of the workout.  You can use which ever machine you like or even a jump rope.  Just make sure you are working hard.

Perform a round of sprint sets:

 :20 sprint/ :40 rest

:30 sprint/:30 rest

:40 sprint/:20 rest

:60 sprint/:30 rest.

Walk one minute.  Then perform the strength exercises (image below)  for 1 min each.

Complete 2 rounds of the strength exercises.  Repeat the entire workout 1 more time.

If you are short on time, the HIIT portion of this workout make a s great sweat session all by itself.  Just repeat for up to 20 minutes.  You can even perform the strength section alone and get a great full body workout

HIIT workouts

You can download a PDF of this workout HERE

Have an awesome workout!