What is High Intensity Interval Training?
High Intensity Interval Training means repeated bursts of high intensity exercise at, or approaching, maximal effort, with short periods of rest or low intensity activity in between.
Check out this blog post for more in depth information.
What’s so good about it?
There’s now a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that even short periods of low volume HIIT produces beneficial physiological changes in the cardiovascular, metabolic and skeletal muscle systems.
In other words, it’s a very time efficient way of improving your health and fitness.
How do you do it?
In studies, HIIT regimes tend to involve treadmills and cycle ergometers, and you could certainly work a HIIT schedule into your run or cycle sessions.
However, in reality there are endless ways of doing HIIT:
The simplest way would be to work interval training into your daily routine. For example, if you are out walking then you could simply pick up the pace for short periods, or walk up hills, or take the stairs more often.
Alternatively, you could try High Intensity Circuit Training (HICT) – there’s no special equipment required here, it can be performed anywhere, using body weight as resistance.
For an example, try the HICT workout on this website.