Health Fitness
HIIT for beginners
If you struggle to find the time for exercise, here’s a way to improve your fitness in as little as a few minutes a day
If you have a busy lifestyle, it can be hard to find the time to get fit. After all, if you want to be fit, you have to dedicate yourself to hard work and long hours at the gym, right? Well, not necessarily. If you haven’t
heard of it already, high-intensity interval training (or HIIT for short) is the latest way to improve your cardiovascular fitness while at the same time helping you to burn fat and build lean muscle – without spending every spare minute at the gym.
What is it? It’s not a specific workout, just a type of exercise that involves doing short bursts of high-intensity activity alternated with short periods of lower- intensity activity or resting. The idea is you put a lot of effort into the high- intensity activity bursts, then you recover during the lower-intensity or rest periods. And then you start the sequence all over again. How long you keep going is up to
you. Some people do just four minutes of HIIT a day – for instance, alternating 20 seconds of very high-intensity
activity with 10 seconds of recovery, and repeating the sequence eight times in all. Others may work out for longer, alternating longer periods of intense exercise with recovery and repeating them more times.
Published evidence One study into the effectiveness of HIIT, published in the medical journal PLoS ONE, followed overweight and inactive middle-aged men. They were separated into two groups – one group did four bursts of intense exercise for four minutes, each separated by three minutes of lower- intensity exercise, three times a week, while the other did just a single burst of intense exercise for four minutes, three times a week. After 10 weeks both groups showed improved markers of fitness and lost weight.
How to do it You can do any type of exercise as p art of a HIIT workout, including cycling, brisk walking, swimming or doing typical circuit training moves such as press-ups, lunges, squats and stomach crunches. The idea is you perform your chosen activity to such an extent that your breathing becomes much deeper and your heart rate increases (you should find it difficult to hold a conversation). Start off with a 10-minute work-out
by exercising intensively for 15 seconds, then rest or do a low-intensity activity for 45 seconds and repeat the entire sequence 10 times. Then when you start feeling fitter, increase the high- intensity portion to 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds. Your aim is to eventually work out intensively for 45 seconds and rest for 15 seconds. Remember: always consult your GP
before starting any new exercise routine, especially if you have a medical condition or you’re new to exercise.
40 All About health Official guidelines
Many fitness experts believe HIIT is an ideal way to keep fit, especially if you struggle to find time for exercise. However, in the UK, it’s still recommended that healthy adults should do…
• 150 minutes or more each week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week, or
• 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week, with an equivalent mix of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity every week (for example, two 30-minute runs plus 30 minutes of fast walking).
Doing muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days is also recommended.
Try this beginners’ HIIT workout at home:
• Jumping jacks: 15 seconds. • March on the spot: 45 seconds • Lunges (alternate legs): 15 seconds • March on the spot: 45 seconds
• Run on the spot with high knees: 15 seconds
• March on the spot: 45 seconds • Squats: 15 seconds • March on the spot: 45 seconds • Crunches: 15 seconds • March on the spot: 45 seconds
Repeat the entire sequence one more time.
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