HIIT may offer the same health benefits as regular exercise in less time and help reduce body fat, heart rate, and blood pressure. It may even help improve blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity.

One of the ways HIIT helps you burn calories actually comes after you’re done exercising.

Several studies have demonstrated HIIT’s ability to increase your metabolic rate for hours after exercise.

Due to the intensity of the workout, HIIT can boost your metabolism for hours after exercise. This results in burning additional calories even after you have finished exercising.

Studies have shown that HIIT can help you lose fat.

One review looked at 13 studies and 424 adults with overweight or obesity. It found that both HIIT and traditional moderate-intensity exercise can reduce body fat and waist circumference.

A range of other studies also indicate that HIIT can reduce body fat despite the relatively short time commitment.

However, like other forms of exercise, HIIT may be most effective for fat loss in people with overweight or obesity.

In addition to helping with fat loss, HIIT could help increase muscle mass in certain people, particularly those who are not very active.

However, weight training continues to be the gold standard to increase muscle mass in active people.

If you are not very active, you may gain some muscle with HIIT, but not as much as you might with weight training.

High intensity interval training may improve oxygen consumption as much as traditional endurance training.

Oxygen consumption is your muscles’ ability to use oxygen. Endurance training typically improves your oxygen consumption.

Traditionally, this consists of long sessions of continuous running or cycling at a steady rate.

However, it appears that HIIT can produce the same benefits in a shorter amount of time compared with moderate-inensity continous training.

Research indicates that HIIT can reduce heart rate and blood pressure in people with overweight and obesity, who are more likely to have high blood pressure.

Some researchers have found that HIIT may even reduce blood pressure more than moderate-intensity exercise in these populations.

HIIT programs may reduce blood sugar levels.

High intensity interval training may be especially beneficial for those needing to reduce blood sugar and insulin resistance.

For example, research has shown HIIT can reduce blood sugar and improve lipid metabolism in people with type 2 diabetes.

While its health benefits are very important, HIIT also improves performance in both anaerobic and aerobic activities.

Whether you’re an athlete or a weekend warrior or you just enjoy running around with your kids, including HIIT training in your routine can improve your performance.

There are many ways to add high intensity intervals to your exercise routine, so it’s easy to get started.

To begin, you just need to choose your activity. For example:

  • running
  • biking
  • jumping rope

When you get comfortable with HIIT, you can experiment with different durations of exercise and recovery.

Tips

The following tips can help you create your own personalized HIIT routine:

  • Pick an exercise you’re familiar with at lower intensity. For example, don’t go all-out on running if you have not done any jogging lately.
  • If you deal with joint pain, begin with lower impact movement such as cycling or swimming.
  • Take long enough rest periods. You can maintain sufficient intensity for HIIT only if you take rest periods equal to or longer than your work periods.
  • Keep work periods under 30 seconds. Work periods longer than 30 seconds will be difficult to sustain at the intensity required for HIIT.
  • Start with just a few cycles twice per week. HIIT training is very demanding, especially with higher impact exercising. Adequate recovery between training sessions is a must to avoid injuries.

Examples

Here are a few simple examples of HIIT workouts:

  • Using a stationary bike, pedal as hard and fast as possible for 30 seconds. Then, pedal at a slow, easy pace for 2 to 4 minutes. Repeat this pattern for 15 to 30 minutes.
  • After jogging to warm up, sprint as fast as you can for 15 seconds. Then, walk or jog at a slow pace for 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat this pattern for 10 to 20 minutes.
  • Perform squat jumps as quickly as possible for 30 to 90 seconds. Then, stand or walk for 30 to 90 seconds. Repeat this pattern for 10 to 20 minutes.

While these exercises can help get you started, you can modify your routine based on your preferences. There are many ways to implement HIIT into your exercise routine. Experiment to find which routine is best for you.

High intensity interval training is a very efficient way to exercise and may help you burn more calories than you would with other forms of exercise.

Some of the calories burned as a result of high intensity intervals come from a higher metabolism, which lasts for hours after exercise.

Overall, HIIT produces many of the same health benefits as other forms of exercise in a shorter amount of time.

These benefits include lower body fat, heart rate, and blood pressure. HIIT may also help lower blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity.

So, if you’re short on time and want to get active, consider trying HIIT to improve your fitness and health.