I know I have announced my love of lifting several times and I still find strength training to be the best way to lose a few inches off the ol’ middle. However, I also do cardio on a weekly basis. I generally warm up with some type of cardio (elliptical, stair master, treadmill) before lifting, but I rarely spend more than 20 minutes doing so. On days that I do not lift, I try to spend a little more time doing cardio. Personally, my favorite type of cardio is high-intensity interval training, or HIIT.
High Intensity Interval Training is basically short spurts of maximum intensity exercise with longer, lower intensity periods in between. For example, on a treadmill you would walk for 90 seconds, sprint 30 seconds, walk 90 seconds, sprint 30 seconds, etc. HIIT really keeps your heart rate up and keeps you burning calories for longer after you are done working out.
Some of our bootcamp classes include more cardio than others. During one session, we had to do 5 minutes cardio followed by a 5-station circuit. We did the combination of cardio + circuit three times. I later decided to take the specific cardio portion and turn it into my own HIIT workout.
Once you get the jist of the workout, you can adapt it to whatever cardio equipment you want to use. I will explain it for a treadmill then talk about how to change it up. Here is how it works…you start with a fairly moderate pace walking. On a scale of 1 -10 (1 being barely walking and 10 being full out sprinting), you would start walking at a level 4. Walk for one minute at a level 4. Increase the incline of the treadmill and continue at the same speed for 30 seconds (level 5). Next, increase the incline again and continue at the same speed for 30 seconds (level 6). Now increase the speed of the treadmill (this should be very difficult running at a fast speed while at an high incline, level 7-8). Continue for 30 seconds and then decrease the incline to the previous incline setting you chose (try to remain at a level 7-8, even if you have to increase the speed). After 30 seconds of this, you take the incline down to where you started (most likely zero incline) and increase the speed to a full-out sprint, this should be a level 9. After one minute of sprinting, lower the speed to the original speed or slightly slower to recover (level 3 or 4).
Here are the speeds and inclines that I used. Feel free to adjust to make it easier or more difficult. I also warmed up for about 5 minutes on the treadmill prior to starting these intervals.
Minutes Speed Incline
0:00-1:00 4.0 0.0
1:00-1:30 4.0 4.0
1:30-2:00 4.0 8.0
2:00-2:30 6.5 8.0
2:30-3:00 7.0 4.0
3:00-4:00 8.5 0.0
4:00-5:00 4.0 0.0
Repeat intervals for the remainder of workout. I did 8 rounds total, plus a 5-minute warm-up and a 5-minute cool-down.
I chose to increase the speed as I was decreasing the inclines but you could leave it at a 6.5 if you wanted. I have also done this same workout on an elliptical. Instead of increasing the incline, I increase the resistance and instead of increasing the speed, I just go faster on my own. No matter what type of cardio equipment I do this HIIT workout on, it is a butt-kicker!
What is your favorite HIIT workout?
