HIIT training for beginners - how to put it together?

Are you thinking about your training plan and want to improve it in some way? Are you looking for an effective way to train that will accelerate your progress or burn fat? Or are you just starting out and don't know if this type of training is right for you? In this article, we will discuss one of the most popular training methods called HIIT . We will talk about why this training method is beneficial, how it works, and how to include it in your training plan.

What is HIIT?

HIIT comes from the English High-Intensity Interval Training , which literally means high-intensity interval training . During such training , short and very demanding exercise intervals alternate with rest intervals . During HIIT, you can start burning calories in a relatively short time, improve physical performance, train muscles for further growth, and also contribute to the health of your heart and blood vessels. ² HIIT training is suitable for beginners and advanced users .

How long does HIIT take?

The entire workout lasts between 15 and 30 minutes (the sum of the intense and rest phases of interval training). It is advisable to warm up your body slightly before HIIT to prevent injury and to spend a few minutes stretching after the workout.

How to set up interval training?

Interval training can be really varied , as long as you stick to the basic principles . It involves alternating high intensity with low intensity , and you can choose from many movements that you will do for a certain period of time very intensively and alternate with rest . Examples include sprints alternating with walking , sprints on a bike/exercise bike alternating with slow riding , rowing , jumping rope or various strength exercises .

In an intense interval, you need to reach a high heart rate , engage a large number of muscle fibers , consume a lot of oxygen in the blood, and thus reach 75 to 95% of your maximum performance . These can be intervals lasting only a few tens of seconds (e.g. sprints of 60, 100, 200, 400 meters) or even several minutes (e.g. running as fast as possible for 1 kilometer).

Each intense interval is followed by an adequate break . During this break , your heart rate and breathing rate should decrease significantly so that you can perform the next intense interval . Rest can be in the form of walking or just a significant reduction in the intensity of the previous activity. For example, after sprints, you can rest for half, the same, double or three times as long as the intense interval. It all depends on your physique and current exhaustion.

How to include HIIT in your training plan?

What your training plan will look like depends mainly on your time options and your goal. HIIT is an ideal training for losing weight and gaining physical fitness . If you are interested in reducing fat or improving your physique , you can combine HIIT three times a week with an active lifestyle and a suitable diet . If you want to get stronger, gain muscle and burn calories with HIIT, then do strength training three times a week and HIIT once, maximum twice. You can improve your fitness or lose weight with HIIT even if you are involved in some other sport (e.g. hockey, football, etc.), just add it to your training plan once or twice a week.

Examples of HIIT training

*personally tested

Comparison of HIIT and regular training

There are dozens of studies comparing interval training to moderate-intensity training (running, cycling, rollerblading, hill walking). Both methods can achieve comparable results in reducing fat stores . The difference is that interval training takes 40% less time to achieve the same result . This means, for example, that half an hour of HIIT burns the same number of calories as 50 minutes of running. ¹

The same amount of energy burned in a shorter time can be explained by the so-called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), when our body burns calories for hours after HIIT training. The intensity of the high-intensity intervals causes our body to have greater energy needs for a longer period after exercise than with classical training. ⁵

Although we burn the same amount of fat overall with both methods, there is a difference in the type of fat . With the HIIT method, we burn almost twice as much visceral fat (the fat that surrounds the organs in the abdominal cavity, which is metabolically more active and dangerous because it is more involved in the development of atherosclerosis and diabetes). ^{1, 4}

HIIT is slightly more beneficial for heart and vascular health . Both types of exercise improve heart performance and oxygen delivery through blood vessels during exercise , but HIIT does it more effectively (in studies on healthy and obese adolescents, HIIT is 38-79% more effective). After a few weeks of practicing HIIT, heart fitness improves, blood pressure in hypertensives decreases, the condition of blood vessel walls improves, and it becomes easier for the heart to pump enough blood throughout the body. ^{1, 2, 3}

At the same time, cardiovascular fitness improves muscle fitness . This is probably because mitochondria adapt better to interval training than to constant moderate intensity. In addition, after HIIT, muscle fibers of the second type (fast fibers) are more activated, along with enzymes involved in the production of energy from sugars and fats. This way, we achieve faster results in improving fitness compared to regular “cardio”. ^{1, 2, 3}

Source: Yaoshan (2019)

What to look out for with HIIT?

HIIT is an effective but also very demanding type of exercise . High intensity carries the risk of muscle or joint injury . After a demanding HIIT, more time is also needed for regeneration , so it is not recommended to practice HIIT more than three times a week to avoid overtraining .

Summary at the end

HIIT is a useful method for reducing body fat, especially when combined with a healthy diet. The big advantages are its time-saving nature (30 minutes three times a week), increased reduction of visceral fat, treatment of insulin resistance and therefore diabetes, faster improvement of fitness and cardiovascular health. However, it is important to be careful about overtraining and the possibility of injury.

Resources

1. Wewege, M et al. "The effects of high-intensity interval training vs. moderate-intensity continuous training on body composition in overweight and obese adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity vol. 18,6 (2017): 635-646. doi:10.1111/fig.12532
2. Cao, Meng et al. "Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training versus Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training on Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis." International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 16,9 1533. 30 Apr. 2019, doi:10.3390/ijerph16091533
3. Dun, Yaoshan et al. “High-Intensity Interval Training in Cardiac Rehabilitation.” Clinics in geriatric medicine vol. 35.4 (2019): 469-487. doi:10.1016/j.cger.2019.07.011
4. Maillard, Florie et al. "Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training on Total, Abdominal and Visceral Fat Mass: A Meta-Analysis." Sports medicine (Auckland, NZ) vol. 48.2 (2018): 269-288. doi:10.1007/s40279-017-0807-y
5. Panissa, Valeria LG et al. "Magnitude and duration of excess of post-exercise oxygen consumption between high-intensity interval and moderate-intensity continuous exercise: A systematic review." Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity vol. 22,1 (2021): e13099. doi:10.1111/fig.13099