HIIT Training: What it is and why it's awesome!

By: Jenn Grandlienard

I’ve always been somewhat of a gym rat. When I was in college, I would ride my bike from my apartment to our local YMCA in West Chester, PA. I would either do my own workout or take a group exercise or spin class with a friend. I have tried working out at home, but between my kids, the laundry, the dishes and carpets in need of vacuuming, I get way too distracted.  

Back in college I had loads of time to spend in the gym, I could do cardio, weight lifting and then stretch every muscle all in one workout while taking my time. NOT any more. Now with two young sons, and busy days, I have to make the best use of my time at the gym. 

My favorite time to work out is early in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT a morning person. But for some reason, getting up and working out at 5:30 or 6:00am is just what works best for my consistency and schedule. Not to mention I have a few friends that work out with me, and the accountability is what gets me there! 

But let’s be real: I do not want to get to the Y at 6am and spend two hours there. A few years ago I learned about HIIT workouts. HIIT stands for High Impact Interval Workouts. And they are amazing! HIIT workouts go back and forth between short spurts of high energy exercises and then rest. You can do any length of interval, depending on the intensity of your exercises. A great starting point is 10 seconds of exercise and 20 seconds of rest. From there you can increase it until you’re exercising for 30-40 seconds with 10-20 seconds of rest. You can use weights or simply your body weight. You can do cardio exercises or weight training. Or combine the two!

With HIIT workouts, you can get an amazing workout, in as little as 4 minutes. Yep, you read that correctly. Tabata has become a popular type of HIIT workouts and Erin Oprea, one of Nashville’s best known personal trainers and author of The 4x4 Diet, boasts the effectiveness of her simple 4 minute workouts. You can choose to only do 4 minutes, or you can combine a few 4 minute workouts together for a longer HIIT tabata workout. 

Studies have shown that a 15 minute HIIT workout can burn more calories than an hour long run on the treadmill. Other studies have shown that a mere 2 weeks of interval training improves your aerobic capacity as much as endurance training for 6-8 weeks. 

As you can see HIIT and tabata workouts are amazing. As a mom, there’s no better workout for my busy schedule. I can’t rave enough about it. 

If you’re looking for ideas on HIIT classes, the Y offers some amazing workout classes! You can check them out here: YMCA group workout classes. And if you want to do your own workout, a really easy place to begin is on Pinterest. Just search “HIIT workouts” or “tabata workouts.” There’s a ton of workouts to choose from!