As time has passed, awareness towards health and fitness has increased among the people. Exercise has become a regular part of people’s life. A balanced diet, health work out regime are some things that people take seriously nowadays. Those who work out regularly have heard about the term HIIT (High-intensity interval training)

What is HIIT?
As the term describes HIIT means any work out that is alternated between intense bout of activity and a fixed period of less intensive activity or even complete rest. For example, for a beginner, a good intense work out can be running as fast as possible for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes. You can repeat this 3-minute interval five times so that it is 15 minutes. This gives you a fast blasting workout. It is simple yet effective. HIIT was developed for people who have less amount of time but need to work out to release the pent up energy and refresh.
There are a lot of HIIT workouts that can be helpful, some of them are:

1. Jogging and Sprinting
This is similar to work out that we have seen in the example. Where you will be running intensely but instead of walking you can sprint. These workouts develop according to the time and how much practice you gain regularly.

2. A lot of pushups say infinite!
Here you will be performing around 10 pushups at a time, then rest for 30 seconds and then do 10 more.  Gradually you can increase the rounds, start from 5 then move about to 10 rounds. Everyone should try out according to their capacity. It is as fun as it sounds. The advantage is you can do it anywhere,  especially helpful for people who travel often.

3. A lot of squats, but generally everyone hates it.
Squats are a bit difficult for everyone formerly. But when you are doing a lot of rounds and resting only for 30 seconds between that rounds, it becomes terrible. To make sure you do the squat properly get a partner or a mirror, observe your form. Because generally squats are performed incorrectly by almost everyone but doing it correctly is important. This is a very important work out especially for women who want a better backside.

4. Combine push and squat
Combining both of them we get a highly intense routine, where we get 10 pushups followed by 10 squats. Rest for 30 seconds and then repeat again. If you need a total body work out then this is one of the best choices. When this exercise is done followed by sprints, it gives you a complete refresher work out.

5. Side lunges
First, bend a little, then step your left foot to standing and repeat, now stepping out with your right foot. Switch both your legs back and forth. Do as maximum as you can for up to 45 seconds.

6. Sit up and then Jump
Here you perform 10 sit-ups,10 stand-ups, and 10 vertical leaps. Here try to reach the maximum height and go all the way down. Perform the function of a spring.

Rest for 30 seconds up to 60. It depends on the intensity and capacity.

7. Mountain plank
It is simple yet effective, here start in high and draw your knee under your stomach , keep the toes off the ground, and return your feet to the initial position. Change legs and bring your left knee under the chest.

Keep changing the legs as if you are running in a stationary place. Do as many as possible.

Often a question is asked that how much HIIT workout should be recommended.
According to the researchers, in a week you can go for 2 to 3 HIIT sessions,  that too after your endurance develops mixing it with strength and endurance training.

There are some of the workouts but as we have seen they can be quite rigorous and save time, they also have some added benefits like:
1. Improves your blood pressure and blood sugar levels
Intense workouts produce intense results. A study has found that after 8 weeks of HIIT workouts people could bicycle twice as long as they could before. The cholesterol levels are greatly reduced. There was no shortness of breath or exertion.

2. Equipment is not necessary
HIIT workouts are great for people who travel because generally, equipments are not necessary. High knees, jumping lunges, anything can do for exercise.

3. It facilitates weight loss
Generally people have observed that being on a diet and performing cardio exercises leads them to lose muscle mass along with fat. But HIIT workouts allow the people doing diet to preserve their muscles, ensuring that most of the weight loss is from the fat store.

4. They are efficient
When you want to squeeze a work out into your busy schedule, HIIT is the one for you.  According to the researchers, you achieve more progress in a 15-minute interval training work out, than the person walking on a treadmill for 1 hour. When you have HIIT work out for 2 weeks continuously your aerobic capacity improves as much as if you have taken an endurance training of 6 to 8 weeks.

5. Lose more fat
HIIT burns more calories, but due to the intense exertion, you burn a lot more fat, than you do from a steady pace run.

6. Reduce depression and anxiety
It has been observed that due to the intense work out adrenaline rush and later it's wearing off, it helps people with anxiety into focusing on some other point rather than there own thoughts.

7. Metabolism increases
HIIT leads to a stimulation of Human Growth hormone, after 24 hours of your work out. Since this leads to an increase in the caloric burn , your food gets digested easily.

8. Slowdowns your aging process
An intense work out leads to the cells in producing energy to fuel the energy cellular mechanism, this slows down the aging process. So who doesn’t want to keep looking young always….

So let us give HIIT a try and see the benefits for ourselves…