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Maximise your gym sessions with a fitness trainer’s best HIIT workout for beginners. 

While exercise has undoubtedly been the saving grace many needed in 2020, that doesn’t mean to say that doing the same old workout routines doesn’t get a bit old sometimes. Whether you tend to run the same routes or you’ve reached a plateau with your strength training, it might be time to start mixing things up a little.

The good news is that there are plenty of challenging forms of exercise that are sure to have you hooked in no time. High intensity interval training – known more commonly as HIIT – is a prime example, offering as it does a workout that will very quickly have you working up a sweat and seeing results.

It is, admittedly, a pretty broad term, and there are a wide variety of classes and individual HIIT workouts for you to try. However, according to Ria Gandhi, a fitness trainer with Core Collective, at its most basic HIIT is “a cardiovascular focused session broken down into short, sharp and intense intervals, followed by a period of rest or lower intensity.”

There are a whole range of benefits to exercising like this. As Ria goes on to say, “a shorter period of work time can definitely maximise your time spent in the gym,” making HIIT workouts a great option “for those who prefer shorter but still very efficient sessions.”

This is because the whole point of HIIT is “to push yourself to your maximum exertion rate” in order for you to get the most out of that shorter burst of exercise. And, “studies have shown that this type of training can boost your metabolic rate by contributing to greater excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC),” which means that your body will keep working even after you’ve finished your session.

The benefits don’t stop there, because HIIT sessions will also improve your cardiovascular fitness, “helping to boost both your heart and lung health,” and they can also contribute to muscle gain.

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If you fancy giving HIIT a go, you can try this short, simple and effective beginners workout. Ria recommends doing the exercises at a one-to-one ratio with your rest times – after all, “one defining factor of hit sessions are the rest times that follow the interval, giving your body a chance to recover from the work period.”

So do two sets of the following three exercises, alternating 30 seconds of each exercise with 30 seconds of rest, for a highly effective workout that will only take you around six minutes:

• Down/ups
• Squat jumps
• Mountain climbers

Down/ups

From a standing position, “jump yourself into a high plank, ensuring your core is tight and your shoulders are over your wrists.” Then, you need to “jump your feet to just outside the hands” and push yourself up into a standing position, “making sure to squeeze the glutes and pull your shoulders down and away from your ears.” Repeat for 30 seconds before your rest interval.

Squat jumps

Start from standing again (this time “with feet a little wider than hip width”), bend your knees to lower yourself down, and then “drive yourself upwards through the heel of your foot”. Be sure to land back down with soft knees, “ensuring the chest is lifted,” and repeat for thirty seconds.

Mountain climbers

From a high plank position with arms fully extended, your body forming a straight line from your heels to your shoulders and “good core engagement,” you need to “drive your knees alternately towards your chest.” Repeat for thirty seconds.

Follow @StrongWomenUK on Instagram for the latest workouts, delicious recipes and motivation from your favourite fitness experts. 

Images: Getty

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