Favorite Quick HIIT Fixes

It's been said that time is of the essence...

The thing is, time is (often times) in limited supply for many of us. We all have the same 24 hours each day, and we all have the same seven days each week. Those days and hours, though, have a tendency to get loaded down with work, family, and household obligations.

Sneaking in a workout, or even some personal time, can be a struggle.

It's those really busy days when I turn to an old standby...HIIT!

HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, has been around for a long time. It can encompass many forms, but in its most basic definition, it involves short intervals of intense cardio (and, on occasion, some strength) exercises.  

An article that caught my attention, cited numerous benefits of doing HIIT workouts, several of which I have experienced myself. Some of these benefits include increased metabolism (during and after the workouts), loss of weight, reduction in fat, and increased energy. For me, all of these have happened with only doing one HIIT workout a week (in addition to my usual running, daily walking, planking, etc.).

For myself, I have several key exercises that I include in most of my HIIT workouts:

**A stairway. I know, this one's pretty obvious.

**Burpees. These are one of those moves that most of us love to hate because they're so tough.

**Mountain climbers. These have a way of sneaking up you (or at least they do me LOL).

**Push-ups. I typically filter these in as more of a recovery move.

**Body weight resistance moves.  These don't need much explanation, but squats and lunges are the head-liners.

**Strength-training. I do a lot of simple upper-body strength moves, with a fairly low-weight, which allows for a high rep count.

**other "recovery" options: wall sits, planks, slow-mo push-ups

Here's one of my HIIT favorites:

*5 stair flights (double-stepped)

*10 burpees

*10 push-ups

*20 sets of mountain-climbers

*20 plank jacks

*10 jump squats

*50 rope jumps 

*1-minute wall sit

***Complete four sets (with 20-30 second recovery between each circuit)***

  

As mentioned, I have a few favorite exercises that I tend to use repeatedly. I try to mix up the sequence of moves, and number of reps, to keep the workouts fresh. Often times, I sneak in a few strength moves (usually upper-body, since the bulk of my usual HIIT moves are more lower-body focused) to vary the muscle groups. Most of my HIIT workouts are over and done in 20-30 minutes.

Want a few more ideas on HIIT workouts? Check out these posts:

HIIT'ing at Home

HIIT me up!

Do you have any go-to workouts when you're short on time? What are your favorite quick "sweat fixes?"

 I'm linking this with Kim and Zenaida for the Tuesday Topics Link-Up

I'm also linking with Debbie, Deborah, Lisa, Laura and Jenn for the Runners' Roundup

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