Leading a sedentary lifestyle pose several risks that could affect your health and well-being. For this reason, it’s crucial to look after your health, incorporate bouts of physical activity, and make sure you’re eating healthy.
However, this may be quite challenging for professionals and parents with multiple responsibilities. If you’re one of them, your to-do list may be jam-packed with urgent matters and tasks that leave you with less time to exercise.
What Is HIIT
Gladly, there are now ways to burn calories rapidly in a short period of time. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) allows you to improve muscle endurance and cardiovascular health through quick bursts of intensive activity.
It’s perfect for people who are short on time. With it, you don’t need to spend hours to achieve the optimal calorie-burning process. You can also freely perform HIIT at a corner of your room, in your living area, or yard. It’s a great option for people who have roommates or simply those who have limited space yet want to practice workout exercises.
How HIIT Works
High Intensity Interval Training requires you to perform a set of challenging exercises interspersed with short periods of rest to maximize both the recovery and fat-burning process. Unlike traditional cardio, HIIT challenges you to outdo yourself nearly to your limit within a short amount of time. With this kind of exercise, you won’t be compelled to manage your energy and oxygen to sustain the activity for longer.
During the entire duration of the exercise, you’ll experience spikes in heart rate, which can help you lose weight efficiently compared to low-intensity exercises. Likewise, research claims that HIIT can improve fat burning and energy expenditure even after you’ve exercised.
HIIT At Home
To jumpstart the process, below are steps on how to perform high intensity workouts in the comfort of your space.
1. Assess Your Current Fitness Level
There are many ways to do high intensity exercises at home. For beginners, it’s recommended to curate your exercise routine with the help of a trainer.
With many at-home fitness programs, such as 28 at Home, you can connect with a professional who’ll guide you in designing an exercise regimen that matches your current fitness level and that suits your unique requirements. Your fitness trainer will also teach you to maintain the correct form to maximize your workout and prevent injury.
On the other hand, if you’ve been exercising for a while, you may have the option to exercise without a trainer. Block off time from your schedule and divide the minutes into periods of exercise and rest.
For instance, you can perform 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds of rest. Alternatively, you can start with 30 seconds of activity followed by another 30 seconds of rest. Listen to your body and make the necessary modifications, according to your current fitness level.
If you’re more advanced, you can do 40 seconds of activity and 20 seconds of rest. Dial back to beginner exercises if you feel like you can’t handle the intensity or progress toward challenging moves if you’ve already been used to the easy ones.
You can also experiment with interval cardio. For example, you can have 30 seconds of fast high knees and 30 seconds of slow squats. Make sure to incorporate periods of rest in between these sets to allow your body to recover.
2. Choose Your Exercises
Once you already have an idea of how you’re going to approach your workout program, choose a couple of moves and put them together into a full, high intensity workout. You can structure an exercise program that you can lean on when you have less energy and another program that you can tap into when you feel active.
Most high intensity workouts don’t compel you to buy fitness devices and bulky equipment. Instead, you can choose among a couple of body-weight exercises. These include but aren’t limited to planks, jump squats, push-ups, jumping jacks, burpees, and more. When executed correctly, these stationary moves can help you achieve a full-body burn.
3. Modify Them
After identifying your favorite moves, try to experiment on a couple of days and see which ones match your current fitness level and preferences. Take note that you can freely perform an exercise variation and mix everything up to make the activity more fun and interesting.
As your endurance improves, try to gradually squeeze in more repetitions per set to increase the intensity rate. If a certain exercise is no longer difficult, this may be a sign to level up to advanced ones to continuously challenge yourself in your journey to fitness.
Takeaway
Performing high intensity workouts at home is a great way to squeeze in exercise and maintain a sound and healthy body despite your hectic schedule. With the steps presented above, you can have an idea of how to approach your exercise regimen and tweak it in a way that matches your current fitness level and preferences.
