Whether you live a sedentary lifestyle or practice a sport, you can improve your fitness with a high intensity workout. In fact, this workout is perfect for you if you lack the time to go to the gym for hours every week.
Moreover, this quick exercise lets you work on your strength or your cardio, leading to lower blood pressure and even losing weight.
However, doing it incorrectly can lead to injuries. To show you how to do a high intensity workout, we have created this detailed guide. In it, you will discover the best advice to safely get started with this workout.
What is a High-Intensity Workout?
This type of workout focuses on getting your heart pumping nearly as fast as possible in short bursts. Now, let us examine its structure and benefits.
Understanding High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
High intensity workout or high intensity interval training (HIIT) is a type of routine that involves short bursts of intense effort that can last up to 20 seconds.
After intense exercises such as mountain climbers with resistance bands or a cycling sprint, you then have a rest period.
During this recovery time, you can rest for as long as the exercise portion or twice as long.
Benefits of High-Intensity Workouts
This type of workout is gaining popularity because it leads to significant benefits. In particular, your body will gain the following benefits when you do this workout:
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Reduces weight: Doing this type of routine will help you lose weight since it quickly burns through fat (your stores of energy) and reduces blood sugar levels as a meta analysis has demonstrated.
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Improves cardiovascular health: As research has shown, this workout decreases blood pressure, especially among those living a sedentary lifestyle.
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Saves on time: While other exercises may take a long time to complete and see results, this workout is quick. It requires only 20 – 30 minutes of exercise.
How to Do a High-Intensity Workout
This intense workout consists of both lower intensity and high intensity exercises. The lower intensity movements will help your body warm up and cool down, reducing the risk of injuries.
Now, let us dive into exactly how to do a high intensity workout.
Preparing for a High-Intensity Workout
Before you start your workout, you will need to prepare for this. This includes drinking water to make sure you are properly hydrated and avoid feeling ill while you do this strenuous workout.
In addition, you should warm up. In your warm up, you should do exercises that will target the same areas of your body you plan to exercise during the high intensity portion of the training.
Therefore, if you plan to do plank shoulder taps, your warm up could include simple push ups.
Structuring Your High-Intensity Workout
After you have done your warm up, you should do intense training with intervals of rest periods.
To get you started, you should use the following steps of how to do a high intensity workout:
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Warm up: To do this workout, you will need to warm up. Let us take, for example, that you wanted to do jump squats exercises as your high intensity exercises, among others. Then, this portion of the training could be doing sets of squats with no rest.
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Exercise: After your warm-up, you will need to do your high intensity exercises for 20 seconds. In this case, you could start with jump squats. At this point, you should put in a lot of effort while keeping proper effort. You should be aiming for 80% – 90% of your maximal heart rate.
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Rest: When you have done the 20 minutes of exercise, you will need to rest. This rest period should be just enough to help you recover so you can do another set of exercises. So, it should be equal to or twice the length of your exercise (20 – 40 seconds).
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Repeat: After you have recovered, you will need to repeat the exercise and rest circuit. Also, you should vary the exercises to target different muscle groups and meet your strength and cardio goals. However, the total training period should not exceed 30 minutes.
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Cool down: Finally, you will need to do cool-down exercises. You can cool down with a mixture of low intensity exercises and stretches.
Pro tip: To get into a steady rhythm, you should listen to a high intensity training playlist with headphones designed to stay on during exercises: OpenRun Pro 2. These headphones have redefined the sound of sport.
Sample High-Intensity Workout Routines
Compared to an expert, a beginner will need easier exercises to keep your form and do them correctly. So, you should use the following exercises based on your level:
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Beginner level exercises:
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Jump lunges
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High knees
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Jump squats
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Intermediate level exercises:
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Pushups
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Kettlebell swings
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Sprints
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Advanced level exercises:
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Rowing machine
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Chest press
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Plank shoulder taps
Interestingly, a high intensity workout can also use scalable exercises such as lifting weights. So, you can use such exercises whether you are a beginner or already exercise routinely. All you need is to adjust the intensity for your level.
Tips for a Safe and Effective High-Intensity Workout
Since this workout is intense, doing it correctly is essential to avoid injuries. The following tips will help you ensure your workout remains safe.
Choosing the Right Exercises
To get the best workout, you will need to select exercises that will get you to your goals. If you want to become stronger, you should use sports activities such as cycling or rowing with a 1:5 exercise-to-rest ratio.
Alternatively, your high intensity workout could include weights or other resistance equipment to intensify your exercises.
Nevertheless, you should ensure that you keep the exercises manageable for your fitness level. Otherwise, this workout could injure you.
Listening to Your Body
As you learn how to do a high intensity workout, it is essential that you listen to your body. This means looking for the following signs that you are overtraining and need to lower the intensity:
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Muscle injuries
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Unusual soreness and stiffness
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Smaller appetite
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Inability to train as you used to
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Feeling drained during low intensity exercises
Incorporating High-Intensity Workouts into Your Routine
Lastly, you should know how to incorporate this intense workout into your current routine. This type of exercise can fit in right before you cool down at the end of your strengthening sessions.
However, you should ensure that you maintain 4 recovery days per week where you do no high intensity exercises.
Wrapping up
This guide has thoroughly explained how to do a high intensity workout. It is as simple as doing a warm-up, choosing a set or circuit of intense exercises yet short exercises mixed with equal rest periods, and finishing up with a cool down.
For beginners, the training can include easier exercises that still leave your heart pumping hard. Meanwhile, advanced athletes can use larger weights and resistance equipment and do more challenging exercises.
For the best high intensity workout, consider listening to a coach with OpenRun Pro 2 headphones. These Shokz headphones have a sleek yet sturdy design, ensuring they stay on even during your most vigorous exercises.
