If you want to quickly shed weight, HIIT cardio workouts can help you. High-Intensity Interval Training, also popularly known as HIIT, is a cardiovascular exercise that is performed at high intensity for a short duration. These are intense exercises to be done before a small break. These cardio workouts are the best way to burn fat in a short period.
10 Best HIIT Cardio Workout for Weight Loss
#1 Burpees
Burpees is a two-part exercise that involves a push-up, followed by a leap in the air. The Burpees engages all the muscles in your body and is mainly targeted to build Calves, chest, triceps, shoulder, biceps, glutes, and lats.
How to do Burpees?
Burpees are very easy to perform as it requires no machinery or weights. To perform Burpees, get into a partial squat position and bend down. Keep your spine straight and touch down the ground with your chest. Push-up, bring both the legs together with a frog jump and then jump up by raising your hands in the air.
#2 High Knees
High Knees is another easy exercise with no requirement for training equipment. High Knees help strengthen all muscles in your legs and increases your heartbeat, which further improves coordination and flexibility in the body.
How to do High Knees?
To perform High Knees, open your feet to a hip-width and then lift your left knee towards your chest, perform the same thing with the other leg at a running speed. You should also try keeping your arms extended and let the knees touch the palms when you perform the exercise.
#3 Lunge Jumps
Lunge jumps are an advanced variation of a normal walking lunge exercise. The exercise accounts for jumping high in the air and switching to your other foot ahead before landing. This exercise requires no weight lifting equipment and burns a tremendous amount of calories. It also helps in boosting your heart rate.
How to do Lunge Jumps?
To perform Lunge Jumps stand with your legs at least shoulders width apart. Move a leg forward with your spine straight. Now flex your leg and go down, make sure your leg should be perpendicular to the floor. Now at last jump and put the other leg forward and repeat the exercise.
#4 Jumping Jacks
Jumping jacks, also called side-straddle hop, is a full-body exercise that can be done almost anywhere — all thanks to the no requirement of training equipment.
How to do Jumping Jacks?
To perform Jumping Jacks firstly stand straight with your feet at least hip-width apart. Make sure that you keep your shoulders relaxed and look straight ahead. Now jump and move your feet laterally apart. At the same time, move your hands up and down over your head. Repeat the steps by following the same.
#5 Mountain Climbers
Climbing mountains isn’t easy! But what if the mountains become plain ground? Well, that’s the logic behind the Mountain Climbers exercise. To make you feel you are climbing a mountain by being on the ground. This exercise is well known for great benefits like building cardio endurance and agility. Again, Mountain Climber trains the whole body.
How to do Mountain Climbers?
To perform Mountain Climbers, get into the Straight arm plank position. Make sure to place your hands a little wider than your shoulders-width. Now bring the right knee towards your chest and without lifting your hips. And, then move it back and bring on the other knee. Now repeat the steps to continue following it.
#6 Rope Jumping
Rope Jumping, also known as skipping, is preferred by thousands of people over running because of its uncountable benefits. It looks easy, burns a lot of calories, and it’s fun indeed.
How to do skipping?
To perform skipping, all that you need is a rope. Now stand straight, keep your legs close to each other with your elbow near your stomach. And, now jump and make the rope do a circle around your body from head to toe. You can also change the jump by jumping forward and backwards.
#7 Push-ups
Push-ups are the most common. Bodyweight exercise. However, they are tough for beginners. But when you train daily, you get used to it and start liking it. Push-ups are best for building the upper body. It helps form Chest, Shoulders, and triceps,
How to do Push-ups?
Push-ups require no training equipment and can be performed easily at home. To practise push-ups, one needs to get into a cat position with palms and toe tips touching the ground. Now go down on your chest and touch the ground. Make sure your spine doesn’t bend, and the legs are straight. As you gain experience, you can challenge yourself by putting your toes close to each other.
#8 Side Jackknife
The Side Jackknife is an exercise that targets Obliques, shoulders, and quads . It also involves glutes & hip flexors.
How to do Side Jackknife?
To perform Side Jackknife, one needs to lie down on their side with one leg on the top of the other. Now put your one hand behind your head with the elbow flared out. And the other hand on the ground in front of you to balance your weight. Now try to bring your upper leg and elbow together and then take it back to the original position. Now repeat the steps to implement training.
#9 Russian Twist
The Russian Twist is a simple and yet very effective way to train your core, and hips. The Russian Twist is a popular exercise among athletes– all thanks to after-effects that help with athletes in twisting movements and quickly change direction.
How to do a Russian Twist?
To perform Russian Twist, one needs to take the ground position with their legs extended in the front. After that, raise your knees up and assume a v-sit position. Make sure to keep both your legs shoulder-width apart from each other. Now, in the end, twist from one side to another. Repeat it several times to train the body.
#10 TRX Pull-up
TRX pull-ups need a lot of upper body strength. But it can be easy if you know the right technique and have practised a lot. To perform this, you would also need a TRX trainer.
How to do TRX Pull-up?
To perform TRX Pull-up take a grip of TRX. Now use your back and arms to pull your body upwards with both the legs at shoulder-width apart. You should aim to get your chest to the same level as the handles, but don’t worry if you can’t do it at the first go. All it needs is practise. After that, hold the body in that position for a second, and then lower your body and repeat the steps to follow the same.
6 Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
- According to researchers, a HIIT cardio workout can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine 2019 report, people doing HIIT workout lost 28.5% more fat than the people training on moderately-intense but continuous exercise.
- HIIT cardio workout has an impressive ability to increase your body metabolic rate for hours even after exercise. According to Harvard, if a person’s metabolic rate is high, they will burn more calories at rest and during activity.
- HIIT cardio workout also helps increase muscle mass if done with the right weights and technique in specific individuals.
- HIIT cardio workout also improves an individual’s oxygen consumption capacity. According to a study, five weeks of high-intensity workout performed for 20 minutes each day, improved the oxygen consumption of an individual by 9%.
- HIIT cardio workout also lowers down blood sugar levels in diabetic individuals. According to a study, along with blood sugar level reduction in diabetic patients, HIIT also improves insulin resistance compared to normal exercise.
- The HIIT cardio workout does not usually require any training equipment. The above suggested ten exercises do not need any expensive heavy equipment other than the rope, which is easily available at home.
Summary
HIIT cardio workout is one of the best ideas to train without spending much on costly equipment. However, it is highly recommended to seek expert advice to perform it right away and avoid any unwanted trouble. Make sure to wear the right shoes along with other guarding elements to prevent injuries. Along with the training, you should also take care of the proper dietary requirements of your body for the training to be effective. Have a cheerful start!