There is no question that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is very effective at burning fat and it’s a very time efficient form of exercise. But I believe the greatest benefit of HIIT is the “Fun Factor”. The chances of you ‘sticking with it‘ will skyrocket when you are having fun with your workout program.

Adding to the ‘fun factor’ is that HIIT can be performed in nearly limitless ways. You can easily mix up the interval times as well as the exercises. I feel that one of the funnest ways to perform HIIT is to get outdoors and perform hill sprints. It’s an incredible workout and you can incorporate a great deal of variety within the hill sprint session.

Check out the variety of movements that I incorporated into this recent hill sprint HIIT workout…

In this hill sprint HIIT workout I did:

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Our family spent some time at the park today running around and having fun. While we were there I did a quickie HIIT session on the hill and Angie did a fun HIIT workout on the park bleachers. What made it even more fun was that our son Shayne did the HIIT workout along side Angie.

It was spontaneous for Shayne to join Angie, but it really goes to show the impact that we have on our children. The example that we set is incredibly important to them. Check out Shayne and Angie in action..

Notice how Shayne wasn’t saying, “Awww, do I have to workout? Do I have to exercise?” It was natural and fun. When you’re active as a family time fly’s during the workout. You’re focused on the enjoyment rather than counting down the seconds until you are done.

The movements that Angie did on the bleachers were:

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High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is an outstanding form of exercise to improve your fitness level, conditioning, and burn the fat from your body. This isn’t breaking news for many of our valued readers and fans. But HIIT has been around for much longer than the recent craze that’s been buzzing around the fat loss air waves over the past few years. It’s actually been an effective method of training for decades. It’s been all the marketing hype that’s created the widespread movement… and the controversy to go along with it.

If you’re not totally familiar with my fitness background, I received my degree in Human Kinetics with Honors in Movement Science from the University of Windsor back in 1999. A good chunk of my focus was spent on Sport Psychology and mindset, but a huge chunk of it was spent on Biomechanics, Anatomy, and Sport Physiology.

For extra credit we had opportunities to participate (be a guinea pig), in scientific research and studies. One of those studies that took place within one of my Exercise Physiology classes was on the topic of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). The test was performed on a special stationary bike and we were instructed to go “All Out!” for the speed portion of the interval followed by slow pedaling for the rest interval. At the end of the test a blood sample was taken from us and our VO2 Max was measured as well.

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