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HIIT Workout Plan

HIIT Cardio Workouts for Burning Fat and Retaining Muscle

One of the top tools for burning off body fat is HIIT. That's not a typo on the HIIT – it stands for High Intensity Interval Training and it is superb for burning off body fat and it also turns out to enable you to keep muscle mass while you do so.

Like HIT, HIIT is brief – but repeated. And effective. High Intensity Interval Training was found to burn fat and build muscle – simultaneously. In other words, the holy grail of bodybuilding.

But that's not all. HIIT also sparks growth hormone production in the human body. Unlike the standard slower paced cardio training, HIIT workouts have the potential to get the growth hormone active, and that in turn furthers the fat burning, muscle building effect.

You can apply the HIIT approach to virtually any exercise tool. A recumbent bike works great. Sprints (actual sprinting on a track or sports field) is the top HIIT tool. You can use stair climbing, jumping rope, circuit weight training, kettlebells, a treadmill, rowing and many more options.

For HIIT workouts you want to get in a brief, intense burst of activity (say around 10-30 seconds) followed by a recovery time of about 90 seconds. Then you repeat the exercise again. Work up to eight sets of the intervals, which seems to be about the maximum level, according to HIIT guru Phil Campbell.

The upside of a HIIT routine is that although it is tough to perform, it is finished fast. You don't need to spend nearly the amount of time that someone performing a long cardio workout does. And you can get better benefits to boot. Not a bad deal, and especially good for the bodybuilder who has limited training time. HIIT is ideal for shortening a weekly workout time frame.

A couple of HIIT workouts a weeks will do the trick and if you can only get in one, that's far better than not doing anything in this area.

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