HIIT

You’ve heard good things about HIIT but you don’t know where to start? Fear not, time-pushed runners, here’s our guide to high-intensity sessions

Words: Tina Chantrey

Add HIIT into your weekly training programme: minimum time but maximum benefit!

You should replace at least a couple of your weekly distance workouts with other forms of training, such as tempo runs, speedwork and resistance training

With the recent challenges to ‘normal’ training, many of us have had to diversify. Whether you’ve struggled to get out the door, or to push yourself to run hard, we’ve all had to find new ways to motivate ourselves.

Running doesn’t always have to feel like a slog, though. HIIT, or highintensity interval training, is a common way to achieve training benefits without investing hours and miles on the road or hills. With research showing that as little as seven minutes can give massive improvements to fitness, how can you do more HIIT?

“HIIT workouts usually alternate short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest or lower-intensity exercise (think of active recovery like slow jogging),” says Idalis Velazquez, track and field athlete and creator of 30 Day Breakaway, Beachbody On Demand’s online running programme (beachbodyondemand.com).