Think you’re too busy to work out? Think again! Mini HIIT workouts are a great way to squeeze in a heart-pumping sweat session when you’re tight on time.
We all know that making time for regular exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Working out consistently is extremely beneficial for improving heart and brain health, strengthening bones and muscles, managing your weight, and reducing your risk of developing diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), getting regular physical activity can also help decrease anxiety, improve cognitive function, and prevent heart disease, stroke, some types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
So it’s important that you carve out time for consistent exercise, even on your most hectic days. Luckily, you don’t need to spend hours in the gym to get great results. Mini HIIT workouts can be done in 30 minutes — and even far less — with little to no equipment, at home or in a gym. DailyOM turned to the experts to find out more about these trendy, timesaving workouts.
What Is HIIT?
HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training. These short-but-sweet interval workouts include alternating bouts of high-energy training followed by a short recovery period. For example, you might sprint for 30 seconds, then jog or walk for 30 seconds. This pattern is repeated over and over again until the workout is completed.
“HIIT is a group of exercises that are performed with high intensity with various time intervals for the workouts and rest periods,” says Kevin Atkinson, owner of Sweat 60 in Santa Monica, California. “You can burn a lot of calories in a short period of time.”
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), these intense workout periods can range anywhere from five seconds to eight minutes long and are performed at 80 to 95 percent of a person’s maximum heart rate. Recovery periods last just as long, but are only performed at 40 to 50 percent of the maximum heart rate. This pattern often results in greater weight loss than traditional cardio because your body’s excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) continues to torch calories for up to two hours after you’ve finished working out. (Try the CDC’s free guide to calculate your heart rate at home.)
Interested in learning more? Check out 4-Minute Metabolism Booster
What Makes HIIT Effective?
There are plenty of reasons why HIIT is such an effective workout. One, it doesn’t take a lot of time, which makes it feel a lot more accessible. Two, you can incorporate it into almost any type of exercise you enjoy, like swimming, running, or biking, so working out won’t feel like a chore. Three, you don’t necessarily need any fancy equipment or a gym membership to reap big rewards.
“HIIT training leads to improvements in fitness,” says Chris Gagliardi, an American Council on Exercise (ACE) Certified Personal Trainer and Health Coach in San Diego, California. Your body will be able to deliver more oxygen to your muscles per minute, giving you more sustained energy, as well as enabling you to work out at higher intensities for longer periods of time without lactate building up in your bloodstream, which can eventually make you feel sick and unable to perform. “This adaptation is important because it enhances one’s ability to sustain higher-intensity exercise for longer periods,” says Gagliardi. “HIIT workouts are effective because they progressively overload the body, and progressive overload is needed for those positive adaptations to occur.”
Are Mini HIIT Workouts Effective?
In short, the answer is a resounding yes. Mini HIIT workouts are surprisingly effective, despite the fact that they can be completed in less time than it takes to watch your favorite sitcom. “Mini HIIT workouts are also known as reduced-exertion high-intensity training [REHIT],” says Gagliardi. “This type of training offers a modification of traditional HIIT by reducing the number of alternating high- and low-intensity rounds.”
In one ACE-supported research study on REHIT, an eight-minute, 40-second REHIT protocol was used to see if this short-duration workout could indeed be effective. The results showed that the workout had a high level of adherence and improved maximal oxygen uptake, systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, cardiometabolic health, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides after eight weeks of participation. All of this occurred by exercising using REHIT for approximately ten minutes a day!
How Long Are HIIT Workouts?
HIIT workouts typically range anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. However, the time you spend exercising really depends on your specific needs and goals. (For reference, the CDC suggests getting 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, and making that a combination of muscle-strengthening and aerobic exercises. Break that 150 into smaller, manageable chunks and squeeze in a mini HIIT workout when you can.)
According to the experts, HIIT has benefits across the board for everyone, regardless of the amount of time you have allotted in your schedule. So don’t be afraid to mix it up, and grab the opportunity to squeeze in a short workout between meetings or before putting the kids to bed.
“I would say 5 to 20 minutes is ideal for a mini HIIT workout,” says Atkinson, who advises incorporating HIIT, strength training, walking, and mobility exercises like foam rolling and stretching into your regular routine. “If your goal is to get sweaty and you’re short on time, mini HIIT workouts are great. You’ll feel better and more refreshed if you get in a quick sweat. You can also burn a lot of calories in a short period of time.”
The Benefits of a Mini HIIT Workout
Although there are plenty of pluses of mini HIIT workouts, the most obvious is their timesaving aspect. Not everyone has an hour to spare to work out every day, and with the many responsibilities people are juggling, it’s easy to let exercise fall to the bottom of the “to-do” list.
According to the National Council on Strength & Fitness, a main reason that people fail to meet their fitness goals is because they run into scheduling and prioritizing issues. “One of the most important benefits of HIIT is adherence [of exercisers],” says Gagliardi, who says people are mistaken when they assume an exercise session has to be an hour or longer. Then, “if they don’t have 60 minutes available, they choose to do nothing instead. This is a form of ‘all or none’ thinking. However, with REHIT, adaptations can occur in a significantly reduced amount of time.” With lack of time being a primary reason people give for not working out, the expert says REHIT is a solution to this barrier.
How to Get Started With HIIT Workouts
You don’t need to be a Division I athlete to start doing HIIT workouts. However, it’s important to assess your current fitness level and consult a doctor before you begin any new exercise program. In addition to getting a physical exam from your doctor, ACSM suggests that people living more sedentary lifestyles should work up to HIIT workouts by first participating in “consistent aerobic training (three to five times a week for 20 to 60 minutes per session at a somewhat hard intensity)” for at least several weeks.
“You should consider your workout history, current or past injuries, and current imbalances,” advises Atkinson. “These all need to be addressed. Generally, HIIT includes jumping and lateral movements, which can be high risk for people with no experience.” Atkinson says that working with an instructor in person is helpful for learning proper form.
Can You Do Your Own At-Home HIIT Workout?
There are plenty of resources available to get started with mini HIIT workouts at home. (DailyOM, for example, offers a popular HIIT Yoga Fusion online course.) “Always do your research and read reviews,” says Atkinson, whose gym, Sweat 60, offers an online program. “There are a lot of options available. If you have experience doing HIIT classes, you can definitely do these workouts at home.”
Otherwise, you can search for in-person HIIT classes and find ones with excellent reviews, ask neighbors to recommend gyms they like, or stop into a local fitness center or YMCA to see if they offer short HIIT workout classes.
The Bottom Line
Mini HIIT workouts are a great way to torch a ton of calories without spending a lot of time exercising. You can do these high-intensity workouts in the privacy of your own home or at your favorite local gym. This makes HIIT perfect for people with busy schedules, who need plenty of flexibility.
“HIIT is a great option for people in a time crunch or people without injuries,” says Atkinson. “It’s great for people who want to lose extra weight in combination with strength training. I would recommend it because it’s effective in a short period of time. It’s also great as a complement to other types of low-impact training and increases in metabolic and cardiac output, which are beneficial for long-term health.”
