7 Interval Training Workouts To Burn Fat Fast

High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a form of exercise characterized by periods of hard work followed by brief periods of recovery or rest. This form of exercise is a highly efficient means of improving your fitness level and burning body fat. Why is HIIT superior to steady state cardio like jogging when it comes to fat burning? It’s because your body primarily uses sugar (glucose) during the intense exercise bout and uses stored body fat during the recovery phase as well as post-exercise (See: Afterburn Effect).

You can perform HIIT using gym equipment, various cardio formats, and weighted or bodyweight exercises. In other words, you can do HIIT whether you have a gym membership or not. You can invest in some basic equipment or just rely on your bodyweight and a few simple forms of cardio.

In the gym, you can use a treadmill, elliptical, row machine, stationary bike, stepmill, stairmaster, free weights, etc. Alternatively, you can run, bike, jump rope, swim, or perform plyometrics. You can also do a HIIT workout utilizing weights. There are numerous variations and ways to take advantage of this training method.

Interval Training Workout Guidelines
Before completing these interval training workouts, be sure to complete a 5-10 minute warm-up. Your warm-up should consist of some dynamic stretching, light movement in your exercise of choice (if you plan to do sprints, jog for a bit beforehand. If you’re swimming or biking, start easy before amping up the intensity), and complete a few accelerations where you gradually build your speed to a sprint over your chosen distance.

Warming up properly will help prepare your body and muscles for the work ahead. If you jump straight into intervals without warming up, you put yourself at a greater risk of injury. Once you’re warm and have properly prepared yourself for some speed work, choose one of the following interval workouts and challenge yourself.

Interval Training Workout #1: Stationary Bike Tabata Workout
The tabata protocol is a workout method where you perform 20 seconds of intense work followed by 10 seconds of rest for a total of 8 cycles. While the entire workout lasts only 4 minutes, by the end, you should feel like you can’t and don’t want to complete another interval.

Workout Instructions:

Using a stationary bike, warm up for 5-10 minutes. Make sure to have adequate resistance on your bike before you start sprinting so your legs don’t spin out of control.
After your warm-up, sprint hard for 20s and bike very slowly for 10s.
Repeat for a total of 8 rounds (4 minutes total). Finish with a 5-10min cool down at an easy tempo.
Interval Training Workout #2: 25-Minute Sprint Fartlek Workout
In Swedish, Fartlek means “speed play.” This form of training combines steady state (continuous) training with speed intervals in an unstructured format that strengthens both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. The intensity and speed varies however and whenever you want. Walk, jog, and sprint for any distance or length of time, and in any order. This is a spontaneous form of training that you can just go out and have fun with.

Workout Instructions:

Jog for 8 minutes
Fast run for 4 minutes
Sprint for 20 seconds
Walk for 1 minute
Sprint for 30 seconds
Walk for 1 minute
Sprint for 10 second
Walk for 1 minute
Jog for 5 minutes.
Complete a fast run for 1 minute to the finish, and then cool down by walking for 5-10 minutes at the end.
Interval Training Workout #3: 100m Walk-Back Sprint
The walking back sprint is probably one of the most straight-forward and easy to incorporate variations of HIIT (particularly if you have a running track nearby, although a track is not necessary). If you’re using a track, pick a distance to sprint—50m, 100m, 200m, etc. Sprint your selected distance, and then walk back to the start to recover. Repeat 4-10 times. If you don’t have a track, you can use a street length or pick two points in a park to sprint/walk between. Sprint to the end and walk back to recover.

Workout Instructions:

On a track, warm-up with dynamic stretches and accelerations. Then sprint 100m as fast as you can and walk back to the start.
Repeat 4-10x.
Interval Training Workout #4: Lunge/Sprint Combination Intervals
In a combination interval, you alternate between a high-rep strength exercise and an anaerobic cardio interval. NOTE: This is a more advanced type of interval, so please be careful.

Workout Instructions:

Complete 15 dumbbell walking lunges on each leg (30 lunges total) followed immediately by a 30s hill sprint on a treadmill.
Recover for 30-90s and repeat.
Complete 3-5x.
Interval Training Workout #5: Countdown Jump Rope Workout
This workout works by choosing a specific amount of time – 2 minutes – then dropping the amount of exercising required by 30 seconds on subsequent sets. The amount of time given for rest matches the amount of time spent exercising, so it’s a 1:1 work-to-rest ratio.

Workout Instructions:

For 2 minutes, complete as many jump rope revolutions as you can
Rest 2 minutes
For 1.5 minutes, complete as many jump rope revolutions as you can
Rest For 1.5 minutes
For 1 minute, complete as many jump rope revolutions as you can
Rest for 1 minute
For 30 seconds, complete as many jump rope revolutions as you can
Rest for 3 minutes, then repeat 1-2x
See if you can match the number of revolutions you get in the second round as you did in the first. Given you are timing yourself, you can watch a clock on the wall, or use a countdown timer on a watch, or stopwatch.

Interval Training Workout #6: You-Go-I-Go Swimming Workout
Swimming is an excellent full body exercise that is low impact, but it can be made high intensity. While many swimmers will do 60 laps at a snails pace, you can opt for cranking up the intensity to get a much better workout in much less time. For a bit more fun, get a partner to do this workout with you.

Workout Instructions:

Warm up by swimming 8-10 laps
Swim 2 laps as fast as you can at top speed
The second you are done, your friend then completes 2 laps as fast as he / she can
Alternate for a total of 10 rounds (20 laps)
This workout shouldn’t take much more than 10 minutes.

Interval Training Workout #7: Plyometrics “Ouch My Legs” Workout
Plyometrics are exercises that require muscles to exert maximum force in minimum time. For this reason, they can be more dangerous if proper form isn’t used. They can also be very efficient and effective because so much power is being used in a short period of time. This workout requires only 2 plyometric exercises: jump squats and jump lunges.

Workout instructions:

Complete 15 reps of jump squats
Rest 30 seconds
Complete 24 Reps of Jump Lunges
Rest 30 seconds
Repeat for 5 rounds
What you’ll notice by your last set is your leg muscles should feel like they are on fire, in a good way. If you want to take this workout up another notch, consider using a weighted vest, or holding dumbbells at your sides…but this tough! If this plyometrics workout is too difficult for you, consider doing it with assistance while holding on to a solid object like a bar, or TRX.

How To Create More Interval Training Workouts
You can create a limitless variety of interval training workouts by adjusting the time, weight, and distance of the intervals you are completing to constantly challenge your body.

Variable #1 – Time
Changing the duration of your interval is a great way to keep your workout challenging. If you start out with 30s sprints on a treadmill, after a few weeks increase the duration of your interval to 45s, and then 60s.

Alternatively, you can change the duration of your rest period. Initially, it’s a good idea to give yourself a lot of rest time. Take 90s to recover at first, then decrease your rest time to 60s and so on.

As your fitness improves, you’ll be able to sprint for a longer period of time and recover faster.

Variable #2 – Weight
As you get stronger and faster, adding weight to an exercise will enable you to continue challenging yourself and improve. One way to add weight is with a weight vest. Another option is, if you’re doing combination intervals, you can increase the weights you use during the high-rep strength exercise.

Variable #3 – Distance
Gradually increasing the distance of your sprint is another way to keep your workouts challenging. If you start with 50m sprints, gradually increase your distance to 100m, then 200m, and eventually 400m.

There are a few important considerations when changing the variables of your intervals. Make sure you give your body enough time, about 2-4 weeks or more, to adapt to your intervals before making them more challenging. If you increase the challenge too soon, you increase your risk of injury and burnout. It’s better to start out a little easier to let your body acclimate to a new stress than to overload your body from the very beginning. Also, take enough rest between HIIT workouts. It’s when you rest that your body absorbs the effects of your workouts.

Interval training workouts are a valuable training format that can help you overcome a plateau, decrease your body fat percentage, and increase your fitness. HIIT can be performed 1-4x per week, but is not recommended more than 4x per week. Listen to your body, pay attention to your workout results, and you’ll be able to use HIIT to take your training to the next level.