workout wednesday: killer HIIT cardio

Hello Hello!!!

I hop everyone is having an incredible week this far! Keep moving towards achieving your goals being the best version of yourself possible.

For today's Workout Wednesday, I wanted to share my favorite HIIT cardio treadmill workout!

What is HIIT Cardio?

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, and it's the best form of cardio for burning fat fast and improving your cardiovascular health. As the name states, HIIT cardio basically means you will be doing a few seconds/minutes of (in this case) running at your highest intensity, and then will quickly switch to a lower intensity. Right before your heart rate begins to calm down, you will then go back to the few seconds of high intensity. These are the so called "intervals" in the name! Don't worry, this workout is very easy to follow and you don't have to keep track of much!

Is HIIT Cardio Right for Me?

So, HIIT cardio is right for you if you want to lose fat while still preserving (and possibly gaining) your lean muscle mass. Ask yourself how you want to look. Compare the bodies of marathon/long distance runners to track and field sprinters. HIIT cardio will have you looking more like the sprinters than the marathoners.

What You Can Expect:

To be tired... very very tired once you finish. HIIT cardio is meant to DRAIN you, so I recommend NOT doing this workout on the same day as your heavy lifting.

What You'll Need:

-A Treadmill

-A Stopwatch/Timer (your phone will work or the timer on the treadmill itself)

-WATER

-This Workout (pretty self-explanatory)

Let's Do It!

So if you've read this far, I'm hoping that you're willing to give the workout a try! It only takes 20 minutes MAX, as HIIT is so difficult that you should not do it for longer than 20 minutes.

If you're a beginner (which most people are when it comes to this), start by only doing the sequence ONCE. It will look like this:

THIS IS STILL VERY DIFFICULT!! Do not underestimate the power of HIIT!

So if this is your first time, or maybe you're new to cardio or haven't run in a while, try this out first to assess where you stand (no shame! this is where I started as well!)

If you're really feeling it, try the whole workout:

If that gets too easy for you, simply add on another round (add the first photo to the end of the second one, or repeat the second photo again!) Make sure you're really ready for this though, because it WILL be difficult!

So go ahead and give it a shot! Let me know how it works out for you! HIIT cardio is the BEST choice for cardio, so don't be afraid to try it out! :)