HIIT Training for Beginners – 5 Top Tips

These HIIT training tips for beginners are a quick way to get started with effective HIIT workouts! 🔥

5 Top Tips for Getting Started with High Intensity Interval Training

So, you’ve heard HIIT gets results and you have limited time (less than 15 mins a day).

You’re not too bothered about how HIIT works, you just want to get in and start.

You’ve come to the right place. Here are my top tips for getting the most from HIIT training especially if you are a beginner!

HIIT Tip #1 – Keep it short

The key to HIIT training for beginners is intensity. That doesn’t mean being stupidly out of breath or near death though!

To get the most intensity, keep the work period short and sharp. That tells the body’s cells to change – that’s all you need.

Start with just 8-10 secs of all out work, with 42-50 secs rest.

That’s a repeat, every minute.

Do 10 minutes only.

Start at 70% effort on the first repeat, gradually work a little harder each time until by the 4th repeat you are at 100% effort.

Here’s this HIIT workout laid out over 10 mins.

I like this approach because you get fitter quickly, and by working at 100% effort, you keep the stimulus going every workout.

Also, because you are working hard, you tend to preserve muscle mass (in many cases you may develop more muscle if you’ve been quite inactive prior) which is a good result.

It’s also fun to go as hard as you can, it’s like being young again. Plus the adrenalin wakes you up and helps the body access fat stores more readily (bonus!).

HIIT Tip #2 – Keep it big

That means use your lower body muscles predominantly.

There’s a lot more muscle mass and you’ll engage your core too.

Adaptations (such as improved insulin sensitivity) are leg dominant.

It makes me cry when I see ’10 min HIIT upper body dumbbell workout that burns fat’.

That’s nonsense, the research doesn’t support it. Whoever posts that stuff online needs to read some papers.

Get as much muscle mass as possible going, as hard as possible, for a short period.

My top equipment choice is bike/assault bike,  then rower/ski erg, then treadmill or possibly a sled push.

My no equipment option is; in place jump squats (bodyweight) – it doesn’t matter if you don’t leave the ground it’s the power that’s key. Or sprinting (yuck though – really).

I also like Medicine / slam ball; squat and slam (outside, or inside a gym / car park – anywhere else you will get a talking to!).

HIIT Tip #3 – Keep it continuous

The reason I like the bike, then rower, is on the bike you can get to peak power quickly and work to keep it there.

I don’t recommend sprinting as part of HIIT training for beginners as it has a high injury risk. But you can do it on the new air runners with some degree of safety.

On a rower/ski erg you have the return part of the stroke so you struggle to get to peak power as quickly – therefore you may need longer work periods which is fine. Just add 50% to the work period (so 10secs becomes 15 secs) and keep the relief period within the minute (so 50secs becomes 45 secs) and you should get the same effect.

With the treadmill you again have injury risk and it doesn’t allow for maximal effort. When you do a true maximal effort you’ll get higher power in the first 6 secs than you will the last 4 secs of a 10-sec repeat.

On a treadmill you are not at 100% effort immediately. You are only at the speed the treadmill is set to which approximates what you can do for 10 secs.  You’ll also have the risk of getting on and off the belt whilst it’s going at a fast speed.

If I’m doing HIIT on a treadmill I use a 1:3 work:relief ratio with 30 secs as the work period (that’s 30 secs at 15 km/h then 90 secs walking for me for 10-15 mins).

HIIT Tip #4 – Keep progressing

Research shows you will get fit, fast, with HIIT.

To keep getting results HIIT training beginners have to progress by either (in no particular order);

1. increasing repeats (more volume)
2. increasing work period (more work per minute)
3. decreasing relief period (more work per minute)

If you are already working at 100% effort, then as you get fitter there’s progression anyway – as intensity climbs.

However, after a few weeks to a month you’ll hit a peak (there’s a bit of a ceiling).

Then, you’ll need to do one of the three things above.  Just one!  If you do more than one, you’ll overcook your workouts.

My recommendation is;

• If you are time poor – increase the work period by 2 secs (20%).  So you’re 10sec:50sec (work:relief period) becomes 12sec:48sec.  That’s 1:5 becoming 1:4. Doesn’t sound like much, but it is a big enough shift to keep the results coming.
• If you want more endurance, that is the ability to repeat the work over and over, go longer.  Add 2 more repeats.  That’s 10 min workout moving to 12 mins. A 20% increase is enough to keep the changes happening.  You must work hard to keep the intensity up and do the full work period (no winding down before the work period is done).
• If you want more central adaptations (like heart, lungs, circulation) shorten the rest period. 20% decrease would be 50 secs dropping to 40 secs.  Making the HIIT a 1:4 ratio (10 secs work 40 secs relief – 12 repeats in 10 mins).  You’ll puff a lot more, and your fitness will thank you for it.  But you may lose a little power on the work period due to fatigue – this is fine, you’ll still be making fitness progress.

HIIT Tip #5 – Keep going

A massive part of any training regime is consistency. HIIT training for beginners is no different.

Your body adapts to demands over time, so doing lots of HIIT for a few weeks and then falling off the horse, will do very little long term.

To keep at it;

• Don’t progress too much too soon – make it almost easy before you push on.
• Do it at the same time each day and make it a habit – is it 10 mins at lunch time, or after dinner, or before work every day?
• Give yourself options – bike, row, jump squat, slam, ski erg, air runner, box, sled etc.  My personal options are; Bike, Box, Squat/Slam, Treadmill (30 sec work @1:3 ratio), Ski-Erg if I’m out of town and the gym has one (15 sec:45sec).  Staying fresh and seeing what takes your fancy on a day is good for being consistent long term.
• Have a fall back travel option. When I’m stuck away from home or a gym, I have these options – shadow boxing, skipping rope, bodyweight jump squats, burpies (if I’m feeling nuts – that rarely happens).  I have to play around with work:relief ratios but I can always get it to work.
• Phone it in.  That’s right, if you have a day you are feeling blown, just do it, but take it easy.  You will feel better after the 10 mins work than before, and you’ll keep your habit going.

• The past is not the future.  If you miss your HIIT put a line under it, and remember it’s just a one-off slip up.  It doesn’t matter long term at all.  What matters is working out if something got in the way, or if doing something different (time of day, location) would help you nail it next time.  I’ve missed a lot of workouts and I know the dialogue that goes on inside my head.  There are a million reasons for not working out, they are easy to find.  Give yourself credit. You only missed, because you had the guts to plan to do something.  That person, the planner and goal setter, they deserve another chance tomorrow. Failures of various sizes and types precede successes.
• Re-frame exercise.  I know, at the risk of appearing touchy feely 🤗 – I re-framed exercise as self-love and it helped immensely.  I’d worked out that when I didn’t work out that I was really punishing myself – it was as if I wasn’t worthy of the good feelings that exercise gives me.  I got a little zen with it, and figured hey – I’m worth it, I deserve it. As bizarre as it sounds, my brain is starting to catch on that exercise is self-love. It’s made the dialogue of excuses quieter and the time sacrifice very easy to justify.  I get to my workouts much more often and I feel a lot better doing it.

Want some further reading on HIIT?

Hey, if you want more science about HIIT – I’ve got you covered – be warned pretty technical stuff though:

1. HIIT Benefits and Protocols
2. HIIT Physiology
3. HIIT Workout Design and Prescription