10 Best HIIT Workout Exercises to Burn Calories Fast

High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, has been all the craze as of late. You might have heard your co-worker talking about doing HIIT with their trainer and saying how it has changed their life. While many people have a vague notion about what HIIT entails, many don’t know what the best HIIT workout would look like.

HIIT is a form of cardio training, where bouts are done in intervals, with high intensity during active work periods and either active recovery or a stationary recovery during rest periods. When performing a HIIT interval, we would usually be aiming to achieve a max heart rate of 80% — (220-your age) x 0.8.

The work to rest ratio for a HIIT interval should be about 1:2 or 1:3. In a 1:2 work to rest ratio, we would be doing our high intensity portion for 30 seconds and have a complete minute (60 seconds) of rest.

What Are the Best HIIT Workout Exercises?

Now that we know what HIIT is and how to program it, you may be thinking about trying to create your own HIIT workout plan. High intensity interval training workouts aren’t difficult to set up. You just have to know what your fitness goals are.

First, we have to see what we are looking to get out of it, how long have we been training, and what we have been doing.

For someone who has been training as a runner for a good amount of time might consider sprints as part of their high intensity workouts.

For a novice trainee, a good option might be to do something low impact, as they wont have the ligament and tendon strength to tolerate a lot of the impact that running/sprinting has.

This being said, a personal favorite exercise for HIIT for those just starting looking to get their conditioning up is mountain climbers. Being a relatively low impact exercise, it also engages the whole body and fires up that core due to its plank positioning. The exercise is also a relatively safe exercise, especially when done on a mat.

There are many other great HIIT exercises you can incorporate to create the best HIIT workout, and we’ll go over some of those below.

How Often Should I Do HIIT?

Once you have decided what type of HIIT exercises to do, you have to come to a decision as to how many times to incorporate HIIT into your training week. This may vary heavily based on your training experience and current conditioning.

For an intermediate trainee, this may be up to as many as four times a week in conjunction with a proper strength training regimen. When looking at a novice trainee, this may be about 1-2 times per week.

Although these are just general suggestions, some things that you should take into account is your overall fitness goal. Is it just increasing your conditioning, or are you looking to burn a hefty amount of calories to help put you into a larger calorie deficit?

Obviously, if you’re looking to burn more calories, frequency will be very important as you search for the best HIIT workout for you. What that number may be will vary depending on what your recovery ability is from workout to workout. Your HIIT workouts and other training sessions should be separated by some recovery time to avoid pushing your body too far.

Why Is HIIT Good for Losing Weight?

HIIT is good for losing weight due to its time efficiency. When performing these high intensity intervals, it causes your heart rate and rate of breathing (respiration rate) to increase dramatically.

This is good for you because it causes your body to burn a lot more calories minute for minute when compared to standard resistance training/strength training. Especially when you are cut for time and trying to make the most of that hour that you are able to set aside, this will be your secret weapon for increasing your energy expenditure and really helping you in shedding off those last extra pounds and bringing you to your end goal.

To get you started, here are some of the best HIIT workouts that you can try.

10 Best HIIT Workout Combinations to Burn Calories Fast

Combo 1

• High Knees (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Plank Jacks (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Burpees (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 4 sets

Combo 2

• Side Plank Walks (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Jumping Lunges (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Mountain Climbers (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

Combo 3

• Jump Squats (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Plank Jacks (20 seconds work – 40 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• High Knees (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

Combo 4

• Side Lunges (30 seconds work- 60 seconds rest)x 5 sets

• Saw Plank (30 seconds work- 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Butt Kicks (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

Combo 5

• Side Plank Walks (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• Burpees (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest) x 5 sets

• High Knees (30 seconds work – 60 seconds rest)

Combo 6

4 sets of:

• Jumping Jacks – 20 seconds work

• Mountain Climbers – 20 seconds work

• 60 Seconds rest

Plus 4 sets of:

• Side Plank Walks – 20 seconds work

• Saw Plank – 20 seconds work

• Burpees – 20 Seconds work

• 90 seconds rest

Combo 7

4 sets of:

• Dumbbell Squats – 30 seconds work

• Side Squats – 30 seconds work

• 60 seconds rest

Plus 4 sets of:

• High Knees – 30 seconds work

• Butt Kicks – 30 seconds work

• Burpees – 20 seconds work

• 90 seconds rest

Combo 8

4 sets of:

• Jumping Lunges – 20 seconds work

• Mountain Climbers – 20 seconds work

• 60 seconds rest

Plus 4 sets of:

• Jumping Jacks – 30 seconds work

• Side Squats – 30 seconds work

• High knees – 20 seconds work

• 90 seconds rest

Combo 9

4 sets of:

• Jump Squats – 20 seconds work

• Jumping Jacks – 20 seconds work

• 60 seconds rest

Plus 4 sets of:

• Mountain Climbers – 20 seconds work

• Side Plank Walks – 20 seconds work

• Saw Plank – 20 seconds work

• 90 seconds rest

Combo 10

4 sets of:

• Jumping Jacks – 30 seconds work

• High Knees –  20 seconds work

• Butt Kicks – 20 seconds work

• 60 Seconds rest

Plus 4 sets of:

• Burpees – 30 seconds work

• Mountain climbers – 30 seconds work

• 90 seconds rest 

Bottom Line

High intensity interval training can be a tough form of exercise to get into. It demands a lot from your body, and you’ll have to take the time to build up your muscles and stamina. However, if you’re looking to start with weight loss or build up certain muscle groups, these intense cardio workouts are perfect.

The above exercises can be combined to create the best HIIT workout to get you started on your HIIT journey, so try one today.