You’ve probably heard about the latest buzzword HIIT (pronounced “hit”). HIIT- High-Intensity Interval Training – involves a set of short high-intensity bursts separated by periods of low-intensity recovery time.

In recent years, this type of exercise has been gaining ground, and more and more studies testify to the benefits of doing interval training for general health and weight loss.

Health Benefits of HIIT

One of the biggest advantages of HIIT is that it provides most benefit from exercise in the least amount of time.

The health benefits you can achieve with HIIT are pretty remarkable. You certainly get more bang for your bucks! Here are some important health benefits of HIIT:

• Improves your blood glucose level
• Supercharges your fat-burning
• Boosts your metabolism
• Improves your cardiovascular fitness

However, HIIT isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t already exercising and in a decent shape, you may find it difficult to stick to such  training method.

So, if you aren’t into exercise, at least harness the power of interval walking to improve your health.

Enter into Interval Walking

If you are a newbie to HIIT or to exercise in general, I would strongly suggest you starting with the following “interval walking” protocol. It’s easy, but its benefits are amazing.

Dr Gibala, who is world’s foremost authority on HIIT mentions in his ground-breaking book “The One Minute Workout” about the research related to interval walking.

He says, “compared with walking at a steady pace, the interval-based routine has been shown to result in much larger improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (an incredible 25% increase) and much larger decreases in blood pressure (6% reduction in systolic blood pressure) for those who are out of shape.

Incredible huh? So without further ado, here is how you can practice interval walking.

Total time investment: 26 minutes

How often: You may do this every day or at least four times a week

1. Warm up by walking for 2 minutes
2. After your warm up, walk as fast as you can without jogging for the next 3 minutes. You should be breathing deeply and be able to maintain a conversation with some difficulty (High-Intensity)
3. For the next 3 minutes, decrease your intensity and walk at a leisurely pace (Low-Intensity)
4. Repeat steps 2 to 3 for at least four times

Interval Timer App

It’s advisable to install an interval timer app to do this interval walking. An app helps you track the minutes correctly.

Just Google “interval timer app” and you’ll come across countless free and paid apps.

These two are my favourite interval timer apps:

• Seconds
• Interval Timer