HIIT Workouts for Busy Women

To perform a push-up:

• Commence in a plank position, with your shoulders over your wrists, with your legs out behind you.
• Contract your abdominal muscles and keep the back straight.
• As you lower and exhale, ensure to bend your elbows outward to the sides.
• If you could not perform the aforementioned steps on your feet, start on your knees.
• Eventually, you will be able to execute the standard push-ups as your strength increases.
• Repeat the exercise for 20 seconds at high intensity, with 10-second rest breaks in between.

This HIIT workout targets one’s shoulders, hamstrings, triceps, and quads:

• Get down into a high plank, keep your back straight and head in line with the spine.
• Ensure your hands are directly beneath your shoulders, arms fully extended, and your fingers facing forward whilst slightly spread apart. This position works on your upper and lower abs.
• Pump your knees toward your chest one at a time. Try not to rock your torso from side to side but breathe through it.
• Repeat the motion for 20 seconds at high intensity, with 10-second rest breaks in between.

This HIIT workout is characterised by three main steps, namely:

• Stand with your feet together and arms at the sides.
• Next, jump to your feet out to the sides and raise your arms above your head.
• Immediately, reverse this motion back to the starting position.
• Repeat the motion for 20 seconds at high intensity, with 10-second rest breaks in between.

This exercise principally targets a woman’s hamstrings, thighs, quads, and glutes:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart, hinging at the knees to reach a squat position. Ensure that your knees track over your toes and do not extend past.
• With the weight on your heels, push back to standing, squeezing your glutes at the top.

To effectively perform jump squats that target glutes, hips, quads, and hamstrings:

• Lower down into a squat position, with your feet hip-width apart.
• Explode upwards by pushing through your heels while using your glutes to jump. 
• Try to extend your legs fully at the top of the jump.
• Land in a squat position and repeat.

A jump rope HIIT exercise involves:

• Jumping a rope for approximately 20 seconds at a high intensity, subsequently followed by about 10 seconds of rest. 
• Repeat this cycle of 8 rounds or a total of 4 minutes. 
• Then cool down for about 5 minutes with stretching or light cardio exercise. 

Kettlebells are specialised weights utilised in HIIT exercises that are shaped like a ball with a handle on top. Kettlebells are very dynamic with a sub-maximal load, allowing one to move through a wide range of motion, thereby targeting multiple muscle groups.

Kettlebell HIIT workouts usually entail one exercise format, performed for about 20 seconds for 8 rounds/4 minutes with 10 seconds of rest in between. For example, you can perform:

• Right-hand kettlebell swings for 20 seconds.
• Two-handed kettlebell swings for 20 seconds.
• Left-hand kettlebell swings for 20 seconds.
• Alternating hands kettlebell swings for 20 seconds.

Russian twists may help strengthen the obliques and the spine. They can be performed in two steps with kettlebells:

• Sit on the ground and bring your legs out straight. Then lean back slightly so your torso and legs form a V-like shape whilst bracing your abdominal wall to engage your core.
• Balance and keep your legs stationary whilst twisting your torso from side to side.
• Repeat for 8 rounds that last about 20 seconds at a high intensity, subsequently followed by 10 seconds of rest.
• At the end of the exercise, rest for 5 minutes with stretches and light cardio exercises.

Lunge HIIT exercises target one’s core, quads, and glutes:

• Step back into a reverse lunge with your left leg from a standing position.
• Push through your right heel to come back to a standing position, then follow through with your left leg to raise it in front at 90 degrees.&
• Then repeat the cycle.li>

Busy women can explore lunge jumps in three steps:

• Slowly warm up by stretching or light cardio.
• Then, perform non-stop lunge jumps for one minute, followed by one minute of rest.
• Repeating the exercise for 8 rounds with rest in between.

Plank HIIT workouts that strengthen the core and abdomen, typically involve four steps, namely:

• Position your hands and knees in a tabletop position, then lower down to your forearms with your elbows stacked beneath your shoulders.
• Form a straight line from your head and neck to your feet whilst being supported by your heels.
• Hold this position for 20 seconds at a high intensity, then rest for 10 seconds.
• Repeat the exercise for about 8 rounds, or at least 4 minutes.

• Lie down on your back with your knees bent and hands behind your head. 
• While keeping your chin angled towards the sky, utilise the core to sit up until your elbows touch your knees. Subsequently, lower back down to the ground and repeat.
• Perform this motion for about 20 seconds at a high intensity, subsequently followed by 10 seconds of rest.
• Repeat this for 8 rounds, or at least 4 minutes.

• Start from a standing position, then raise and lower one knee at a time as if running in place.
• Bring your knees to the same height as your hips whilst keeping your thighs parallel to the ground.
• Perform this cycle for about 20 seconds for 8 rounds at high intensity with 10 seconds of rest between each round.

As a plyometric exercise, box jumps can be executed in four steps, namely:

• Stand in front of a box/platform that is between 12-18 inches high.
• With your feet slightly apart, you should push your hips back and swing your arms.
• In one explosive move, swing your arms forward, spring up land on the box, and get down off the box with one foot at a time.
• Perform this action with maximum effort for about 20 seconds for 8 rounds, with 10 seconds of rest between each round.

Generally speaking, HIIT workout sessions should not take more than 30 minutes (while also considering the breaks in between).

Remember, these are intense sessions and burn more calories per minute of exercise than conventional aerobic training. Furthermore, always warm up to prevent injury and climax with a gentle cool-down to gradually lower your heart rate.

Since HIIT workouts are very intense, one cannot simply perform them for elongated time periods. So, yes, 20 minutes per day should suffice. Remember, you can always adjust the intensity, duration, and number of rounds depending on your fitness level and goals.

It is advisable to engage in HIIT workouts after at least 6 months of consistent exercise that involves a mix of cardio and resistance training. At this point, one can replace one cardio session with one short HIIT session, separated by two rest cycles— then gradually increase their sessions depending on their schedule.

Yes, one can do some HIIT workouts by focusing more on upper body and core exercises. Besides that, you could also switch to more non-weight bearing based exercises. For example, elliptical, rowing machine, Pilates, leg or arm cycle, swimming, and aquatic exercises.

For people previously living sedentary lifestyles with large periods of inactivity, having clearance from a physician is key before starting any HIIT workout.

Furthermore, before commencing HIIT training, it is encouraged to establish a foundational/base level of fitness. This should help when modifying the intensity and frequency of your preferred workout, with minimal risk.

Yes, they do. HIIT workouts are cardio-focused, i.e., they benefit cardiovascular fitness and health. HIIT workouts produce equal or greater improvements in blood pressure and blood sugar in contrast to other forms of cardio exercises.

HIIT workouts are characterised by intense bursts of physical activity, subsequently followed by periods of rest or low-intensity exercise. The resultant EPOC effect may increase the body’s metabolic rate and need for oxygen afterwards, which may lead to fatigue the following day.

Furthermore, after an intense workout, one’s body utilises oxygen to restore adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and repair damaged muscles and cells. So, the harder one works out, the more ATP they will use, and the more oxygen they will need to restore ATP levels after a workout.

Yes, HIIT workouts may help achieve belly fat loss and slim your waistline faster than any other workout forms like brisk walking or running. However, fat loss depends on an overall caloric deficit and HIIT exercise alone will not necessarily derive the desired results.

When combined with appropriate dieting, HIIT workouts may help a woman successfully lose one to two kg of body fat in a month. However, the amount of weight lost largely depends on the intensity and frequency of the HIIT workout.