HIIT It Right: 3 Ways to Do High Intensity Training the "Right" Way

HIIT is incredibly effective because of workout intensity.

It's hard to achieve the required intensity to trigger the benefits of HIIT when you are only working one muscle group at a time.

Isolation exercises are any exercise where you only workout one major muscle group.

Single muscle movements like bicep curls, leg presses, leg extensions...really ANY exercise performed on one of the popular gym machines you see set up...are NOT as effective as movements that incorporate multiple muscle groups at the same time.

Workouts are much more effective when you perform compound exercises, which involve multiple muscle groups. An example of a compound exercise would be chin-ups, where you workout both the back and biceps.

One of the reasons HIIT workouts are so effective is because they use multiple muscle movements that trigger the release of human growth hormone - a hormone that plays a big role in how fast or slow your metabolism is moving. As you get older, levels of growth hormone decline and the speedy metabolism you had in your youth goes away. When you workout in isolation, you miss out on the growth hormone and metabolic boost of combination exercises.

If you ever come across a HIIT program that includes exercises that last longer than 30 minutes, then you should probably run for cover. Doing such exercises for long durations would yield poor and uncomfortable results.

The point of HIIT is to focus on the intensity of the exercise, not the time. If you're a busy wife and mom like me, then I know you're not going to complain about doing efficient workouts in less time. Shift your focus from quantity to quality and you'll see real results.

The benefit of HIIT is that you can pack 60+ minutes of calorie burn and body toning into just a few minutes of workout. When performed at the right intensity, HIIT will melt calories for DAYS after your workout is over by boosting your base metabolic rate (it's called "after burn" or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption).

Unfortunately, once you ramp up the intensity, your risk of injury multiplies.

So many Instagram 'fitness gurus' are doing workouts in poor form and they don't even know it. Don't fall victim by copying these pointless and potentially dangerous methods.

Because HIIT focuses on short, intense efforts, you'll be stressing muscles a lot harder than you would if you were working out for hours on end.

At lower intensities, you can get away with a lot more "mistakes" and poor form. At high intensity, you need to really make sure you're performing exercises properly.

Focusing on intensity instead of duration - quality instead of quantity - can dramatically cut down the time it takes to melt fat and tone your body.

You DO NOT need long, boring workouts or hours and hours of cardio to transform your body.

HIIT is an incredibly effective way to speed up your metabolism, but you do need to be careful. It's going to be hard to get the intensity required if you're not performing combination, total body exercises. AND if you're exercising the WRONG WAY, you're likely to get injured.

Don't let this scare you, as long as you're willing to take a few minutes to learn proper form, it's easy to perform all of the exercises you need to follow HIIT style workouts -- no matter what your current ability level is. Try Burn360 and I'll show you how easy it is!