HIIT Your Workouts Hard!

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also known as sprint-interval training, is not a new concept. It gained popularity with the general gym-going population in the 1990s and has been used by both serious and casual athletes ever since. In case you can't tell by the name, HIIT consists of doing intervals of moderate intensity exercise, like jogging, with intervals of high intensity, like a sprint.

The benefit of HIIT over a steady jog is that, for one, HIIT can suppress your appetite, facilitating weight-loss. There are claims that interval training is more effective at burning fat and while that's disputed by some, there's no doubt that it's an effective workout.

I think HIIT is more fun -- every 60 seconds, I face a new challenge, and it forces me to pay attention to my workout instead of zoning out and listening to music. (Although, there are definitely times when I go for a run specifically to zone out, but that's another post.) How about you? Have you tried HIIT?