Fit N’ Slay: HIIT Exercises That Work Well For Women

High-intensity interval training or also known as HIIT is a workout that is meant to burn calories while building muscle endurance and transitioning your body composition. HIIT is composed of intensive full-body workouts to be done in a short amount of time with intervals used for rest and recovery. The HIIT workout is common to those who desire to lose weight and to just want to burn extra calories even hours after the workout. However, just like all other workouts, there is no one-size-fits-all. But we are here to give you ideas of HIIT exercises that you can consider incorporating in your workouts that work well with women.

Russian Twists

This HIIT exercise is a great addition to your workout to strengthen and tone your core, targeting your lower abdominal area. In order to execute this exercise, all you need to do is sit on the floor in a partial curl-up position with your heels lifted from the ground with your hands placed on your chest, then you twist your upper body from side to side. Adjust your body position as seen fit.

Mountain Climbers

Mountain climbers are a common exercise but is a definite HIIT exercise as it targets your core and arm strength. This is also a cardio exercise to help keep your heart rate up. All you need is to position yourself in a high plank with your wrists aligned with your shoulders and start bringing up each knee to your chest at a fast pace.

Squat Thrusts

If you are familiar with burpees, then this exercise is similar to it with the only difference being the absence of the raising of your arms with a hop. To execute this exercise, you start with a standing position. Then, you drop your hands to the ground and kick your feet back with your legs straight back, basically forming a high plank position. You then hop your feet inwards to the center and stand. To increase the intensity, you can also speed it up and increase repetitions.

Star Jumps

Star jumps are just like jumping jacks but also with a slight variation. In this exercise, you jump with your arms and legs spread out like a star. And once you land, you keep your legs close, knees slightly bent, and your arms hanging on the side by your knees. You can choose to do this by a number of jumps or following a time limit.

Plank Jacks

Just like the previously discussed star jumps, this exercise is another sibling of jumping jacks with a slight variation. Instead of jumping up and down while being upright, you execute this exercise in a plank position, legs being a foot apart, and you start hopping your legs sideways, wider than your hips. You bring your legs back close again to your starting position and repeat.