HIIT as most people call it, is fairly new as a training method for average people. It has been used for years for track and field and other top athletes with great success. It is not easy, it will test you to the max, but the benefits are huge. You can get rid of that last bit of fat around your middle or on you thighs, and you don't have to do it for hours.

The studies have shown you can burn fat faster, not loose muscle, and get it done faster. The whole workout only takes 15 to 20 minutes. If you look at professional track athletes. You see the long distance runners are very thin and have a low body fat. If you look at sprinter, they have a low body fat but also have muscle. Long sustained cardio will burn fat, but it also burns up muscle tissue. If you want to have low body fat and be muscular. High Intensity Interval Training is the answer, Along with weight training.

Long sustained cardio is also boring for many people. One reason why a lot of people don't like walking or jogging long distances is it can be boring and It takes a lot of time.

First thing is to find your max heart rate. 220-your age= max heart rate. Get a heart rate monitor to work it for maximum results. You can then customize the program to fit your fitness level. Pick an exercise that you enjoy that you can do intense and slower. I like sprinting and walking in the summer outside, and stationary bike in the winter inside.

To start you do a warm up to get your heart rate up to about 65% of your max heart rate. Warm up for 3 to 5 minutes. Then you start the hiit cycles. Run close to as fast as you can for 30 sec. check heart rate. You are shooting for 85% to 90% of your max. After the 30 sec of high intensity, you slow it way down to a walk. Walk at a normal speed  for about 90 seconds.  You want your heart rate down in the 70% max area. You need to make sure you get it down low enough so you can recover. Then do another cycle of 30 sec. intense and 90 sec. walk to recover.

Start out with 6 cycles. Work your way up to 10 cycles. When you can do 10. Cut the recovery  time down to 60 sec. You will notice that your heart rate will come down faster as you do it longer. As your body gets better, you can cut time more so you can get to 30 - 30 cycle. 30 sec intense and 30 sec slower.  When you get to 30 - 30 you want to work to 15 cycles.  That's only 15 minutes of exercise, plus warm up and cool down.

If you don't want to time it. You can do what I like to do sometimes. There are soccer fields close to my house. I ride my bike there as my warm up. When I get there I jog a bit to get my legs ready to run. I then run 100 yards and walk back, that is one cycle. With the heart rate monitor, I can see that is just about the right time period.

There are many ways you can modify it to work for you. Just get your heart rate between the 90% max and 65% max.  You need to let your heart rate get low enough to get the most benefit.  If you only go from 80% to 90%, it's like your just doing steady cardio.

Only do this workout 2 to 3 times per week. Do it on the days between your weight training. Don't do it 2 days in a row.

For more info on weight training, check out these hubs.

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