HIIT Cardio Training Plan: To people who want to lose weight – but don’t have the time

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Is a HIIT Cardio Training Plan the Perfect Cure for No Time Syndrome?

Hand on heart!

Have you ever skipped part or all of your cardio training because the next appointment was pressing?

Welcome to the club.

Less cardio means fewer calories burned often means less fat loss. Unless you have a plan B in your pocket. Or two.

Today you will be given two ways to get the most out of your cardio training – in the shortest amount of time.

HIIT Cardio. This quickie eats calories in record time. Short. Crisp. Effectively. It can be really fun – if you let yourself go. (incl. HIIT cardio training plan)
HISS Cardio Training Plan. The alternative: cruise control on, head off, let’s go! A real calorie killer when dosed correctly. (incl. HISS cardio training plan)

I will hand over both variants to you, ready for use and immediate use.

I know time is precious. Let’s go.

#1 HIIT Cardio – This quickie “gobbles” on calories in record time

How do you burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time?

The solution is almost trivial on paper: train with maximum intensity – and that for a long time.

The crux of the matter:

You can’t sprint a marathon.

Even 10 minutes full throttle is an impossibility.

Let’s say you give 85-90% fabric. You can do this for a minute or two.

However, there is an elegant way to keep your foot on the gas pedal for a longer period: high-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short.

HIIT cardio consists of short, high-intensity blocks alternating with low-intensity elements.

You repeat the intervals for a specified number of rounds.

Level	Borg scale	Intensity of cardio training / Activity	Short
0	Nothing at all	Sitting or lying in bed	BMR
1	Very slight	Work or activity (no training)	NEAT
2	Slight	Work or activity (no training)	NEAT
3	Moderate	Continuously with low intensity	LISS
4	Somewhat severe	Continuously with low intensity	LISS
5	Severe	Continuously with medium intensity	MISS
6		Continuously with medium intensity	MISS
7	Very severe	Continuously with high intensity	HISS
8		Interval training (long interval duration)	HIIT
9	Extremely Severe	Interval training (short interval duration)	HIIT
10	Maximal	Sprint with maximum pace	HIIT

TRAINING INTENSITY ACCORDING TO THE BORG SCALE.

You can design the HIIT load phases in different ways, e.g.:

15-30 seconds full throttle (level 10/10 on the Borg scale) or
60-120 seconds high intensity (level 8-9/10).

Load phases that are too short are often impractical. Especially on cardio machines, you have to adjust the speed, incline, and/or resistance.

Load phases that are too long will quickly slip you out of the HIIT range, and high-intensity training will turn into regular endurance training.

An effective HIIT workout usually includes between 6-12 rounds. If you choose very short intervals, maybe a little more.

You will also find the many design options of cardio training in HIIT training.

Any examples?

You can do your intervals on the following:

Sports ground,
in terrain,
in the plain
on the mountain,
upstairs,
with the skipping rope
on the treadmill,
cardio or spinning bike,
cross trainer,
rowing machine or
any other cardio machine.

There are many possibilities and not the right or wrong way. Check out this article and the HIIT section for more HIIT cardio workout ideas.

If you’ve counted yourself among the “cardio haters” so far, you should check out Rusty Moore’s Visual Impact cardio program. Same effect, but it will feel like strength training.

How much time does a HIIT workout take?

If you want to lower your body fat percentage, 20-25 minutes for a HIIT workout is enough.

Even shorter HIIT sessions will suffice if you primarily want to stay fit and healthy.

In the following, you will get three HIIT cardio training plans that you can start immediately.

Level: Stay tuned NOVICES
Level: ADVANCED stay tuned
Level: Stay tuned MASTER

Absolute newcomers or overweight people should start as described here before doing a HIIT.

HIIT cardio training plan level 1 – for staying tuned NOVICES

Choose this HIIT cardio training plan if you have already built up enough basic endurance :

4 rounds of HIIT cardio
1:2 load/rest ratio
Time commitment: 22 minutes

Alright, novice, here we go:

Warm-Up: 5 minutes of low-intensity cardio (level 3-4)
Load phase: 60 seconds of moderate-intensity cardio (level 7-8)
Recovery Period: 2 minutes of low-intensity cardio (level 3-4)
Repeat: Perform 4 more rounds.
Cool-Down: 5 minutes at low intensity (level 3-4)

If you do this workout 3x a week for about a month, you’re ready for level 2.

HIIT cardio training plan level 2 – for ADVANCED, stay tuned

Have you successfully completed the Level 1 HIIT cardio training plan? Congratulations, then you are officially an Advanced Stay Tuned!

6 rounds of HIIT cardio
1:1 load/rest ratio
Time required: 22-26 minutes

Here we go:

Warm-Up: 5 minutes of low-intensity cardio (level 3-4).
Load phase: 60 seconds of high-intensity cardio (level 8-9)
Recovery Period: 60 seconds of low-intensity cardio (Level 3-4)
Repeat: Perform 6-8 more rounds.
Cool-Down: 5 minutes at low intensity (level 3-4)

If you do this workout 3x a week for about a month, you’re ready for level 3.

HIIT cardio training plan level 3 – for staying tuned MASTER

Have you successfully completed the Level 2 HIIT cardio training plan? Respect, you are now officially a HIIT stickler MASTER.

8-10 rounds of HIIT cardio
1:1 load/rest ratio
Time required: 26-30 minutes

Here we go:

Warm-Up: 5 minutes of low-intensity cardio (level 3-4)
Load phase: 60 seconds of very high-intensity cardio (level 9-10)
Recovery Period: 60 seconds of low-intensity cardio (Level 3-4)
Repeat: Perform 8-10 more rounds.
Cool-Down: 5 minutes at low intensity (level 3-4)

You can now integrate this HIIT cardio into your training program 3 times a week for as long as you want.

#2 HISS Cardio – cruise control to “eat calories.” Head off. Come on!

HISS is an alternative to HIIT that also eats a lot of calories in a short amount of time.

HISS stands for High-Intensity Steady State. It’s also high-intensity, but unlike HIIT, you keep the pace constant.

HISS is the highest training intensity you can consistently maintain for the duration of your cardio training.

Logically, you don’t hit the gas pedal 100% as you do with HIIT.

I also call HISS cruise control cardio because it’s comparable to driving on the freeway, where you set the cruise control just high enough to avoid the speed camera snapping shut.

You will reach your goal as quickly as possible. But by obeying the speed limit, you avoid being caught, flagged down, and stopped by a police officer.

That would unnecessarily increase the travel time. Uncool because we just want to save time.

The logic behind HISS Cardio is simple:

Calories burned = (intensity of your workout) x (duration of your workout)

The longer and more intensively you train, the more calories you burn.

So HISS is the opposite of the “don’t go too fast” fat-burning zone mentality that I touched on in the last article.

HISS Cardio Training Plan

You can use this HISS cardio training plan if you have already built up enough basic endurance.

No matter how much time you have – 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes – the harder you train, the more energy your body needs and the more fat you burn.

Here we go:

Warm-Up: 5 minutes of low-intensity cardio (level 3-4).
HISS Cardio: 15-45 minutes of high-intensity HISS cardio (Level 7)
Cool-Down: 5 minutes at low intensity (level 3-4)

It really is that simple.

HIIT Cardio Training Plan – Conclusion

For many of us, time is the most precious commodity. When the schedule is overflowing, cardio training tends to fall behind.

Maybe it’s not enough for the 30-45 minute unit, but if you have 15-20 minutes, HISS and HIIT are an uncompromising secret weapon against time pressure.

Only if you are just getting started should you be careful. Then you should first build up an endurance foundation before you start with these high-intensity variants.

You can find out how quickly this can be done in this article.

By the way, there are countless other ways to design a HISS or HIIT cardio training plan – here are some of them.