I’m sure you’ve wondered, how often should I do HIIT?
The answer is….. it depends.
It depends on how long and how intense your workouts are.
If you’re doing 15-40 minute intense HIIT workouts, you should do limit to 2-3 times a week. 3 at the most.
If you’re doing just quick 4 minute HIIT workouts, you can probably get away with 4-5 times per week.
Recovery is essential.
When you do HIIT, your body reaps many benefits.
To list just a few: it increases oxygen and blood flow, strengthens several muscle groups, and improves your heart health.
However, HIIT has its downfalls, as with any form of exercise.
Cortisol levels spike and your joints take on a lot of impact.
While it’s good to challenge your body, there’s always the risk of too much of a good thing.
So you need to give your body time to rest and repair by switching up the type of movement you do.
During those recovery days, you can and should train your body in other ways. And of course you should be stretching and working on mobility regularly in some form.
In my opinion, if you do around 25 minutes of HIIT twice a week consistently, you’ll see massive mental and physical changes.
Fitness is really much simpler than you think.
Move efficiently for shorter periods of time (like in HIIT) and you are golden.
Sophie is a 500 hour certified yoga teacher and ACE certified personal trainer and certified assisted stretching professional. She has been teaching movement since 2017.
To learn more about her small group HIIT program, visit her website here.
