Let’s be realistic, most of you probably use our HIIT workouts to burn off unwanted fat because they burn such a high amount of calories in such a short period of time. Along with trying to shed unwanted pounds you are probably going for a flat stomach at the same time, so why not attack that goal from multiple angles? Well, that is exactly what this workout does by combining the fat melting power of HIIT with core toning and strengthening exercises to increase definition.

Whether you are just starting and want to drop the extra fat you are carrying or you are already there and just want a bit more definition, this routine will help you get to your goal. The benefits of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) have been covered may times before here at FitnessBlender.com and we never get tired of talking about how effective it is at burning calories at a higher rate than traditional cardio; not to mention its ability to raise your resting metabolism for up to 48 hours after your workout is done, something known as the “after burn” effect. So, using HIIT training to burn off that unwanted fat weight is by far the best way to go but dropping the fat is only half of the equation. The other half is related to the strength/size and tone of the muscles you want to show up; in this case your abdominal muscles.

Building the abdominal muscles and making them more visible is where the core exercises come in. By adding in exercises that strengthen and tone your abs, this workout turns a fat burning routine into a stomach flattening routine.

We have set up this routine with a cardio HIIT component known as Tabata and a timed core exercise. The HIIT component is simply a specific interval style composed of 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds of rest for a predetermined number of sets in this case we use 4 sets equaling 2 minutes. Once the 4 sets of the cardio exercise are complete we have you do 50 seconds straight of an abdominal exercise to fatigue the stomach muscles to build endurance and tone. We also choose exercises that are relatively difficult (and easily modified) to hopefully build strength and a small amount of size to make those abdominal muscles stand out. Once your 50 seconds of core are up then we move to the next group and start the pattern over with two new exercises.

The exercises and groupings used in this workout video are as follows:

HIIT Cardio and Abs Workout

Section One: Warm Up

Lateral Pulls
Front Kicks
Squats
Lateral Hops
Jumping Jacks
Flutter Kick Squats
Side Kicks
Up and Outs

Section Two: Workout

Jump Squats
V Sit Leg Drops

Mt. Climber Get Ups
Crunch Pulses

4 Butt Kickers + 2 Jack Steps
Mt. Top Russian Twist

Ski Squat Jacks
Reverse Crunches

Active Rest (very light cardio; walking in place)

Twisted High Knees
Bicycle Crunches

Broad Jump + 3 Hops
Reclined Rotations

2 Hooks + 2 Upper Cuts
Oblique Jack Knife Crunches

Lunging Toe Touches
Alternating Plank Kicks

(Be sure to cool down and stretch)

Because of the style of exercises and workout structure you can expect to burn 8-12 calories per minute giving you a total burn of 261-374 calories for this 30-minute routine. We have included the calorie burn for the warm up in the total as well so the average calories per minute for this routine are a bit lower than similar routines that do not include a warm up or cool down. Also keep in mind that these are just estimates and individual results could be lower or higher than the range we calculated.