HIIT workouts are known for being wildly intense and wildly effective, but they aren’t notorious for catering to many fitness levels outside of that of the elite.

Fitness Blender’s Beginner HIIT Workout is by no means easy, but it does strive to accommodate those who are not quite ready to tackle those high intensity interval training routines that require full blown, 110%, total body exertion.

For those that are well accustomed to regular cardio, this HIIT video will serve as a great routine to get the heart rate up and the muscles toned. On the other hand, if you are not an avid exerciser, this workout will be a great way to challenge yourself and take your fitness to the next level. This is a great routine for fat burning and muscle toning – an ideal way for a beginner to intermediate level exerciser to get the benefits of a HIIT plan without as much of the jarring impact or extreme, full out exertion periods.

How to do this workout
After a 4-minute cardio warm up, your muscles will be warmed and ready to work. That’s when we jump into the HIIT portion of our routine that engages the upper body, lower body, and core.

Warm Up Exercises
• Crossover Toe Touch Stretch
• Standing Crisscross Crunches
• Torso Rotations
• High Kicks
• Leg Swings, Front to Back

HIIT Exercises
• Jumping Jacks
• Ski Squats + Kicks
• Traveling Push Ups
• Crossover Crunches
• Fingertip to Toe Jacks

Workout Structure:
For the exercises in the highest intensity part of the routine, you will do 20 seconds on, and 10 seconds off, three times through. Then you will move onto the next exercise. After you have gone through all five exercises in the plan, you will get two minutes of active rest.

For the active rest interval, make sure that you keep moving. You can march in place, do jumping jacks, or just pace around the room – just make sure that you don’t sit or lie down.

Once your active rest period is over, you are going to repeat the HIIT exercises once more.

How many calories does this Fitness Blender HIIT workout burn?
One of the biggest factors in how many calories any given program burns is the fitness level of the individual who is doing it – it’s all relative. For example, if you are out of shape, this routine may have you gasping for breath and sweating up a storm (actually it might even do that if you are in fairly good shape!). If you do this workout and find that that is the case for you, you are likely burning a higher number of calories per minute than the avid exerciser who just breezes right through the routine without feeling much of a challenge.

With that said, we estimate that this video burns between 7-12 calories a minute, or 152-252 calories. This number will vary depending on your weight (if you weigh more than 190 pounds you will likely burn more than is given in the estimate above), your gender (men burn up energy at a higher rate), and lean muscle mass.

How often should I do this workout?
This is technically a HIIT routine because of the way that it is structured, but because it is for beginners, the exercises are not remarkably high impact. Because of that, you could do this workout video more often than you would a more typical high intensity interval training routine (three to four times a week, max for traditional versions).

You could use this routine 5-6 days a week, though we do recommend that you choose a combination of other Fitness Blender videos in order to keep your muscles guessing and the workouts maximally effective.