Complete Running HIIT Workout Guide (with 7 Workouts)
If you’re looking to get faster, improve performance and drop some body fat then this workout is going to do the job. And this isn’t just for the young athletes, it’s extra important for us masters runners (i.e. anyone over 40).
You’re probably familiar with high-intensity interval training (HIIT). When it comes to cardio, HIIT is definitely the best way to strip off body fat, to the extent that there’s literally no reason to hop on a treadmill and run at a steady pace for 30 or more minutes unless you’re an endurance athlete.
So what are HIIT workouts? How can they help you run? Let’s talk about this along with some example running HIIT workouts to get you started.
What is a HIIT Workout?
What is HIIT?
High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is any workout that toggles back and forth between “hard” and “easy.” Maybe you sprint for 10, 20, or 30 seconds, then you walk out, catch your breath, and do it again. Or you do some strength moves that really get your heart rate up, rest, and then repeat.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with HIIT, it involves intervals of high-intensity exercise (such as running at 90 per cent of your max heart rate) followed by low intensity (walking at a moderate pace) or complete rest.
This is in sharp contrast to the typical steady-state cardio most people do at a moderate intensity, such as walking on a treadmill at 60 to 70 per cent of their max heart rate.
HIIT was originally developed by track coaches to train runners, but it has crossed over to the fitness industry due to its fat-burning benefits confirmed many times over in scientific studies.
A lot of these studies found that subjects performing HIIT burned significantly more body fat—and in less time—than those who did steady-state cardio programs.
The major reason HIIT works so well for dropping body fat is due to the greater calorie burn (or EPOC—excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) that’s maintained after the workout is over.
In other words, you burn more calories and more body fat while you’re sitting around doing nothing.
In addition to this increase in resting metabolism, HIIT is effective at enhancing the mechanisms in muscle cells that promote fat burning and blunt fat storage.
What is a HIIT Running Workout?
It’s a form of interval training. Runners have used interval-style workouts as part of training plans forever.
HIIT workouts are just another variation that requires more explosive power.
The great thing about HIIT is you can make it work for any fitness level because it’s about your intensity, not a specific speed.
Should Everyone Do HIIT Workouts?
No. Those who are returning from an injury, suffer from frequent injuries, have high cortisol or tend to over-train should not add these in without the guidance of a personal trainer or running coach.
While high-intensity exercise is an amazing way to get fit, it’s important to remember these should not be your only style of workouts if you’re working out 5 days per week or distance running.
In those cases, going hard all the time is going to increase cortisol and lead to overtraining symptoms.
You need a good mix of easy and hard days.
How to Incorporate HIIT Workouts?
Remember that any hard workout from a tempo run to intervals to HIIT running workout is going to require more recovery than a long easy run. So ideally, you would do a HIIT in place of one of your standard speed workout days.
Ensuring that you keep a couple of easy, recovery or rest days between hard sessions. Long runs are also considered hard sessions when you are in the thick of marathon training.
6 Benefits of Running HIIT Workouts
Improved Glycogen Usage
As our hormones decline with age we stop using carbohydrates as well. This means instead of them pushing into our muscles for energy, we start to store them as fat.
During anaerobic exercise, the body increases the breakdown of glucose to create energy. This process is called glycolysis.
So yes, these workouts can help to get the glycogen into your muscles for both energy and improved recovery.
Increase Energy Production
In addition to glycolysis, it can increase ATP levels. Adenosine triphosphate is the primary energy source for your muscles, so the more available the better your energy.
Of course, the better your energy, the better your workout.
It’s not just about that single workout but improving this for all your workouts.
Additionally, creatinine levels increase. Creatine is the body’s natural resource for muscle contractions. That means being able to apply more force to a bounding movement or shift a heavier weight.
Boost Hormones
HIIT training can also boost testosterone and growth hormone. These two muscles are largely responsible for muscle growth.
In runners over 50, adding in a day of plyometrics or a HIIT workout can help with muscle when the body is slowly lowering these hormones.
Muscle Maintenance
For peri and postmenopausal athletes, it’s important to continue utilizing some intense workouts from beginner plyometrics to beginner HIIT workouts.
These types of workouts along with heavy lifting are some of the best ways to build or maintain muscle. This is going to be key to weight loss and performance.
Unfortunately starting at age 30 women begin losing muscle mass unless we actively work against that.
Less muscle means less tone, slower metabolism, slower running, more injuries, etc.
Time Efficient
As noted these workouts are fast and efficient. For those who struggle to find an hour to run or do other cardio, this is a great way to get maximum calorie burn for your time.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information found HIIT workouts burned 25–30 per cent more calories than the other forms of exercise.
Remember you still need heavy lifting and long endurance style workouts too for total health and fitness.
Mental Confidence Boost
Going with such an intense effort can help you to go hard in races and slow down on easy days because now you enjoy recovery.
It’s really a short period that allows you to push yourself hard before hitting that “oh no can I do this moment?”.
Over time this is going to build your confidence to keep pushing on longer intervals or at that finish line.
7 HIIT Workouts
4×4 Intervals
It’s super straightforward and designed for running. The team says you should finish the 4th interval with enough energy to have done 1 more.
- Dynamic Warm-Up – Followed by 10 minutes of easy running
- Interval – Sprinting for 1 minute at an 85-90% Max HR (heavy breathing, but not so hard you can’t finish the minute)
- Active Recovery – 3 minutes of light jogging or walking Repeat Intervals 4 times
- Finish with easy running for 5-10 minutes
Running Tabata Workout
Tabata is a protocol developed in the 90s by Japanese doctor Izumi Tabata.
Workouts are designed to be a total of 8 minutes. So when you hear someone describing a 30-minute Tabata, it’s not. That’s a long HIIT workout.
Tabata involves 20 seconds of hard effort, a 10-second rest period x 8.
This is one that I think is harder to do on a treadmill because of the time for the machine to pick up and slow down.
Try it on the track or a flat path.
- Dynamic warm-up followed by 10 minutes of easy running and even a few strides
- Complete 8 rounds of Tabata intervals (roughly 4 minutes of work)
- Cool down with 5-10 minutes of easy running
More advanced runners could do a round of Tabata, then jog easily for 5-10 minutes and complete a second round.
Scientific Workout
While there is no running in this one, it’s still great for runners.
This workout will alternate upper and lower body exercises.
12 exercises for 30 seconds each, with 10 seconds rest between. Remember to push your intensity for max benefits.
- Jumping jacks
- Wall Sit
- Push Ups
- Crunches
- Step Ups
- Squats
- Tricep Dip
- Plank
- High Knees
- Alternating front lunge
- Push-ups with rotation
- Side Plank
VOLUME 100
When most people think of HIIT they think of it as applicable only for cardio, yet it can also be used in weight training. After all, weight training itself is a form of HIIT—you do a set with all-out effort, rest, then do another set, rest, and repeat.
Resting two to three minutes between sets, however, is too long for a training session to be considered an effective form of HIIT. But all you have to do is shorter rest periods and you’re doing a kind of HIIT that burns fat.
For this HIIT 100s program, I’ve combined HIIT not only with weights but also with two very popular, intense, and effective weight-training techniques: German volume training (GVT) and Hundreds training. With GVT, aka 10×10, you do 10 sets of 10 reps on a given exercise. Hundreds, as the name implies, involves doing 100-rep sets.
With Hundreds, you’ll do 10 sets of 10 reps for one exercise per muscle group. Sounds the same as GVT, right? Not exactly.
HIIT is incorporated via the rest periods between those 10 sets.
You’ll start with just 60 seconds between sets at the beginning of the program and progressively drop rest periods by 10 seconds over six weeks until you have no rest and are doing 100 reps straight through.
The two forms of training are technically different, but late in the HIIT 100s program, when you’re resting only 10 or 20 seconds between sets of 10, there’s little to distinguish them as far as the toll they take on your body.
Running + Strength HIIT Workout
Big fan of bringing in the strength when you’re short on time. We know that muscle is key to improving fitness and metabolism.
Intervals are 30 seconds on, and 15 seconds rest.
- Dynamic warm-up followed by 10 minutes of easy running
- Alternating reverse lunge holding weights to front kick
- Sprint (or squat jacks)
- Jump squat holding weights
- Sprint (or jumping jacks)
- Rest for 1 minute
- Repeat 4 times
Full Metcon Workout
The metcon CrossFit workout is an umbrella term for exercises that engage your metabolic pathways. That can look like a variety of different exercises from Olympic lifts to endurance runs, but it most often refers to circuit training that combines elements of both strength work and cardio.
Those of you looking to really take things up a notch will like this workout. You gain cardio advantages and a strong body when you put them together in one gym session.”
Warmup:
- Shin taps x 30 sec: Start in a plank. Lift hips to down-dog and tap shin with the opposite hand.
- Jumping jacks x 30 sec
- Walkout to plank x 30 sec: From standing, hinge at your hips and place hands on the floor. Walk hands out to plank, then alternate shoulder taps. Walk back up to stand.
- No recovery periods in the warm-up.
Strength:
- Dumbbell goblet squat x 45 sec (one weight held at chest)
- Dumbbell seated shoulder press x 45 sec (two dumbbells pressed overhead from racked position)
- Kettlebell swings or Romanian kettlebell deadlift x 45 sec
Repeat for 3 rounds
Aerobic:
- Run x 3/4 of a mile
Tabata:
- Mountain climbers x 20 sec
- 10-second rest
- Burpees x 20 sec
- 10-second rest
Repeat for 4 rounds
HIIT Treadmill Workout
Ready to make time fly as you burn lots of calories, then let’s mix things up on your next treadmill run.
- Dynamic Warm Up followed by 10 minutes easy pace at 0% incline
- Run intervals: 30 seconds at 3-5% incline
- Recovery intervals: 30 seconds slow speed to a very slow walk
- Repeat 4-8 times
- Cool down with 5-10 minutes of easy running
With this, you’ll count the time it takes the treadmill to speed up in your interval.
So you will probably only be hitting top speed for 20-25 seconds. If the slowdown doesn’t feel like enough, then jump your feet onto the rails to pause
Dynamic HIIT Run Workout
If you’re a distance runner this might feel more up your alley, because we tend to like to go long.
Remember though only 20% of your week should be a hard effort if you’re a distance runner.
Each effort is followed by 30 seconds of light jogging or walking. Each round is followed by 3 minutes of easy
- Dynamic Warm Up followed by 5-10 minutes of easy running
- Effort 1: 90 seconds at a 10k pace
- Effort 2: 60 seconds at a 5K pace
- Effort 3: 20-second mile effort
- Repeat 2-3 times
