Outdoor HIIT Workout... - Grace Fitness

Festival and holiday season is suddenly upon us, so it’s really important to be exercising to make up for the summer partying! To keep a balance I’ve been training in the Parks of Bristol, St Andrews Park as pictured and the famous Ashton Court. I feel it’s important to get out into the countryside and exercise as it benefits me mentally to be out in big open spaces, to free the mind, away from the stresses of life.

My favourite form of outdoor cardio training is HIIT technique, which stands for High Intensity Interval Training! A fast and effective way to raise your heart rate, increase stamina and blitz body fat fast! As well as naturally release healthy endorphins! (Happy hormones)

HIIT involves timed intervals, for example..

1 min of maximum exertion (pushing yourself 100%) and 1 min rest period on each exercise, then repeat until exhaustion. These interval times can vary, as your fitness improves you decrease the rest period and increase the amount of intervals you do. E.g. 20 Second high intensity exercising and 10 seconds rest and repeat up to 6x

These are my favourite HIIT cardio Exercises:

HIIT Running Sprints

An awesome exercise which requires no equipment at all,

30 seconds Running Sprints, then rest with walking and repeat up to 5-6 times. Aiming to improve how fast you sprint each time. These are best achieved on an incline or hill to really push you. This exercise helps shift excess belly fat and push your running to the next level. I stress its very important to warm up and stretch your quads and hamstrings before you do these exercises.

HIIT Skipping

There are so many techniques to skipping but the main ones I like are very small jumps with my feet together or small side to side jumps.

Skipping burns an insane amount of calories fast, and just after 1 min of skipping you will have raised your heart rate, warmed up and become out of breath!

It is tough but so rewarding when you get the correct technique, a great way to exercise when you have little equipment to work with.

HIIT Step

This can be performed on a park bench or low park wall by stepping up and down continuously going as fast as you can within that interval.

An awesome way to get out of breath fast and really hit you fast! This can be hard to do in the beginning, but if you gradually build up from 30 second intervals to 1 min intervals over time with decreased rest periods you will see huge benefit with all over toning and increased stamina!

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start exercising for your ideal summer body and remember wear sun cream..

Katherine Grace xx @katherine_grace___