Cranking up yoga

Combining two popular exercise forms, HIIT Yoga provides a workout for both the body and mind, boosts the metabolism, deepens stretches and gets the endorphins going. The HIIT element of the workout is a combination of lower and upper body movements using your own body weight, including press-ups, squats, burpees and mountain climbers. Only 20 minutes of the class is spent on HIIT, so there’s no rest and you’re worked really hard.

Yoga teacher Kate O’Reilly and PT Sasha Green have collaborated to create this concept, which is currently on offer in their studio in south-west London, UK. The pair also have plans for an online programme, events across London – then nationwide – and also classes for corporates.

O’Reilly says: “Sasha and I love both forms of exercise, but we know how busy people are: many people just do one or the other as they don’t have time for both separately. We therefore wanted to create something that combined them in one hour, to get as many people as possible doing both HIIT and yoga.”

According to O’Reilly, the benefits of combining the two disciplines are many, including a fat-burning boost to the metabolism thanks to switching between high intensity and yoga. Proper stretching is another, as she says: “How often do you properly stretch out? Not enough people do, and it can result in injury. By bringing yoga and HIIT together, we’re ensuring muscles are stretched throughout the workout to protect people from stiffness and injury.”

Bringing HIIT and yoga together helps prevent injury

Mindful HIIT

“Meditation doesn’t always have to happen with our legs crossed and eyes closed,” says US-based personal trainer Holly Rilinger, who has created LIFTED, a class combining HIIT with meditation. “We aren’t always in the perfect place to meditate. We’re crazed, running around, breathless. This class mimics the rhythm of life and helps us become more resilient and ready to tackle our challenges.”  

The class comprises a five-minute guided meditation followed by 35 minutes of mindful movement – where you really focus on the exercises you’re doing – including lunges, squats and other standard training moves. After this there’s another five minutes of meditation, followed by an intense 10-minute finisher.  

Rilinger says meditation has brought calm and space to her life and for years has used it as part of her indoor cycling class: “We have a limited amount of time to dedicate to our wellness in terms of fitness classes and gym time, and the likelihood of someone giving up his or her cycling or HIIT class to meditate is slim.

“This is why I created LIFTED, which not only combines meditation with a fat-burning workout, but also reminds us to be present. This is a mind, body and spirit workout. We can’t separate the three, so why not train them all in unison. Be present, be sweaty and create joy.”

LIFTED combines meditation with a mindful HIIT workout / PHOTO: Abbey Drucker

Redefining the pool

HIIT training in water, SwimHiit, was introduced by Swimtime at LIW 2016 in a bid to bring different kinds of user groups into the pool.

The concept uses moves from martial arts, yoga and pilates, as well as weights and deep stretches, to supercharge the aquatic exercise experience – all driven by the fact that water 12 is times more resistant than air. But because there’s no pressure on the joints, people can work harder without worrying about aches and pains.

Swimtime is now offering training in SwimHiit as CPD to those instructors who have an aquacise qualification or the equivalent.

SwimHiit uses moves from martial arts, yoga and pilates

Punchy pilates

In January, Bootcamp Pilates launched a 30-minute high intensity pilates class at its central London studio. HIIP 30 incorporates movements from its regular dynamic class, but condensed into a half-hour time frame so you can squeeze it into a lunch hour.

Curated to achieve maximum results in a short period of time, the exercises are focused on flexibility, co-ordination and balance to leave individuals fitter, leaner and stronger.

“We’ve added this express class to fit in with hectic London lifestyles,” says Dominique Day, founder of Bootcamp Pilates. “Sometimes you just don’t want to work out after a long day in the office, and the new HIIP 30 enables people to maximise 30 minutes of their lunch break.”

People can fit the new 30-minute HIIP class into their lunch break

Hardcore HIIT

If you’re doing a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout with your personal trainer, electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) can bring an effective, although hardcore,
new dimension to your workout.

EMS involves being hooked up to a device that sends electrical impulses to your muscles. The exerciser must first tense their muscles; the electrical impulses then cause the muscles to work even harder. Even undertaking gentle squats, leg raises and standing ab crunches wearing an EMS suit counts as a workout, so wearing one throughout a HIIT workout can be very intense – and indeed should be supervised by a personal trainer, say the manufacturers.

Jan Ising, business development manager at Easy Motion Skin, explains: “Several personal trainers and gyms are using EMS to optimise the efficiency of their clients’ workouts. However, a HIIT EMS workout should only be done in sessions controlled by a professional trainer. If you push your body to the absolute limit, you shouldn’t do it alone.”

Using an EMS suit during a HIIT workout can be intense and should only be done alongside a PT