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HIIT Workouts for Beginners: Simple Routines to Start Strong

Start strong with these adaptable 10, 20, or 30-minute beginner HIIT routines. Build a routine safely and boost endurance on your fitness journey.

If you’re new to the high-intensity interval training world, don’t sweat. This guide to HIIT workouts for beginners is your starting line, providing a step-by-step overview of this mega popular – and mega beneficial – workout movement.

HIIT routines are quick, efficient, build momentum, and come designed to boost cardiovascular health and overall body conditioning. All those benefits come without spending hours in the gym. 

In fact, a truly effective HIIT workout routine should clock in around 20 minutes. Anything 30 minutes or longer might actually backfire, taking you out of HIIT’s necessary higher heart rate zone. Meaning you’re no longer working at the effort-intensive levels carrying those compounding cardiovascular results. 

"As you build strength, increase aerobic capacity and feel confident in your form, you’ll be able to gradually increase your effort and the overall intensity," encourages Tonal Coach Ash Wilking. "You'll make stamina a superpower!"

15–25 Minute Duration

Full body Program

~100-210+ Calories Burned

3-5 Different Exercises

Recommended 2-3x/Week

Contents
  1. HIIT Workouts For Beginners: Example Routine
    1. Warm-up & Cool-Down
    2. Estimated Calories Burned
    3. Recommended Number of workouts
    2.
  2. Muscle Groups Targeted
  3. Equipment Used for HIIT Workouts For Beginners
  4. Coaching Tips & Best Practices
  5. Who This Workout is Best For
  6. Answers to FAQs about HIIT Workouts For Beginners
  7. Concluding words on HIIT Workouts For Beginners

HIIT Workouts For Beginners: Example Routine

Beginners will notice HIIT workouts are highly adaptable. You can mix and match intervals, adjust rest periods, target specific muscles as you explore new routines, and even work in weights to ramp up the challenge. HIIT is extremely versatile, perfect for anyone short on time but committed to a routine with results. 

However, when you’re just starting out, it’s helpful to pick a HIIT workout style more aligned with your ideal fitness goal. 

As Wilking sums up, "Any modality of training can actually be turned into HIIT session! High-intensity training isn’t a specific workout but a structure. So utilizing what you have access to, you can create an effective workout anywhere."

To help get started, here are three beginner HIIT workout profiles. Each comes with a specific workout focus, plus its corresponding exercise intervals, creating one full circuit.

HIIT Profile #1: The beginner interested in general fitness 

Goal: Improve overall conditioning and athletic performance, burn calories, and build a workout habit. 

HIIT workout structure: 

  • 3 intervals, 20 seconds on.
  • 40 seconds active rest.  
  • Repeat for 6 circuits (total ~18 minutes)

Example HIIT workout: Bodyweight-forward circuits. 

  • 20 seconds of burpees, 40 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times. 
  • 20 seconds of jumping jacks, 40 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times. 
  • 20 seconds of mountain climbers, 40 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times. 

HIIT Profile #2: The beginner building a foundation of strength

Goal: Develop muscle mass and work toward body composition goals. 

HIIT Workout Structure:

  • 3 intervals, 30 seconds on.
  • 30 seconds of active rest.
  • Repeat for 6 circuits (total ~18 minutes) 

Example HIIT Workout: Bodyweight compound training.

  • 30 seconds of squats, with or without dumbbells, 30 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times. 
  • 30 seconds of push-ups, 30 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times. 
  • 30 seconds of alternating lunges, with or without dumbbells, 30 seconds of rest. Repeat 6 times.

HIIT Profile #3: The beginner looking for a heart-rate boost. 

Goal: Support cardiovascular health, build endurance, and work toward a foundation of athletic performance.  

HIIT workout structure:

  • 40 seconds on.
  • 20 seconds of active rest. 
  • Repeats for 5 circuits (total 15 minutes) 

Example HIIT workout: Cardio-focused jump rope.

  • 40 seconds moderate-paced jumping rope, 20 seconds active rest. Repeat 5 times. 
  • 40 seconds moderately paced jumping rope, 20 seconds active rest. Repeat 5 times.
  • 40 seconds intensely paced jumping rope, 20 seconds active rest. Repeat 5 times.

These HIIT workout examples give you a clear sense of how to break apart intervals, set recovery windows, and follow a traditionally styled circuit. As you progress, you can increase high-effort sprints, reduce rest periods, or add additional circuits and exercises.

Warm-up & Cool-Down

Warm-Up (3.5 minutes):

• Arm circles (30s)
• Marching in place (1 min)
• Dynamic lunges (30s each leg)
• High knees at a slow pace (1 min)

Cool Down (2.5 minutes):

• Forward fold stretch (30 sec)
• Quad stretch (30 sec per side)
• Shoulder stretch (30 sec per side)
• Deep breathing in seated position (1 min)

Estimated Calories Burned

  • The average adult woman (~130-150 lbs.) can expect to burn between 180-250 calories in a ~20 minute HIIT session.
  • The average adult man (~170-190 lbs.) can anticipate burning between 230-330 calories in the same 20 minute session.

Note: These are calorie estimates. Your exact calories burned will vary based on age, sex, HIIT workout intensity, fitness level, weights or accessories used, and many other individualized variables.

For instance, during a cycling-based HIIT workout with increasingly high-resistance circuits, calories burned may be much higher. Especially if you can push yourself to a maximum effort across each and every interval.

"Low-intensity interval training (LIIT) is approachable for all fitness levels, particularly beginners, as it involves moderate-effort, low-impact movement with lighter resistance," explains Tonal Coach Kendall Wood. "High intensity interval training (HIIT) involves vigorous-effort, high- or low-impact movement with moderate resistance.

"LIIT effort is generally 6 to 7 on the RPE scale, or 60% to 70% of max heart rate. Whereas HIIT effort is generally 8 to 9 on the RPE scale, or 80% to 90% of max heart rate."

Recommended Number of workouts

There is no magic number of HIIT workouts to complete every week for a beginner to see guaranteed strength, fitness, health, or even physique outcomes. Your cadence will instead be determined by several things unique to you, including:

  • Schedule
  • Diet and lifestyle
  • Current fitness level
  • Workout structure and selection
  • Any additional training (e.g. Pilates, yoga, strength training, etc.)

Let’s revisit our three beginner HIIT profiles from this guide:

  • General fitness base: 2-3 HIIT sessions per week.
  • Strength focus: 2 HIIT sessions per week (with an optional lower intensity or mobility day in between).
  • Cardio focus: 2 sessions per week if fitness is already moderate, otherwise 2 to start.

Note: With HIIT, you’re aiming for short bursts of effort that feel noticeably challenging. You should finish each interval a bit short of breath, but still in control of your movement.

For beginners especially, keeping form steady matters more than pushing to your absolute limit. That's the foundation of clean mechanics.

No matter your fitness goals, that balance of focused effort, solid form, and intentional recovery sets the foundation for a sustainable HIIT routine.

Muscle Groups Targeted

One of the best things about a HIIT routine is its ability to engage multiple muscle groups in a single, fast workout. That engagement is even more robust when you participate in full-body HIIT intervals and circuits.

Major muscle groups you can target with your beginner HIIT routine may include:

Quadriceps and hamstrings: Squat variations, lunges, sprinting/cycling circuits.

Glutes: Split squats, jump squats, sumo squats, lunges, step-ups, glute bridges, lateral band walks.

Core (abs, obliques, lower back): Plank variations, burpees, medicine ball slams, kettlebell swings, Russian twists, bicycle crunch.

Calves and legs: Lunge variations, calf raises, squat jumps, pulse squats, high knees, alternating side lunges, burpees.

Upper body (chest, back, shoulders, arms) Pushups, pull-ups, burpees, bear crawls, triceps dips, mountain climbers, inverted rows, jumping jacks.

Because you’re constantly alternating between states of high intensity output and heartrate-lowering rest, your cardiovascular system is also targeted, supporting cardiovascular boosts right up there with other training elements. 
This workout targets muscle groups including glutes and legs, chest and arms, and core.

Equipment Used for HIIT Workouts For Beginners

HIIT training doesn’t require elaborate equipment. That said, there are several common pieces of fitness gear that can help scale your training, or give you more exercise/interval options.

Coaching Tips & Best Practices

"A great way to structure a beginner-friendly HIIT workout would be to focus on the work rest ratio of 1:2. For example, if performing a higher-intensity movement for 20 seconds, the rest period directly after should be about 40 seconds. Short-effort windows paired with longer rest reflects training effort deposited without overwhelming your system."
Coach Ash Wilking
"Workouts anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes are sufficient for driving physiological adaptation over time, or seeing changes in body composition."
Coach Kendall Wood

Who This Workout is Most Effective For

These workouts are designed for beginners, or anyone new to HIIT-style workouts.

As Coach Wood elaborates, "Interval training is beneficial for people of all ages and fitness levels with varying goals for skillset and body composition. We can manipulate interval training to be low- or high-intensity, low- or high-impact, and short- or long-duration, reaping the benefits of a time-efficient, endurance-focused workout across the board."

Answers to FAQs about HIIT Workouts For Beginners

It depends! Many beginners start noticing stamina and performance improvements between 2-4 weeks of consistent HIIT sessions. In fact, studies support measurable benefits (like improved heart rate variability and a lower resting heart rate) after as few as 6 weeks of high-intensity interval training.

Visible or external changes from an active HIIT routine (e.g. improvements to physique, improved endurance) will be much more variable. It all depends on your starting point, plus several other highly individualized factors.

Unfortunately, there’s no single “best” HIIT move, interval, or workout. The “best” is what you can do safely, consistently, and with good form, at a high-enough intensity you feel challenged but still manageable. 

For true beginners, bodyweight versions of exercises like bodyweight squats, lunges, bench or wall push-ups, mountain climbers, plank variations, and stationary jump rope or cycling sprints are all excellent options. On Tonal, unique HIIT hybrid sessions combining resistance training and cardio are also efficient and scalable.

Recovery and form matter more than "punishing" yourself every session. Avoid HIIT if you’re recovering from injury, illness, are pregnant, or if you haven’t been cleared by your doctor for high-intensity activity (especially if you have diagnosed heart-health concerns or cannot safely perform intense plyometric jump intervals).

Concluding words on HIIT Workouts For Beginners

At the end of the day, here’s what’s critical when kicking off your journey through HIIT workouts for beginners:

  • Focus on efficient 15-20 minute workouts to start, then work your way to 30 minute routines.
  • Align circuits with your goal(s) and your workout enjoyment.
  • Push yourself! HIIT requires ~85% maximum heart rate each interval. 
  • Monitor recovery and take active rest days between at-home HIIT sessions.
  • Stay consistent!  

Lean into the cardio, cycling, bodyweight, or equipment-based options that work for you, and check out Tonal’s HIIT program resources to keep learning and progressing. You’ve got this.

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