Ahead of his wedding, Brendan Jones of YouTube’s Goal Guys wanted to get slimmer, and so he set himself the challenge of losing as much body fat as possible in a 30 day period, with the help of high intensity interval training (HIIT).

“A major benefit of interval training is you’re constantly switching muscle groups and forcing your body to react,” he says. “This means your heart and lungs are being challenged non-stop, allowing you to burn more fat than you would if you were doing a repetition-based exercise like jogging or cycling.”

The HIIT program Brendan has selected consists of four rounds of 45 second intervals, with each round finished off by 3 minutes of skipping and a 1 minute rest window. Round 1 is burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, round 2 includes kettlebell squats, pushups, long jumps and walkouts, round 3 has kettlebell squats, stationary jumps, reverse crutches, and round 4 includes side lunges, tricep raises and speed skaters.

On the first day, he’s so tired by the second round that he ends up needing five whole minutes of rest before he can complete the workout. On day 2, he hits the gym for weight training, focusing on bodyweight superset exercises to keep his heart rate up, helping to burn fat while building muscle. He alternates between the HIIT and weight training for 6 days, leaving a day each week for rest and recovery.

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Throughout the month Brendan is able to identify and improve on flaws in his technique in certain exercises. After 10 days, he also starts incorporating interval training into his running, sprinting with the goal of elevating his heart rate to 95 percent of its capacity, then slowing down to a jog.

By the halfway point, he’s feeling the cardiovascular benefits of his HIIT workouts, and is able to run for a flat 45 minutes without stopping. “In the last two weeks I feel like I hit my stride,” he says. “I’m able to go through my HIIT routine without any extended rest and I finally have the willpower I need to stick to my daily diet.” That diet consists of oatmeal for breakfast, a lunch of chicken breast with steamed veggies, and beans, eggs and spinach for a light supper.

Brendand started out with a body fat percentage of 18.3 percent, which he describes as “acceptable but far from ideal.” At the end of the month, he has lost 8 pounds, his stomach has dropped 3 inches, and his body fat is at 10.5 percent.

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