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The beauty of a HIIT workout is you don’t need a ton of time, equipment, or space to get in a really good sweat. All you need is a solid set of moves that get your heart pumping, your muscles working hard, and leave you a little breathless. Oh, and you need that drive to push it to your max!
Enter this 20-minute HIIT workout, designed for runners, which fires up your key running muscles to build strength and endurance that will carry into your long-distance miles.
The Benefits of This 20-Minute HIIT Workout
Runners can benefit from a 20-minute HIIT workout like the one listed below because it helps improve mobility, balance, and core strength says, Amber Rees, senior curriculum lead at Barry’s in New York City, and co-founder of the Brave Body Project. “Core strength is important for all runners. A strong core helps stabilize your trunk, control upper body rotation, and prevent injury,” she says.
Rees designed this 20-minute HIIT workout to also strengthen your running muscles from head to toe, as well as help address any stability and mobility issues you may have.
In addition to getting your core fired up throughout the workout, she added some traditional leg exercises to the mix, like the squat and lunge, because they’re the best for building lower-body strength and power on the road.
Rees suggests newbie runners practice this 20-minute HIIT workout with bodyweight only. But you’ll find ways to scale up the routine below.
How to use this list: Perform the exercises in the order listed below for 50 seconds each. Rest for 10 seconds in between each move. Do 3 rounds, resting for 60 seconds in between each round. You don’t need any equipment for this workout, but an exercise mat is helpful. Rees demonstrates each exercise in the video above so you can learn proper form.
1. Squat
Why it works: Moves don’t get much more functional than the squat—it mimics you sitting down and standing up. It also helps you build a strong back, quads, and glutes muscles, says Rees, all of which runners need to power strides.
How to do it: Start with feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly out. Send hips back and down, and bend at the knees until thighs are about parallel with the ground. Keep chest lifted and back neutral. Press through feet to stand back up. Repeat.
Take it to the next level: Explode up from the bottom of your squat, turning this into a muscle-burning squat jump.
2. Skater
Why it works: Here’s where that stability and balance challenge comes into play. This single-leg move requires your stabilizers to kick in as you jump side to side, which also elevates the heart rate.
How to do it: Stand with feet parallel and hip-width apart. Jump to the right, driving off left foot and landing on right foot, left leg swinging behind right. Send hips back while reaching for toes with left fingertips. Then drive through right foot to jump back to the left, landing on left foot, right leg swinging behind left as you send hip back. Continue alternating.
Take it to the next level: Each time you hop to the side, add a single-leg vertical jump after your landing. This not only ups that balance challenge, but will target your calves more too.
3. Lunge
Why it works: Rees says she included traditional lunges in this 20-minute HIIT workout because it will help strengthen your back, core, and hip muscles. “Lunges are a run-specific exercise. They strengthen hip muscles and improve ankle mobility. Plus, lunges help improve power and overall run mechanics,” she says.
How to do it; Stand with feet hip-width apart. Step backward with right foot while keeping left foot in place. Bend both knees, creating a 90-degree angle. Keep left knee behind the top of left toes and right knee hovering above floor. Push off through left heel to stand back up. Repeat, stepping back with left foot. Continue alternating.
Take it to the next level: Instead of stepping through this move, explode up to switch your feet in the air, landing in the opposite side lunge each time.
4. High Knees
Why it works: Another move that focuses on single-leg stability, this exercise also mimics the powerful knee drive you need to for a speedy stride, Rees says.
How to do it: Stand with feet together, arms down by sides. Bend one knee to a 90-degree angle, driving it up toward chest. Do not let the upper body lean forward; keep the core engaged to stay upright. Drive foot back down, immediately driving opposite knee toward chest. Continue alternating, as you pump arms.
Take it to the next level: The faster you work, the tougher this exercise. So try to double time your high knees in the last 20 seconds or more.
5. Half Burpee
Why it works: Strengthen your chest, shoulders, core, and legs with this total-body move that’s also sure to spike that heart rate.
How to do it: Start in a high plank position, hands shoulder-width apart, shoulders stacked directly over wrists, forming a straight line from head to heels. Inhale, then bend elbows to lower chest to the floor. Elbows should form a 45-degree angle with your body. Exhale and push back up. Then jump feet forward, placing them outside of hands into a deep squat. Pause, then jump feet back to plank. Repeat.
Take it to the next level: This move is already tough, but if you want an even bigger burn, add some weights and stand up from the bottom of that squat, making sure to keep your core engaged and back flat as you go.
6. Sit-Up With Alternating Toe Touch
Why it works: A great move for building core strength, this exercise targets the rectus abdominis muscles, as well as the obliques, which will keep your torso stable as you run.
How to do it: Lie faceup with knees bent, feet flat on the mat, and arms reaching out in front of chest. This is your starting position. Extend left leg up and out while sitting up and reaching for left leg with right hand in one controlled motion. Then slowly return to starting position. Next, extend right leg out while sitting up and reaching for right leg with left hand in one controlled motion. Then slowly return to the starting position. Continue alternating.
Take it to the next level: Instead of knees bent and feet planted, extend those legs and keep them hovering off the floor the entire time, still reaching for one foot, then the other with opposite hand.
Monique LeBrun joined the editorial staff in October 2021 as the associate health and fitness editor. She has a master’s degree in journalism and has previously worked for ABC news and Scholastic. She is an avid runner who loves spending time outside.
