Chances are you have heard of HIIT training, but are possibly still unsure about what it actually is and how to put together your own workout. HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training and the idea is to work harder for a smaller amount of time than say going out for a hour-long, low-intensity walk, and has become increasingly popular in a time poor society.

Dr Andrew Keech, a UNSW Medicine exercise physiology researcher who has been studying the science of exercise for 20 years, said most sports follow an unstructured form of HIIT.

"Efforts are generally short and vigorous and then the athlete rests for a short period before another hard effort," Dr Keech said. "So, HIIT is a fancy way of saying, 'work hard for a while, recover and then do it all again'. This is what athletes have been doing for many years."

Juggling family life and work life can leave little time for workout life and many people, including Dr Keech, don't find "pounding the pavement" overly enjoyable.

"Instead, I use a large hill near our home which is an easy workout: I run uphill at about 90 per cent maximum speed for about 20 seconds and then walk back down. I do this five times and that's it - the benefits show just from that," he said, adding there was no need to "smash yourself" with a huge workout that wipes you out for the rest of the day.

Scott Hingston, a personal trainer who works out of Green Life Gym in Merewether, said ensuring there is structure in HIIT training is important.

"HIIT training is a great workout to reach your anticipated intensity and it also should assist to get outside of your individual comfort zone," Mr Hingston said. "My personal opinion is that HIIT training should be dominated with bodyweight and low-impact exercise to avoid risk of injury.

"Resistance training at high intensity causes a great amount of concern in regards to maintaining technique when your body is under fatigue. It is great that we have a large amount of diversity in today's industry, however, if we perform low-impact exercises at high intensity for a range of age groups and fitness levels then everyone is going to benefit from this without unnecessary risks.

"Even some of the best athletes in the world are so good at what they do because they perform basic movements with more consistency and higher intensity than others.

"Lastly, we have to make sure there is structure in HIIT training. What are we trying to tell our bodies as we go through each workout? How can we set targets to show individual progression and maintain motivation to keep going week in week out and not give up? We can introduce plenty of random and improvised movements but are they giving us the results we initially set out to achieve?"

An example of a HIIT session Mr Hingston would set is eight one-minute stations - such as agility ladder, row with a target in metres, battle rope, plyometric lunges, walking plank, medicine ball squat jumps, bear crawl and ice skaters - for three rounds.

Send your health and fitness news to r.valentine@austcommunitymedia.com.au. Renee Valentine is a journalist, qualified personal trainer and mother of three.