It is hard to believe, but we are already more than a month in to 2014, so it’s a good time to reflect upon the month that has gone and judge how successful we’ve all been in our New Year’s Resolutions.

We make a whole range of promises to reform our lives come January 1st every year and, according to thinkmoney.co.uk, a whopping 14.5 million Britons make New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight. Are you one of those people? How has it been going? Still hitting the gym 4 times a week? Going for that 5km run on a Saturday morning?

Unfortunately, we humans aren’t exactly great at keeping promises. Although 19% of those who make resolutions say they will “exercise and improve fitness” this year, on top of the 29% who say they will lose weight, only 1 in 5 of us expect to have the mental willpower to stick to our promises for a whole year. Furthermore, 2% of resolvers anticipate that, come midnight on January 1st, they will have already broken their resolution.

If you are one of those who made a fitness resolution this year, you have probably come up with numerous questions, one of which being: what type of exercise is best for me?

I would go in-depth and give a low-down on the whole resistance vs cardiovascular training, but I’m not going to. I am going to focus on the battle currently going on in the latter form of exercise. That battle being against LISS and the new craze HIIT cardio.

LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) are both beneficial for you. LISS burns a lot of calories as you do it, but lasts a long time. On the other hand, HIIT is short intense bursts of exertion, followed by short periods of rest at various ratios. HIIT does have the benefit of ramping up your metabolism for - as Muscle and Fitness magazine claims - up to 48 hours later. This means you burn calories as you rest. Great right?

However, I assume - if you have taken any serious commitment to getting fit for ’14 - you have probably researched and heard a lot about HIIT cardio. The trouble is motivation. It is one thing to say you are going to sprint for 30 seconds and jog for 1 minute tomorrow morning at your local park; it’s another to get up, warm-up, stretch, mentally prepare and actually go out and do it. Even putting the bike machine in the gym on the 1:1 Interval programme takes great strength of will. Trust me, I’ve tried.

Trouble with doing cardio in the gym is it is very easy to work half-ass. You’re either staring at a screen showing you when your next bout of torture is about to commence, watching Homes Under The Hammer, or staring absently at the other people on the CV machines doing just the same as you. Not a lot.

Of course, you may argue that these last two only account for people doing lower intensity stuff, but even those of you who swear by your every-other-day HIIT session will have struggled to maintain focus and determination during it.

So, how to escape the monotony of the gym? Easy: get outside! But what do you do once you get there? There is no one (unless you have a partner) to force you to start your next sprint; no programme to ramp up the resistance.

Well, there is an absolutely perfect form of cardio that ticks all the boxes for someone seeking to improve their fitness and figure, and it’s right on your doorstep.

Hillwalking.

I’ve been traipsing up the hills since I was five. The Ochil Hills have sort of become my playground. I walked my first Munro (Scottish mountain over 3000-feet) when I was nine and a half, alongside my brother who was five at the time. Since then, he and I have managed to get over sixty more of the two-hundred-and-eighty-two of the mountains under our boots. When you say it like that it doesn’t seem like a lot, but I have done enough to be able to say that hillwalking is the ultimate form of cardio.

Let’s go through some of the basic boxes your exercise regime should tick in order to be successful. You should have a good mix of LISS and HIIT cardio, work in some resistance training, and, assuming you want to have good posture and some decent abs, incorporate some core work. Of course, you may argue there are other forms of cardio which do these things, but you shall see that hillwalking does this and more.

On a hill walk you will come across various types of terrain and inclines: rugged, soft, wet, squishy, rocky, slippery ground; long-sloping plateaus, against steep as hell scrambles. Each of these features work your body in different ways.

The varying terrain, on top of the fact your carrying a decently heavy rucksack is very taxing on your core muscles. Every step is met with a new challenge and a need to readjust your position and posture in order to accommodate for the uneven ground. That’s just on no incline.

Going uphill, as I’m sure you know if you’ve tried running, forces you to bring your knees up higher and pump your arms harder in order to maintain a good pace. Run up a hill for any length of time and I bet you will be feeling it in your core. Then there is the downhill.

Downhill has to be the most exhilarating part of a hill walk, I feel. I love racing down the hill between Ben Cleuch and Ben Ever; my music pumping in my ears, the feeling of the clear air running through my hair - this sounds weird now - and the incredible view of the Arrochar Alps as the landscape to my right stretches on to the horizon (weather permitting). But to return to my point, the downhill running is amazing for your core, too. It’s all those terrains at high-speed! Or a moderately quick one at least. You have to hold your balance all the time as your feet threaten to slip, slide, or trip you up - it’s great!

You may argue that ordinary running fulfils this kind of thing, fair enough. However, the higher impact nature of running on tarmac can have a negative effect on your joints. Hill running meanwhile tends to be on much softer ground, while also building up the strength in your legs. Working your legs has an added calorie-burning bonus as your legs contain some of your biggest muscles and so boost your burn.

Turning to cardio, going up a hill is an intense form of exercise. However, in hillwalking, this varies all the time. One minute it is as steep as the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, and the next it is rewardingly flat. Sound familiar? You have some HIIT there. Then, on the flatter, longer plateaus you get in your LISS, plus your heart is in that perfect 50-65% of its maximum called your “Fat Burning Zone”.

Therefore, as you can see hillwalking is a great form of exercise. Forget the spinning pedals of the stationary bike, or the mental battle that takes place before a hard run - with hillwalking it’s just you against nature and that is the best bit of hillwalking. You are in a place most people barely see; the views are incredible and the constantly emerging beauty of the landscape is wonderful to behold.

The biggest bonus of hillwalking is the accomplishment you feel at the top. Look around (if it’s clear enough) at the amazing views and feel like you have actually done something today.

So don’t look back if you feel you haven't succeeded in your New Year’s promise - get outdoors, get up a hill! We here in Scotland apparently don’t get enough Vitamin D, so what better place to get it than outside? The power is right on your doorstep in Clackmannanshire. All you have to do is pack a bag, grab some old shoes or boots and pick a hill. Don’t be the one who gave up their fitness goal in a matter of weeks; get out, get fit, and enjoy the view from the top.

Visit www.walkhighlands.co.uk for a huge number of walks for you to choose from. All of the walks are added to by members and are filled with helpful tips for any level of experience.