Alright, alright alright – following up on last week’s full body resistance training session, we’re going to burn it up again today with this full body HIIT circuit you can do at home!
Have you done a HIIT (stands for “high intensity interval training”) workout before?
It’s super fun, fast, and incredibly efficient if your goal is to maximize fat loss in a short time!
Typically a HIIT workout (which can be as short and efficient as 4 minutes – think Tabatas or as long and painful as 60 lol) pairs an intense work period (from 5 seconds to 8 minutes long) performed at 80-95% of your estimated maximal heart rate, with a recovery period that may be equally long but not exceed 40-50% of your maximal heart rate.
Some of the benefits of HIIT include:
- improving aerobic and anaerobic fitness
- strengthening the cardiovascular system
- improving insulin sensitivity (which helps the exercising muscles more readily use glucose for fuel to make energy)
- challenging the fast-twitch muscle fibers (the ones that are awesome for strength, power and looking lean and mean)
- reducing abdominal fat and body weight while maintaining muscle mass
- making you more badass 🙂
Sound good? I think so too! Join me for today’s workout – let’s HIIT IT!
Love having workouts you can do ANYWHERE, ANYTIME – and a well-designed plan to follow so you get the BEST RESULTS? Take a 30-day Challenge in Rock Your Life and have workouts like this formatted into a plan to follow!
Below you’ll find the workout notes and form tips – if you want to repeat the workout for additional rounds, jump back to 6:20 when I start round 1.
Post in the comments and let me know how you do with this workout, how your holidays are treating you, and what workouts you’d like to see next!
I’d love to see you in class! You can check out my Rock Your Life Fitness Community and online class program right here – we do challenges every couple months as a group, and there are structured workout programs between challenges, as well as guidance for using your meal plans and other workout programs. You’re welcome anytime!
Hotter For the Holidays (Part 2) FULL BODY HIIT Home Workout
Click to expand and see all workout move descriptions.FORMAT: Each move for prescribed Reps. 2 rounds is AWESOME, 3 rounds is ROCKSTAR, 4 rounds is INSANE 🙂
Round 1 starts at 6:20 if you want to jump back and do more rounds after you do the first 2 with me.
Move 1: 10 Jump In, Jump Out, Tuck Jump, Cross-Cross
- Load your weight in your heels and drive your booty back behind you, jumping up and landing lightly in a squat. Jump again, this time landing in a wide sumo squat, knees tracking over your toes.
- Keep your chest up. Jump again, driving your knees up to your chest.
- When you land, drive your right knee up and across to meet your left elbow and repeat with the left knee and right elbow.
- To modify, take out the jumping and instead do a body squat, keeping your weight in your heels, chest lifting. Hold a chair or the wall for support and only go down as deep as you can while maintaining good form.
- Step out to a wide squat and squat again in a sumo squat. Stand and drive one knee up then the other, then drive your knees across to opposite elbows.
Move 2: 3 Total Around the Body Lunges (optional weights/resistance)
- If you’re using weights or weighted objects at home, hold them on your shoulders or at your sides, keeping your shoulders back and chest open. If you aren’t using any weight that’s great too, keep your hands on your hips or wherever they are comfortable for you and help you balance.
- You’ll perform a forward, side and reverse lunge with your right leg, then pick up with your left in the reverse lunge, completing a circle around your body.
- Be sure to keep your torso upright as you lunge. Don’t round your back. Keep your knees in line with your toes, and work at a steady, controlled pace with excellent form.
Move 3: 10 Warrior Burpees
- Plant your hands beneath your shoulders and jump back to tall plank, holding your belly button in and up to keep your core engaged.
- Drive your right knee under you and up toward your left chest, then your left to right in 2 cross body mountain climbers.
- Jump your feet back to your hands, loading the weight in your heels and pop up, smoothly kicking one leg out straight, then the other. It’s also great to do high knees if the high kicks don’t work for you.
Move 4: 3 Rounds of 5 Triceps Dips, 5 In & Outs
- Come to a tabletop position, with your chest open and your hands beneath your shoulders hips lifting and knees bent at 90 degrees.
- You can have your hands flat, on soft fists or holding dumbbells to align your wrists if that helps. Point your elbows straight back and perform shallow dips.
- After you complete 5, come to a seated position with your hands behind you (or up off the mat for advanced) and lift your legs. Begin to drive them in and out, as you lower and lift your torso at the same time.
Move 5: 40-50 Heismans
- Stand and drive your right knee up high to the side as you bring your right elbow to meet it, performing a side crunch. Quickly perform the same movement on your left side, running your legs as you go.
- Try to keep the knees driving up high, and a fast pace. You can slow it down and do side crunches anytime you need a break.
Move 6: 10 Walking Planks
- Come to tall plank on your knees or toes. Engage your core and keep your shoulders aligned over your wrists and gently pulled back (not rounding forward).
- Lower yourself down to your elbows, keeping the elbows in the same good alignment with your shoulders as your hands were, and maintaining the engaged core. Walk back up to your hands. Continue.
Doing one-off workouts like this is great, but following a plan is better!
References:
- Updadhyay, Vivekanand et al. “Effect of high intensity interval training and slow, continuous training on VO2max of school going non-athlete males: a comparative study” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2010. Web. http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/Suppl_1/i19.1.abstract
- Kravits, Len PhD. “High Intensity Interval Training.” American College of Sports Medicine. 2014. Web. https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/high-intensity-interval-training.pdf