Within any exercise program should be the perfect amount of strength training…and cardio. But, cardio doesn’t have to be boring treadmill walking or stair climbing. It can be ANYTHING that raises your heart rate. Maybe that is dancing, biking, lawn-mowing, it can be anything. This workout is an at-home HIIT workout.
This HIIT style workout is done with all bodyweight moves and in a short period of time. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This style of training is designed to get you working at high capacities and pushing those limits. Benefits of HIIT training include:
• Increase EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption)
• Burn more calories
• Maintain muscle mass
• Decrease blood pressure
The benefits you can get from HIIT are great, but the best part? HIIT training is SHORT DURATION! So there is no long, drawn out sessions! Just quick spurts of intense effort and then you can reap the benefits! So here is a short and sweet at-home hiit workout for you!
Table of Contents
:30 seconds of exercise followed by :20 seconds of rest–3 rounds
» High knees
» Modified burpees
» Side step to curtsy
» Rotating plank walk
» Opposite knee to elbow crunch
» Jumping Jacks
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FULL video on YouTube
Great exercise for increasing the heart rate without too much extra stress on the body!
FORM: Using your core, drive one knee up and at a time towards your chest! Swinging your arms to help with movement as well.
MODIFICATION: You can either jog these out or simply just step/march.
The dreaded BURPEES!
FORM: The movement here is: hands to the floor, step back into a high plank, step back in to hands and then stand up. You want to keep your core tight at all times and really focus on each movement.
MODIFICATION: To make things harder you can do a full burpee with jumps. Or you can make things a little easier by elevating your hands on a bench!
This movement is to work the lateral movement pattern of the lower body and fire those glute muscles!
FORM: For these, you want to step out to the side and then step behind your foot (with enough room to curtsy, or bend both legs) and then stand up and step to the other side. You are thinking about driving into the heel of the front foot and really working that glute.
MODIFICATION: An easier motion would just be decreasing your range of motion in the curtsy. To make it more difficult you can add a jump instead of a step from side to side to really ramp things up.
A great exercise to work your core and your shoulders.
FORM: This is simply just a side step in a high plank position! You want to step your hand and foot out at the same time and alternate from side to side. Keeping your core tight, back flat and shoulders over your wrists the entire time.
MODIFICATION: Drop down to your knees to make this easier and only move your hands from side to side. To make it more difficult you can, well, go as quick as you can to increase your heart rate. Otherwise, you shouldn’t need to make this movement harder unless you want to put a weight on your back.
Two different versions of this exercise are shown. One is more difficult and one is a little easier, but both focus on using the core to bring your knee towards your chest!
FORM: Remember, your core is your focus here! Reaching opposite elbow to opposite knee to get a good crunch with the abdominals without stress on the spine. For the single leg drive, you want to use your core to drive that knee up as you come down to meet it with both elbows! The focus here is moving quickly and engaging the core the entire time.
MODIFICATION: You cannot make this move easier, so just go at your own pace. To make things more difficult you can add a weight to the movement or do the more advanced version that focuses only on one knee at a time.
Yes, just plain old jumping jacks
FORM: Feet jump out to the sides and arms raise overhead keeping elbows straight! Core is tight, don’t get sloppy!
MODIFICATION: Instead of jumping you can simply step tap from side to side.
Whenever you are doing a full body workout, it is important to warmup the full body. So doing moves that fire multiple muscles is ideal! No need to spend 20 minutes warming up, you can keep it simple with just a few minutes to increase your heart rate and activate the muscles.
HIIT warmup:
» Seal Jacks (jumping jacks with arms opening and closing rather than swinging overhead)
» Lunges with twist (both directions)
» Dolphins with pushup (pushup and then pushing into heels keeping legs straight)
» Toy Soldiers (kicking leg as high as you can with knee straight while trying to meet your opposite hand in the air)
Cooling down is also incredibly important because you just spent the last ____ minutes with your heart rate in a pretty high zone, so you need to take the time to lower it down properly. This also includes making sure you DO NOT SIT DOWN during rest periods or immediately after as that will cause lactic acid to build in the muscles and can then in turn cause a slower recovery or even force you to vomit or pass out.
HIIT cooldown:
» Elevated hamstring stretch
» Foot cross-over side bend
» Big/slow arm circles backwards and forwards
» Figure 4 glute stretch
That should be a great quick, and easy HIIT workout that will still be effective without stripping you of all your energy! It is important that your workouts/exercise leave you feeling energized and not completely drained, otherwise you could be showing signs of overtraining! Remember, this should be fun and exciting…not a personal beat down every time you press play!
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