Five AT Home HIIT Workouts

What IS HIIT? HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training.  It’s a form of cardio in which you exert short, very intense bursts of energy followed by a set rest period of lower intensity or complete rest.  This cycle is repeated multiple times to form a whole cardio workout. At Home HIIT Workouts are an amazing and effective way to get your cardio in!

What Are The Benefits of HIIT?

1. It’s a Time Saver – Distance cardio sucks.  I hate it, I would rather go to work then run a marathon or spend an hour on  a treadmill. Plus, nobody has time for that. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have it’s benefits, but there are more efficient and better ways to achieve your goals and that is HIIT training. In fact, a 2011 study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, stated that just 2 weeks of high-intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as 6-8 weeks of endurance training.

1. Calories Keep On Burning – There have been various studies done on the comparison of calories burned between HIIT and steady state cardio.  Do your own research, but there seems to be a consensus that HIIT burns roughly 3 times more calories than traditional cardio methods. Not only that but your bodies keep on burning calories for up to 24 hours after the workout. That is because the intensity of the workout kicks your body into repair mode which takes calories.

1. You Can Do It Anywhere – You can easily do HIIT workouts at home with little to no equipment.  There are many variations of HIIT workouts and the amount of equipment needed varies with them.  However, you don’t need weights or a gym. You can get a huge calorie burn with just your body weight and stuff around the house.  Plus, if traveling, there’s more than enough equipment in a crappy hotel gym to get a good HIIT workout in.

1. You Can Keep Your Muscles – Multiple studies show that while steady state cardio does burn fat, it can also burn up your hard earned muscle mass.  HIIT cardio not only burns fat, but, when done in conjunction with weight training, ensures that the weight you lose comes from fat and not your muscles.

1. Your Metabolism Skyrockets – HIIT cardio can increase the levels of Human Growth Hormone your body produces for up to 24 hours after the workout so you body is like a calorie burning furnace throughout the day. There is some evidence to suggest that it can also slow down the aging process.

1. It Adds Variety To Your Cardio – There are only so many ways to run a mile. HIIT training however can use countless different movements combined in different ways to put together a different workout out every week.  You can add weights, add boxing moves, sprints or plenty of bodyweight exercises to create a fun and challenging cardio routine.  

Check out this article that outlines some of the other health benefits of HIIT training beyond looking and feeling great!

HIIT Training Tips

As you can see the benefits speak for themselves.  Remember, it is called high INTENSITY interval training. You need to be intense. That means actually pushing yourself. Push yourself hard, 80-90% of full exertion. 

This is not for the cardio machine rat who loves to page through a magazine or hold a conversation with their “workout” partner while crushing the treadmill set on 1.5 mph. If you are able to hold a conversation while doing a HIIT workout, you are doing it wrong.

You can do one of these workouts in 20 minutes or less and the working period is short followed by a rest, push yourself.  If you can’t push yourself for that long you need to seriously re-evaluate your motivation for starting in the first place.  It will be a bit uncomfortable at first but you will improve and actually improve faster with HIIT training.

That being said, let’s get into five body weight HIIT workouts that you can do at home.

5 At Home, No Equipment Needed HIIT Workouts

Below are three HIIT workouts that you can do at home or anywhere with no equipment needed.  I will include video demonstrations of some of the less common movements but if you are unfamiliar with any of these, YouTube is a great resource and will have plenty of examples available.  

1. AMRAP Circuit

AMRAP-As Many Reps As Possible. You will be doing four total exercises. Set a timer for 10 minutes. There is no to little rest between exercises. Try to go through the complete circuit as many times as possible in the 10 minute limit. Perform the exercises sequentially and start over once you have completed all of them. Try to improve the number of times through the exercise circuit every time you do this one.

• 15 Mountain Climbers

• 12 jump squats

• 9 Burpees with push up and jump

• 6 push ups. (If you can’t do a complete push up, start on your knees or use a chair for incline push-ups)

1. Descending Rep Circuit

Perform the exercises listed below in consecutive order with no, or as little as possible rest between. After you have completed one full circuit, rest for three minutes. Complete the circuit three total times.  As you get better at it, decrease the rest time to two minutes, then one minute. Aim to try and complete the circuit three full times with no rest between complete circuits. 

• 30 Run in place high knees
• 5 body weight squats
• 25 Mountain Climbers
• 5 body weight squats
• 20 lunges
• 5 body weight squats
• 15 bicycle crunches 
• 5 body weight squats
• 10 push-ups
• 30 second wall sit

Video Instructions:

Run In Place High Knees:

Lunges:

Bicycle Crunches:

Wall Sit:

1. 8 Round HIIT Workout

This one is straight forward.  One minute rounds, 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. Move from one exercise to another with no rest between.  After you have completed all 8 rounds, rest for two minutes and then repeat. Complete three total rounds. To add an extra challenge, cut down rest time to one minute or add a fourth round. If you are feeling it, do both.

• 45 second tuck jump, 15 second rest
• 45 second high knees, 15 second rest
• 45 second mountain climbers, 15 second rest
• 45 second body weight squats, 15 second rest
• 45 second russian twists, 15 second rest
• 45 second side lunges, 15 second rest
• 45 second bicycle crunches, 15 second rest
• 45 second Burpees, 15 second rest

Video Instructions:

Run In Place High Knees:

Russian Twists:

Side Lunges:

1. 30-20-10 HIIT Circuit

This circuit contains three blocks of three exercises.  The first three exercises are performed for 30 seconds each with no rest between.  Rest for 30 seconds. The next three exercises are performed for 20 repetitions each with no rest between the three.  Rest 20 seconds. The last three exercises perform 10 repetitions of each. Rest two minutes and repeat for a total of three rounds. For an extra challenge, use no rest between the exercise blocks or reduce your time between rounds to one minute.  

• 30 second run in place
• 30 second step out plank
• 30 second jumping jacks
• 20 alternating reverse lunges
• 20 squat jumps
• 20 chair step ups
• 10 push ups
• 10 tuck jumps
• 10 burpees

Video Instructions:

Step Out Planks:

Reverse Alternating Lunges:

Chair Step Ups:

1. 10 to 1 Legs HIIT Circuit

This will be the hardest of the 5 circuits.  It will consist of three exercises. The exercises will be performed consecutively with no rest in between.  You will do 10 repetitions of each exercise. Then start at the beginning of the circuit and do 9 repetitions. Start again, do 8 reps and so on all the way down to 1 rep of each exercise.  No rest between exercises and no rest between starting a new rep cycle. This one will burn so no need to do more than one time through the whole circuit. If you are just starting out, start at 1 rep and try to work up to as many as you can get. If you can only get through the round of 4 reps at first, that’s fine, just try and improve every time you do it. One other tip to up your intensity, if you are looking to challenge yourself, time yourself and see how long it takes to get through the whole workout. Record the time and try to beat your time every workout. Here are the exercises:

• Burpees
• Squat jumps
• V-Ups

Video Instructions:

V-Ups:

Wrap Up

To wrap it up, HIIT training is a wonderful way to accelerate your weight loss routine.  It can be done in a fraction of the time as a traditional cardio workout and offers numerous other benefits outside of just a great workout.  It saves you time and can be done anywhere with little to no equipment.  

One of the best parts is that it keeps things changing and fun to keep you engaged and motivated.  Give these five at home HIIT workouts a try. Start with three times a week, mix and match the circuits on different days and when you are comfortable you can even create your own! This is no doubt a great way to get you sweating and get you in great shape!

Please comment below and let me know about any create HIIT circuits that you have tried!

Thanks for reading !