WORKOUT

Focus & Ben­e­fits: You’ll use light to medi­um added resis­tance in this fast-paced HIIT (high inten­si­ty inter­val train­ing) rou­tine that includes ele­ments of pow­er, car­dio, strength, and bal­ance. Although weights are includ­ed in this work­out, your main train­ing focus is car­dio and a high per­ceived rate of exer­tion to elic­it the train­ing ben­e­fits of an anaerobic/​nearly breath­less train­ing ses­sion. Short bouts of intense train­ing help grad­u­al­ly improve our VO2 max, improv­ing our bod­ies’ abil­i­ty to uti­lize oxy­gen dur­ing a work­out and thus boost­ing over­all per­for­mance and health.

Equip­ment: You’ll need at least one set of light and medi­um weights rel­a­tive to the com­bi­na­tion exer­cis­es and weight­ed core work includ­ed in this work­out. Because we’re aim­ing for high reps dur­ing each 30-sec­ond work­ing inter­val of the HIIT cir­cuits, you will not be using your heav­i­est weight loads but will instead shift your focus to effi­cient con­trol of the weights at a quick tem­po. Thus, select weights for each exer­cise that are per­haps a bit lighter than you would typ­i­cal­ly use so that you can focus on dri­ving up the heart rate with increased cadence ver­sus increased exter­nal resis­tance. For the core fin­ish­er we’ll slow down the tem­po. We’re only using one weight for this final seg­ment, but not much weight is need­ed to reap the ben­e­fits of the bal­ance and core sta­bi­liza­tion challenges.

Tips & Help­ful Infor­ma­tion: Pre­view the exer­cis­es before start­ing the work­out (you can read them below or skim the video!) to get an idea of the types of move­ment pat­terns includ­ed in the rou­tine. Con­sid­er your weight choic­es for each exer­cise and think about exer­cis­es for which you’d need an alter­na­tive so that your brain is ready to lis­ten for cues/​tips while I’m tak­ing you through these pre-iden­ti­fied parts of the work­out. I know this might sound like a lot of work to do before start­ing a work­out, but trust me, just a few min­utes of prepa­ra­tion can ​“save” your work­out experience!

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This rou­tine is rat­ed as a lev­el 4 due to the coor­di­na­tion and skill required to com­plete the pow­er-dri­ven com­bi­na­tion exer­cis­es as well as the over­all phys­i­cal demand of the rou­tine. Slow down the tem­po of exer­cise exe­cu­tion, decrease or omit your weights, and/​or seg­ment any of the com­bi­na­tion exer­cis­es into dis­tinct, sep­a­rate moves (pause between ele­ments) to decrease the chal­leng­ing pow­er element.

Clos­ing Notes: This rou­tine is designed to feel chal­leng­ing but it’s only as chal­leng­ing as you make it! HIIT work­outs are a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice tru­ly being in the moment and focus­ing on the inter­val at hand, because com­plete atten­tion is required to suc­cess­ful­ly reach breathlessness/​achieve a high­ly ele­vat­ed heart rate. Hence the rea­son why HIIT rou­tines are short and don’t need to be com­plet­ed more than one to two times a week for per­for­mance improve­ments. Have fun!

Work­out
Warm-Up: 30 sec per exer­cise, no rest between exer­cis­es (4:00)
‑Hip Openers
‑Squat + Over­head Press with Calf Raise
‑Dead­lift + Alt. Knee Drives
‑Alt. Reverse + Lat­er­al Lunges with For­ward Raise – R
‑Alt. Reverse + Lat­er­al Lunges with For­ward Raise – L
‑Squat + Alt. Cross­es (rotate)
‑Heis­man Shuf­fle (mid-tem­po)
‑Jump­ing Jacks

***30 sec off***

My Weights (not a rec­om­men­da­tion, just a reference):
‑Light: 10 lbs. (4.5 kg)
‑Medi­um: 15 lbs. (6.8 kg)

HIIT Cir­cuit #1: 30 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (~6:00)
‑Dead­lift + Clean
‑Thrusters
‑Alt. Reverse Lunges + For­ward Raise (raise in lunge – small swing)
‑Squat + Rota­tion­al Chest/​Svend Press (1 weight – press and piv­ot upon standing)

***Water Break***

HIIT Cir­cuit #2: 30 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (~6:00)
‑Hang Squat Cleans
‑Alt. SA Rota­tion­al Thrusters
‑Alt. Lat­er­al Lunges + Low Row (row in lunge)
‑Squat Jack Pop-Up + Ham­mer Curl (1 weight – curl in squat)

***30 sec off***

Weight­ed Core Fin­ish­er: (1 weight) 30 sec on / 10 sec off / 2 rounds (~4:00)
‑Weight Over­head – R + Knee Lift + Leg Exten­sion – L
‑Weight Over­head – L + Knee Lift + Leg Exten­sion – R
-“Steer­ing Wheel” Svend Press + Rota­tion (oppo­site heel lifts)

Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per stretch (approx. 4:00)
‑Split Stance Quads/​Hip Flex­ors Stretch – R
‑Pyra­mid Ham­strings Stretch – L
‑Split Stance Quads/​Hip Flex­ors Stretch – L
‑Pyra­mid Ham­strings Stretch – R
‑Neck/​Traps Stretch – R
‑Neck/​Traps Stretch – L
‑Chest Open­er Stretch + Wrist Rotations
‑Slow Body Roll-Downs