It’s been a while since my last fitness post and after this past very lazy and indulgent Memorial Day weekend I thought I would share a round up of some new high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts I’m doing this week to kickstart my summer workout regime. I workout at home, usually on my deck because I enjoy getting the fresh air, so all of these workouts require minimal space and equipment to complete. In my opinion HIIT workouts are one of the most efficient and effective ways to get your exercise in. I don’t have a ton of time in the morning (who does?!) and high intensity training allows me to fit a great workout into a limited window of time. These five workouts all take 30 minutes or less and require dumbbells or no equipment at all! I suggest 10-15 lbs. which is just my preference, but feel free to adjust the weight to whatever works for you.
The one downside I find to exercising outside of the gym is that you don’t always have that same competitive dynamic you would working out alongside your peers. The best way to stay accountable when working out alone is to track your progress through scoring, so I’ve outlined how to complete and score each of these five workouts. Keep a journal with your scores and each time you return to one of these workouts you have a benchmark for what you know you can do, and a base point for setting quantifiable goals to push past those scores competing against yourself to become a better athlete than you were the week before.
I’ve linked quick tutorials for the exercises which you can find under each workout. Go get ’em!
Equipment: 1 set of 10-15 lbs. dumbbells. Score is one point per fully completed round of V-ups, DB swings, and goblet squats.
Equipment: 1 set of 10-15 lbs. dumbbells. Score is time to complete ladder of burpees, DB deadlifts, DB squats, and DB push press.
Equipment: 1 set of 10-15 lbs. dumbbells, Tabata app clock. Total score is the sum of the lowest scores for each of the four exercises (DB push press, DB swings, bent over row, and thrusters.) This is a 16 minute workout, made up of 8 rounds of each exercise. One round is 2o seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. The easiest way to manage the time is with a Tabata app, and there are number of free options available on the App Store that you can download to your phone or tablet.
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Equipment: 1 set of 10-15 lbs. dumbbells. Score is one point per completed round. Each minute complete 4 burpees followed by a cycle through the four alternating exercises.
(i.e… Round 1: 4 burpees, 12 DB deadlifts… Round 2: 4 burpees, 12 DB squats… Round 3: 4 burpees, 12 DB back squats*… Round 4: 4 burpees, 12 DB push press.)
*for DB back squats, take one dumbbell and rest on the back of your neck. Hold onto both ends with each hand and squat. Make sure to keep head and chest up!
Equipment: n/a! Total score is sum of the lowest scores for each of the four exercises (air squats, push ups, lunges, burpees). This is a 16 minute workout, made up of 8 rounds of each exercise. One round is 2o seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. After completing eight rounds (four minutes) of one exercise move on to the next. The easiest way to manage the time is with a Tabata app, and there are number of free options available on the App Store that you can download to your phone or tablet.