If you have trained with us for any time at all, you probably already know that we love HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) as a way to get a great workout in a short period of time (and with serious long-term benefits). We know that many of you who do our workouts love HIIT, so you will likely love this HIIT workout too.

In this routine, we have put together some high cardio exercises and some medium cardio exercises that will get you tired without pushing you past your threshold. This will keep the calorie burn at its highest levels through each set. Once you complete a full round of our 8 HIIT exercises, we will give you a “break” in the form of a core-specific section to really target your abs along with the rest of your midsection. Then, we start over and do the whole thing over again, so by the time you are done you will have completed three rounds of the HIIT section and two rounds of the core section.

When going through this routine, as with any HIIT routine, you need to be aware of your own level of effort to get the most out of each movement. It is easy to let your body take over and just go through the motions of each exercise, but to get the most calorie burn and improvement in strength and endurance, you need to know how to push yourself to your maximum without burning out. Some of you may already know how to do this, but for those who don’t, the only way to learn is to push as hard as you can and right as you feel like you can't go any more, pull your effort back just a bit. The idea is to get through as much of the time limit or repetitions as you can with as much effort as you can muster, then as you start to tire out, slow down and really focus on form until you feel like you can push again. This is a concept known as active rest and as your body becomes more and more accustomed to intense exercise, the more you will be able to recover without stopping. For some people this can equate to doing the same exercise just at a lower intensity and/or slower pace, for others this could be dropping to a basic jog in place or boxer shuffle.

The only way to see where you are at and get better is to just start and do what you can for as long as you can, and try not to stop moving until you are done with your time limit or repetitions. Try to push hard for longer the next time you try. And always remember that you should never do HIIT more than 2-3 times per week. This kind of workout is intense and doing it day after day, back to back can (and invariably will) lead to repetitive stress injuries when you don’t give your body enough time to recover. It can also increase the likelihood of overtraining, which can be dangerous and also completely sideline your fitness goals - click here to learn about the signs of overtraining and how to avoid it.

Below is the printable workout used in the video.

HIIT Section: (20 on and 10 off once per exercise per set)
Burpees
Push Ups
High Knees
Jumping Jacks
Jumping Lunges
Butt Kickers
Sumo to Ski Squat
Alternating Side Lunges

Core Section: (12 reps per exercise per set)
Toe Touch Cross Crunches
Back Bow Crossovers
Windshield Wipers
Russian Twists

The calories for this routine can be substantial when done all out for the full time limit each round. You can expect to burn between 108 calories on the low end and 288 calories on the high end.

There is no warm up or cool down in this video, but make sure to do both.