My 35 minute HIIT training hell routine

Many people ask me what I do when I do my HIIT training. Well, when I'm outside I do all kinds of stuff, since I have a whole bunch of low cost exercise "aids" for outside, it's easy to make up a 35 to 45 minute routine that kills it with HIIT training. Any park will do.

Inside is a bit different, if you have a gym, with basic equipment and 10 feet of open space, I have a routine that will tear you up. Here's my gym HIIT routine.

Fair warning: doing this in a public gym may turn some heads and give you some odd looks from people, pay them no heed, they are just jealous of your exercise dominance! :)

HIIT training in the gym:
NEEDS: tread mill with incline, rowing machine, stepper or stair master, small sport court or open floor, bosu ball, agility ladder if they have it, if not a jump rope.

Step 1: WARM UP, take 5 to 10 minutes to get the blood flowing, what ever you want to do is fine, I jog at a moderate pace, but you can do whatever you want.
Step 2: stretch, passive stretches to loosen up all those tight muscles, tendons, ligaments and such. Please wait until after you warm up to stretch.

Step 3 - cardio burn:
Routine:
Tread mill: 1 minute intervals of running REVERSED on the tread mill, get it as fast as you can while being safe, then hit the incline button until it's at least at 4%. Do 3 1 minute intervals, for the last 10 seconds your thighs should be absolutely on fire. For the beginner, give yourself 1 minute between each interval, for the advanced, 30 seconds. Do 3 intervals
2 minute break (beginner), 1 minute break (advanced)
Repeat the above intervals with the rowing machine and then with the stair climber
I usually do 120 to 125 steps per minute on the stair climber, but start with what you can

Step 4 - abs:
grab a heavy medicine ball, find a spot with nothing around you, and do around the world slams as fast as you can, 1 minute each side.
In an around the world slam you hold the ball with both hands at your crotch, rotate the ball with outstretched arms in a circle to the left until it's over your head, rotate your core right, and slam the ball beside you as hard as you can on the ground. pick it up and do it again, do this with all the speed you can muster for 1 minute. Then reverse it.
Do 2 sets of this for each side, with no break between sides, and a 30 second break between sets.

exercise ball v-ups.
1 minute at a time, with 1 minute rest (no matter the level, your abs must have recovery time).
lay down on your back with legs straight out, hold a small exercise ball (between 6 and 18 lbs depending on your level) straight up towards the ceiling, this is your down (resting) position. Bring your straight legs up towards the ceiling without bending the knees, while simultaneously bringing your back up. Try to touch your shins with the ball. DO NOT CURL YOUR NECK. Focus your eyes on the ceiling, keep them there. Force your abs to do the work, not your neck and back. The ball should go straight up and slightly forward towards your legs, never back towards your head.

Step 5 - leg, agility training

put a bosu ball on the floor with about a 6 foot box of free space around it. Do bosu cross-jumps. 1 minute intervals, 3 sets. 30 seconds rest for advanced, 1 minute rest for beginners.
A bosu ball cross-jump is feet together, hop onto the ball then forward to the ground, backwards back on the ball then hop off to the left, then back up and to the right, then back up and back to the start. That's 1 cross.

If you have the agility ladder and room to use it do the following sets:
4 times through doing speed steps. Run straight through the ladder each foot should go in every square, like you're tippy toeing through the house, very fast. Once through, jog back and start again, no rest between.
Next do 2 in 2 out. Straddle the first square, put one foot in, put the other foot in, then the first foot out then the second foot out, moving to the next rung as you place your second foot out, speed up as you become used to it. Do 4 sets.
rest 30 seconds
Next do double hop 2 up and 1 back. Face one direction with your feet together. hop sideways in the rung next to you, then the next one, then hop back one rung. do this 4 times, 10 seconds rest, go all the way down and back with the same method facing the same direction to ensure balance.

If you don't have an agility ladder, do 3 minutes of jump rope, speed is essential to this, go as fast as you can, do 1 minute on, 30 seconds off for 3 minutes. If you can't go fast enough to get the burn, you can do deep knee bend high jumps with dumbbells if you like, but which ever you do, do it with as much speed as possible.

last thing: the monsters.

You can do these with as little as 10 feet of space, but it's better with 30 feet or more.
in small space (10 to 15 feet of open space) sprint and touch the ground at each pivot point and return, do 4 lengths and rest 10 seconds. Do 8 of these.
In a larger space, use cones or (anything) something else to mark the half way point. Sprint to the halfway, touch, sprint back, touch sprint the full distance, sprint back, rest 15 seconds. Do 6 to 10 of these depending on how you feel.

Recover, do a fast walk on a tread mill or something light cardio similar for 5 to 10 minutes to allow your body to cool down, this avoids blood pooling at the extremities and keeps you from stroking out (it's rare, but it happens people).

Why do this? This routine will drastically increase your balance and functional stability. It forces your body to move in ways that activate and fire your stabilizer muscles. It will strengthen the supportive muscles in your feet, ankles, knees, hips, abdominal, and obliques. This means better balance in those winter months (think of slipping on the ice and NOT falling down, rather just wobbling a little, maybe instead of a broken wrist you receive a few chuckles and a moment of red-face).
Also this routine will increase your Anaerobic threshold. That means it won't really increase your overall endurance, but WILL increase the length of time you can sustain very high levels of endurance, and increase heart and lung capacity. For someone who runs distance races, this technique will allow you to "kick" at the end of a long race, or "finish strong" in almost any endurance activity.

It's really fun too, watching all those guys in the gym that do nothing but weight training looking at you like "that dude's insane!"

a lot of people ask me: " No resistance stuff?" Like push-ups or lunges or dumbbell work. Nope, not in this one. I don't like mixing exercise types because they reduce the efficiency of each type. It's fine to mix that in, but know that doing that will only increase cardio burn, it won't increase the development cycle of any one aspect of exercise (and could hinder some).


Anyway, do this routine 1 to 2 times a week, mixed with your other resistance and straight cardio, and you'll be outpacing your friends and fellow competitors in no time (about 3 months of this is great, but then you should mix in other routines instead to keep from gaining to much muscle memory).

Hope this helps someone out.

-Banks

Replies

  • Jamie_Lauren
    Jamie_Lauren Posts: 211 Member
    WOW :ohwell: that sounds intense!

    I love interval training on the treadmill, maybe I will try adding some incline. Thanks for posting this! :drinker:
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
    Saving this for hotel gym workouts. Thanks!!
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    tag for later.
  • What do you do for strength based work outs?
  • SMarie10
    SMarie10 Posts: 956 Member
    Dang... Going to bump for later.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    I want to hear from you guys after you do the routine, and if you have any changes you make to it (to make it worse/better). I have (much) harder routines but I figured I wouldn't subject you guys to my ultimate hell routines the first time I post this. :devil:

    Things you can do to make it worse/better (other than making it longer, that's not what I mean):
    (you can replace any or all of these, but replacing all of them my kill you :tongue: )

    -Replace one of the sets on the agility ladder with plyometric push-ups (one push-up per rung, all the way down and all the way back, 30 seconds rest on the way down). I.E. in a 10 rung ladder, put your hand in the first one, do the push-up, either jump or side walk (in the up position) to the next rung, repeat until at the end, rest 30, then do it again back.

    -Replace one of the sets on the agility ladder with full burpies (I.E. squat thrust, push-up with a jump at the top) with 10 to 20 lb hex weight dumbbells. Do 1 full minute.

    -Replace the stair climber with 3, 1 minute sessions of squat jacks.

    - replace the v-ups with 3, 10 rep sessions of captains chairs (straight leg, 2 second hold at the top)

    - make the reverse run a minimum of 5 mph with 5% incline or faster.

    I have an outdoor one where I incorporate all of these (I.E. don't replace, just add them) and that one is brutal.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    trying to keep up appearances, I did this last night. And after the heat headache, and gasping, and being on my hands and knees for 5 minutes, and the group-ex people staring at me horrified for a full minute all went away, I was happy with myself. Yep, this workout is rough, I can confirm.

    I know some of the trainers at my gym, and the one teaching the small group class was smiling at me when I was done, and I heard him tell someone at the end "that's your goal, to do what he can do." While pointing at me. Her face turned a little gray when she heard that. I smiled but didn't laugh.
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
    Wow! Sounds like the type of things we do in my bootcamp class. Glad to know my trainer is on the right track. Yes, this kills.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    For the record, my wife and I did this on Sunday. My wife is in excellent anaerobic shape, better than myself even (which is saying something about her, because I'm in pretty damn good shape), and that means we tend to compete a little when working out together. Which made this hell just a bit more hellish.

    I absolutely love this routine, but it takes everything out of you, to the point where if I do it in the morning, I'm jello for about 1/2 the day.

    I promise one thing though, do this in the evening and you'll sleep like a baby that night!
  • maddiequinlan
    maddiequinlan Posts: 46 Member
    bump
  • firedragon064
    firedragon064 Posts: 1,082 Member
    bump
  • grover0ca
    grover0ca Posts: 568 Member
    we do most of these in our taekwondo classes...brutal but so satisfying to get thru workout like this!
  • laurynwithawhy
    laurynwithawhy Posts: 385 Member
    bump for later. Thanks!
  • kalieah
    kalieah Posts: 143 Member
    bump! THANKS|!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    heh, I forgot about this post. My new one is worse, but on the same theme.