Posted on April 24, 2018 by Kate Halsall
I’m a big fan of short, snappy, bodyweight HIIT workouts. Not only does it mean you can do them virtually anywhere, but it means that your fat burning, sweaty workout is over quickly! However, whilst I still view star jumps as the queen of exercises (and squats as the king), there are rare occasions where I just find them a bit “blah”. So recently I started to think slightly more outside the box and that’s where these 8 exercise combinations came from.
The Exercises:
These are not in any particular order, they’re just what I came up with!
- 2 squats and a side shuffle
- 1 squat and 1 curtsy lunge
- 1 wide and 1 narrow (tricep) pressup
- 10 ab cycles and 10 toe touches
- Run forward, do 1 squat thrust and then run back and do 1 squat thrust
- 5 star jumps and one “surfer” (chest and body to the floor)
- 1 squat and 1 forward lunge
- Start in full plank moving onto the elbows, then bringing your right knee to right elbow and then left knee to the left elbow
I know what you’re thinking – they don’t sound hard enough when they’re just written down like this! Or are you actually wondering where the burpees are?! Joking aside, repetition is key here – you’re not going to do just one rep of each combo!
How To Use The Combos:
- Do each combination as 45 seconds of work and allow yourself 15 seconds of rest before moving to the next combination NB this is how I have used this in my classes.
- Choose 2 exercises and perform them as a Tabata (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 4 minutes)
- Add them to your existing gym plan by adding a combo to the end of each set of work you do.
- Make them harder: think about where you could add weights (if you had them), or elevate your feet etc.
- Add more combinations! Just remember that you need to be able to transition from one exercise to the other with ease.
If you like different approaches to HIIT, or just need some inspiration for your own workouts; why not check out our other workout blogs here.