Jessica Smith‘s 30 Minute H.I.I.T. is an excellent workout that I (of course) love, but it’s not really a HIIT workout. It is an interval workout and I loved it, but I didn’t find it HIIT level intense. I have the day off today (4 day weekend) so I got to do a longer morning workout. I used it as a warm up before a total body strength workout and it worked very nicely for that. When not using it as a warm up, I will use heavier weights for some of the exercises (#3 one arm row, and #7 chest press; for those two I’ll use 20# DBs next time I do this workout). Overall, I really enjoyed it. #9 really burned my legs out. One way to increase the intensity is to do the burpee/mountain climbers on the floor rather than the step. Or even on a lower step than 12 inches. And in the future I will do that, too, to increase intensity. However, it is a great little cardio + strength metabolic workout. Oh–and it’s free on YouTube! Another gift from Jessica and Peanut. Peanut only made a brief appearance to lick Jessica’s hand.
30 Minute H.I.I.T is 31 minutes long; 45 second intro, 4:30 minute warm up, 1:30 minute cool down/stretch. Equipment needed: Jessica uses 10 pound dumbbells and square/high step @ 12 inches. The weights listed below are what I used but as noted above, on two of the exercises I will lift heavier in the future.
- 8 mountain climbers w/ hands on step then jump feet in and jump; changes to squat thrust w/ hands on step
- Stationary lunge w/ press pass (overhead press passing DB to other hand above head) (one 12# DB)
- One arm lawn mower row (one 15# DB)
- Repeat 2 & 3 on other side of body
- Repeat #1
- Tricep dips & pulses off step
- Chest press (shoulders/head on step and hips raised); add hip raise/lowers (15# DBs)
- Sit on step and raise knees to chest then tap toes to ground (a full crunch sitting on step)
- One foot on the step, tap the other foot on step then back on floor–fast; changes to knee pulls (you can also add a hop of you want)
- Repeat 2-9
- Side lunge w/ one arm bicep curl; changes to just lunges (no bicep curl); changes to just bicep curl (no lunge) (one 15# DB)
- Overhead tricep extension w/ alternating side leg lifts (one 20# DB)
- Repeat #11 on other side of body
- Repeat #12
For more info on JessicaSmithTV and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
