I added the (26 minutes) to the title because GymRa has a second workout with the exact same title and exact same trainer (Raneir Pollard)–except it’s 25 minutes. I will be doing and reviewing that one here also, so they need something to set them apart.
With the right weights, this is a short but grueling workout! This workout is structured in traditional tabata format: 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of recovery, 8 of these 20/10 cycles equals one tabata. Raneir does 5 tabata circuits in this workout. The first one (fast feet) didn’t seem too bad. It was making my quads burn by the last few sets but not grueling. Next comes the chest flys. I used 20 pound dumbbells and my chest and arms were burning by the end of that tabata. The weighted squats really burned me out. I had to drop to lighter dumbbells for the last two sets. I dropped to 10 pounds but that was still too heavy so grabbed 8 pounds for the final set. In the future, I will use the 12 pound dumbbells for the first 6 sets and 8 pound dumbbells for the final two sets. Overall, I was surprised that I did find this workout to be grueling! But not unpleasant. Just very challenging.
And I enjoyed Ranier again as trainer. This is the second workout I have done by him. The first one was when he was a guest trainer for Popsugar: 30 Minute Cardio & Sculpting Tabata. He was funnier in that workout. In this one he was pretty humorous the first tabata, but after that I think he was working too hard to be a comedian. The Popsugar workout was easier than this one. He did a great job leading this workout tho.
Grueling HIIT Workout is 26 minutes long; 1 minute intro, 2 minute warm up and 45 second stretch. As each tabata progresses, the exercise changes and becomes more challenging. A way to make this workout easier, if you are not ready for an advanced level workout, is to stick with the early easier versions of the exercises and to also use lighter dumbbells. I don’t know the weights of Ranier’s dumbbells but the dumbbells I used are listed below.
- Fast feet
- Chest fly (first 2 sets–basic, 2nd 2 sets–raise feet off ground, 3rd 2 sets–extend and draw in legs as you fly, 4th 2 sets–raise and lower straight legs) (20# DBs)
- Weighted squats (1st 2 sets–DBs at shoulders, 2nd 2 sets–add overhead press, 3rd 2 sets–add squatting side to side (still doing overhead press), 4th 2 sets–jump squat w/ overhead press) (12# DBs first six sets & 8# DBs for last two sets)
- Bent over rows for first 4 sets, renegade rows last 4 sets (15# DBs)
- Banana hold (first two sets basic banana hold, 2nd 2 sets add paddling straight legs, 3rd 2 sets elbow plank hold, 4th 2 sets add tapping feet side to side in plank hold)
For more info on GymRa and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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