Day 3 Home Workout Challenge // UPPER BODY HIIT (No Equipment)

Upper Body HIIT is Day3 in Heather Robertson‘s 5 Day Home Workout Challenge. This is a very cool body weight strength workout. It is a cardio + strength workout with the focus on the upper body. Heather worked my entire upper body surprisingly well without any equipment. And it was surprisingly enjoyable, too! She warms up your upper body very well before the workout starts and then gives you a very thorough upper body stretch at the end. The cardio intervals get your heart rate elevated and since you only get 10 seconds of rest between exercises, the workout is metabolic, too. I didn’t burn a ton of calories (216) but the graph on my FitBit shows a definite interval pattern with my heart rate spiking and dipping. Since this workout is only 40 minutes I finished it off with another of Heather’s bodyweight upper body strength workouts: No Equipment Arms Workout // Tone + Definition. Between the two workouts my upper body was worked very nicely with zero equipment.

Upper Body HIIT is 39:55 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 4:30 minute stretch. Equipment: fitness mat. There are 3 circuits in this workout. Each circuit contains 6 exercises and is done twice before moving on to the next circuit. The exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Heather previews the next exercise.

Circuit 1:

1. Quick stop push up (start in straight arm plank, lower halfway into push up, pause, lower all the way to bottom of the push up then raise all the way back to straight arm plank)
2. Plank stroke (in elbow/forearm plank, extend one arm in front of you then sweep it out to side and back to hip, alternate arms)
3. Jumping jacks
4. Tricep press (lay on side with legs extended straight, bottom hand is holding top shoulder, top hand is on mat in front of chest, do a side lying one arm push up in this position)
5. Repeat #4 on other side of body
6. Shadow box (alternating front punches)
7. Repeat #1-6

20 second rest

Circuit 2:

1. Dolphin push up (flow between dolphin pose and forearm plank)
2. Super V squeeze (lay on stomach with arms extended in front of you, raise arms and legs in superman, hold and pull elbows behind back, push arms in front of you again then lower hands/legs)
3. Mountain climber
4. Crab dance (while in crab raise one leg and tap toe with opposite hand, repeat on other hand/leg)
5. Walking plank & tap (alternate straight arm plank to elbow plank, when in straight arm plank tap hand to opposite shoulder, once each side)
6. Burpees (full burpee with push up at bottom)
7. Repeat #1-6

20 second rest

Circuit 3:

1. Tricep push ups
2. Robot row combo (hinge forward at waist, open straight arms out to sides, thumbs to ceiling, raise straight arms in front of you so arms frame head, thumbs to ceiling, then row arms close to sides, bend elbows to pull them up behind you, cycle between these 3 moves)
3. Plank jacks
4. Bridge & squeeze (in side elbow plank with top arm reaching to ceiling, lower hip, raise hip, reach arm overhead, pull elbow back to ribs then push it overhead again)
5. Repeat #4 on other side of body
6. Inchworm up dog (start standing at end of mat, hinge forward, walk hands out to plank then lower hips into up dog, walk hands back to feet, stand and jump, reaching arms overhead)
7. Repeat #1-6

For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.