Intense Total Body HIIT Workout is Day 20 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week Program. This is a cardio + strength workout. The strength moves are all compound exercises that work both the upper and lower body, and Heather intersperses cardio intervals throughout. Though the title says it is a total body workout, the back gets no real work. A little with the lay down push up but that’s it. Since this workout is so short, you could definitely add on a finisher. Heather has several back focused workouts under 15 minutes that would be perfect add ons. I wish I had paid attention when putting together my YouTube playlists for the week, then again when previewing this workout yesterday but I didn’t. I used one of Heather’s Daily 10 Workouts: Day 23 Kickboxing Tabata as my finisher today. Which was great–a little bit of additional cardio added onto the end, but I would have preferred to round out my workout with some back work and actually make today a “total body” workout.
Intense Total Body HIIT Workout is 42:25 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 5 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 10, 15 and 25 pounds dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. The exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 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 your next exercise. For the exercises that include impact, Heather shows a low impact variation.
Circuit 1:
- Deadlift, lunge & curl (one deadlift + one reverse lunge w/ a double arm hammer curl, alternate legs when lunging) (16.5# DBs)
- Walking plank (alternate straight arm plank with elbow/forearm plank)
- Push press (squat w/ DBs held at shoulders, when you stand do a double arm shoulder press) (16.5# DBs)
- Curtsy & squat (hold one DB goblet style, do alternating curtsy lunges w/ one squat when changing sides) (one 30# DB)
- Heel clicks (jump squats, tapping heels together when jumping)
- Lay down push up (start in straight arm plank, keeping body straight from heels to shoulders, lower body to mat, raise arms and legs into superman, place hands back under shoulders and, keeping body straight from heels to shoulders, push back up into plank)
- Squat & curl (stand with legs wide and a DB in each hand, lower into squat and hold, do one double arm hammer curl then stand) (15# DBs)
- Flying frog (jump squats tapping fingers to floor while in squat and opening arms out to sides in a T when jumping)
- Repeat #1-8
30 seconds rest
Circuit 2:
- Stand up & drive (start in high kneeling on mat, arms are extended overhead holding one DB in both hands, step one leg forward so you are in kneeling lunge, when you stand do a front knee raise with back leg bringing DB down to thigh, reverse this motion, bringing DB overhead again and stepping back into kneeling lunge then back to start position of high kneeling) (one 15# DB)
- Repeat #1 on other side of body
- Squat toe taps (hold partial squat isometrically and tap one foot out to side, alternate legs)
- Tricep push up
- Plank ankle reach (start in straight arm plank, push hips back to down dog while reaching one arm underneath you to tap opposite ankle, alternate sides returning to plank between each side)
- High knee run
- Squat & hop (hold one DB in both hands by end/bell, squat and place DB on floor, release DB and jump, land in squat, grasp DB again and stand) (one 40# DB)
- Ninja hop & curl (start in straight arm plank but holding DBs, jump feet to hands so you are in a deep squat, remain in deep squat while doing a double arm hammer curl, place DBs on floor again and jump feet back to plank) (15# DBs)
- Repeat #1-8
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
