Full Body HIIT Workout with Weights is Day 55 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week Program. This is a cardio + strength workout but it contains more strength exercises than cardio exercises. The cardio exercises are interspersed throughout to keep your heart rate elevated. Plus, many of the strength exercises are metabolic compound exercises that work both the upper and lower body in the same exercise. And it is basically a full body workout, though I do feel like some muscle groups got a lot more work than other muscle groups. Finally, the shorter recoveries and longer intervals also go a long way to making the workout more metabolic. The exercises are all done interval style: 45 seconds of work followed by 15 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. She also shows low impact modifications/variations for some of the exercises.
I have a little nitpick about the 12 Week program. Although I seriously adore the longer warm ups and stretches Heather has included in this program, by this time in the program I have noticed that there is a handful of warm ups and stretches that are used (and re-used) in all of the workouts. Sometimes she pairs them well with the workouts and sometimes she doesn’t. For instance, the stretch for Arms & Abs Day 46 almost completely neglected stretching the upper body; the stretch used for that workout was more appropriate for one of the lower body workouts. For this workout, the warm up and the stretch seemed to have been tailored for an upper body workout and both would have worked very well with Day 46 Arms & Abs–much better than what was used! They worked fine for this workout but since it is a full body workout, it would have been nice if the both the warm up and the stretch also hit the lower body a bit more than they did. And since I have done so many of these workouts already (40 of the 60 so far), I know more appropriate warm ups and stretches exist within the program. But again, this is a just a nitpick. This is an awesome free program that Heather has given us!
Full Body HIIT Workout with Weights is 42:06 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 4:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 5, 10, 15 and 25 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Single arm curl & press (one arm does a bicep curl into an overhead press, other arm is raised halfway into bicep curl (elbow bent at 90 degrees) and held isometrically entire interval) (15# DBs)
- Repeat #1 on other side of body
- Squat & hop (hold one DB by bell, squat and place DB on mat, jump and land in squat, grab bell of DB and stand) (one 40# DB)
- Plank tap & jack (in straight arm plank, jack the legs while also tapping one hand to opposite shoulder, alternate hands)
- Tate press (lay on back, knees bent and feet in floor, DBs are extended to ceiling with palms facing feet/legs, bend elbows bringing ends of DBs to chest then straighten arms again) (11# DBs)
- Close grip press (narrow chest/tricep press) (16.5# DBs)
- Curtsy & squat (holding one DB goblet style, do alternating curtsy/cross-back lunges with one narrow squat between sides) (one 30# DB)
- Weighted jacks (jack the legs while doing an overhead press with arms in time with legs) (5# DBs)
- Repeat #1-8
- 30 second rest
- Lunge tap & press (hold one DB in each hand, alternating forward leaning reverse lunges, while in lunge, tap DBs to floor on either side of front foot, between lunges do a double arm overhead press) (10# DBs)
- Single arm flys (alternating bent over single arm rear delt flys) (8# DBs)
- Fist pumps (arms are raised to shoulder level, elbows bent at 90 degrees and held in front of you, palms are facing you, push one arm/DB to ceiling and lower, push other arm/DB to ceiling and lower, push both arms/DBs to ceiling and lower) (13# Dbs)
- Pop Squat (squat jack, touching fingertips to ground while in squat)
- Bicep rotation (start in hammer curl, raising DBs until they are at shoulders, when you lower DBs open arms out to sides with palms facing ceiling, reverse motion back to start) (15# DBs)
- Bicep burn out (fast alternating bicep curls using light DBs) (5# DBs)
- Squat, curl & press (stand holding one DB in each hand, squat, when you stand do a hammer curl into an overhead press) (16.5# DBs)
- Cross over & hop (stand with legs wide, hinge forward and tap one hand to opposite foot, when you stand, jump (keeping legs wide) while pushing both arms overhead, alternate sides)
- Repeat #11-18
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
