30MIN Knee Friendly HIIT Cardio // No Squats, No Lunges, No Jumping

30 Min Knee Friendly HIIT Cardio //  No Squats, No Lunges, No Jumping is a low impact cardio workout from Heather Robertson. Most of the exercises are bodyweight but a few use light dumbbells to increase the intensity. I did not find this super intense, but I did get a good cardio workout. Plus, it was fun! The exercises are 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 the next exercise. According to my FitBit, I burned 277 calories.

30 Min Knee Friendly HIIT Cardio //  No Squats, No Lunges, No Jumping is 36:14 minutes; 2:30 minute warm up and 2:15 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Below the video it says that Heather is using 10 pound dumbbells. However, they do not look like 10 pound dumbbells. They look more like 5 pound dumbbells. Which makes more sense–especially considering #7 below. However, I used 10 pound dumbbells for a few of the exercises. So who knows? The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Cheer squat (alternating knee raises, raise arms overhead then tap hands together under thigh when raising knee)
2. Skate & reach (alternating lateral skaters)
3. Knee drive (single leg knee pulls, reach arms overhead and pull then down to knee when it raises)
4. Repeat #3 on other side of body
5. Heel taps (holding a DB in each at sides, do alternating heel digs–Heather is hopping to change feet) (10# DBs)
6. Front kicks (alternating straight leg front kicks, hands are behind head, reach opposite hand to foot when kicking it)
7. Cross punch combo (do one single arm cross punch then push both DBs overhead while raising onto toes, repeat cross punch on other side) (5# DBs)
8. Side toe tap (lower into partial squat, alternate tapping toes out to sides)
9. Step & drive (do one single leg front knee raise then step back and tap with opposite foot)
10. Repeat #9 on other side of body
11. Side shuffle (holding one DB in both hands, lateral shuffle-step the length of mat, at end of mat, raise onto toes while pushing DB overhead) (one 10# DB)
12. Jack & reach (alternate tapping leg out to side while reaching same side arm overhead on a diagonal)
13. High knee twist (hold one DB in both hands, do alternating knee raises while bringing DB to hip as knee raises) (one 8# DB)
14. Inchworm climber (stand at end of mat, hinge forward and walk hands out to plank, do 2 mountain climbers (once each leg), walk hands back to feet, stand and raise onto toes, raising arms overhead)
15. Cross & reach (stand with legs wide, hinge forward and reach one hand to opposite toe, when you straighten, raise onto toes while lifting arms overhead, alternate sides)
16. 30 second rest
17. Repeat #1-15

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