2019Health

Best Bodyweight HIIT Workout

You don’t belong to a gym, and you don’t really want to join a gym, but you need a workout you can do at home that will put the hurt on your body fat percentage. I want to discuss a little about cardio, resistance training, and HIIT (high-intensity interval training). Below I’ll discuss the best bodyweight HIIT workout you can do to look your best using only your body weight.

Have you ever seen those old workout videos in black and white, where the people stand on a vibrating platform, or the giant rubber band shakes them? Well, this might come as a surprise, but those machines didn’t work. The reason they didn’t work is that you have to work hard to burn calories and lose body fat. You can’t stand on a vibrating platform or have a machine roll your body up and down, and expect to drop body fat. You can’t’ walk on a treadmill at a snail’s pace, while talking on a cell phone and expect to look like you belong on the cover of a magazine. If you’re just starting out or you’re new to the world of fitness, you need to take some baby steps, but eventually, you will need to put in some effort that will make you sweat.

Types of The Best Bodyweight HIIT Workout

Cardio – this is the ever-popular running on a treadmill, road, or path at a consistent pace of an extended period of time. This is an aerobic exercise which means “with oxygen” so this is primarily what the body uses during the activity. This type of exercise is great for improving your heart health and efficiency of the circulatory system. Your heart and lungs will thank you as they get stronger. Before doing a heavy cardio workout it’s recommended you calculate your maximum heart rate, so you know how hard your system is working. The American Heart Association has parameters on what an appropriate zone is for cardio exercise. A typical cardio workout is at a moderate intensity for at least 20 minutes for best results. A warm-up and cool-down period should be added to help with recovery.

Resistance trainingresistance training is the main form of anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic tends to use less oxygen and more carbohydrates as the main fuel to power the exercise. Resistance training and sprinting are the most common form of this exercise and are essential to building strength and muscle mass. If you picture a weight lifter vs a marathon runner, you’ll get an understanding of the type of body each achieves.

HIIT – high-intensity interval training has become popular over the past handful of years. This type of exercise does an excellent job of cutting body fat while maintaining and/or building muscle mass. It combines the effects of aerobic and anaerobic endurance. The basic framework for HIIT is brief but high-intensity output followed by rest periods or lower intensity workouts. An example would be to sprint for 1 minute followed by a 2-minute walk or jog. You would repeat this process for either a number of rounds or for a set amount of time. Typically, a HIIT circuit is pretty short (15-20 minutes) and is extended gradually over time. The number of rounds or the length of time is increased. HIIT workouts are fantastic for fat loss and are likely to produce results when first starting out. These quick results explain why it has become the phenomenon it’s become.

Bodyweight HIIT Workout

Here are 5 great bodyweight exercises you can use to incorporate into your HIIT workout.

Body Squats – Body squats is nothing more than using your bodyweight as the resistance. Feet should be shoulder-width apart, squat down until your thighs are parallel with the ground and stand back up. Do this for 1 minute.

Burpee – these evil exercises will get your heart going and will burn some serious calories. Squat down place your hands on the floor, jump your legs back to a plank position, do a pushup, keeping your hands where they are, jump your legs back into your starting position and stand up. Do this for 30 seconds.

Bear Crawl – on the tips of your toes and with your hands down, do the bear crawl forward and backward. The distance you choose to go back and forth is up to you and the amount of space you have available. Keep your back flat and your eyes forward. Do this for 30 seconds.

Push-ups – this is an old school exercise you most likely did at some point in gym class growing up. The reason we’ve all done these is that it works your core and most of your upper body. For such a simple exercise it does so much for you. Do these for 20 seconds.

Bicycle Crunch – the bicycle does a great job of working the entire core system. It places constant tension on the upper and lower abs along with working the obliques on the side of your core. Lay on your back with your legs straight out in front of you with your hands behind your head. Raise one knee to the opposing elbow as you twist to touch them. Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side. Bring the other knee up towards your face, twisting your elbow, so they touch, and return to the starting position. Do these for 30 seconds.

Depending on your level of current fitness, the rest periods along with what you should do varies. For those just starting out. I would rest for 1-2 minutes until your heart rate decreases at least 10%. For more intermediate levels, I would either run in place slowly or jumping rope. 

Finally

You don’t need to belong to gym and you don’t need to do CrossFit every day to be in shape. You do need some self-discipline and determination to stick to your goals. Immediate gratification is around every corner so you have to be willing to bypass those in order to achieve your long-term goals. Check out christiansreview.com for more information on how you can get the body you want,  

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