This fast-paced high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout will challenge you to be in control of your breath while being out of breath. The two-to-one work-to-rest ratio ensures that you never fully catch your breath or recover during the rest intervals. Your goal is breathlessness during each working interval, so you will ultimately become comfortable with feeling (safely) uncomfortable! The exercises are predominantly lower body focused cardio moves that require a lot of energy to perform, increasing oxygen utilization and caloric expenditure. Despite the focus on the lower body muscles as primary movers, this is still a total body workout! Pay close attention to how integral your core and upper body muscles are to improving movement execution and speed.
As always, be mindful of your form during every exercise. If your form starts to falter, take a moment to collect yourself or tackle other options/modifications for the exercise until you can safely return to your choice of movement. Fortunately (some of you would argue that “unfortunately” is the correct choice of words here), there are burpees in this workout. Yay! Lucky for you, the burpees occur in the second circuit right before the water break. The burpees occur in the middle of this workout so that you’ve had some time to warm up even further with the first circuit and so that you’re not too exhausted to complete them at the end of the workout. As with the burpees in Circuit #2, many of the other exercises in this workout are a combination of moves. Slow your cadence until you have mastered proper form or feel free to commit to one portion of the move. For example, if you’d rather do burpees only and omit the skater hops in Circuit #2, go for it!
There is a short finisher round at the end of the workout. I encourage you to count your reps during this one-minute interval to benchmark your performance for when you return to this workout in the future. And if you’re like me and turn your workout space into a slip-and-slide, you might want a towel to wipe up the droplets of sweat in between circuits. Enjoy!
Printable Workout
Warm-Up: 30 sec on, no rest between moves, 2 rounds (6:00)
- Jump Rope
- Lateral Squats (alternating)
- Inchworm
- Criss-Cross Jumping Jacks
- Lateral Lunges + Forward Reaches (alternating)
- Lateral Single-Leg Hops
Format for Circuits: 30 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (no rest between rounds) / 30 sec off between Circuits
Circuit #1:
- Squat + Squat Jump (alternating)
- Lateral Lunge Hops
- 3 Plank Jacks + 1 Plank Thruster
Circuit #2:
- Lateral Shuffle + Squat
- Reverse Lunge + Knee Drive Hop (alternating)
- 3 Skater Hops + 1 Burpee
***Water Break***
Circuit #3:
- Jump Rope Arms + High Knees
- 1/4 Turn Squat Jump + Center Pop-Up
- Lateral Traveling Mountain Climbers
1:00 Finisher: Frogger Hop + Squat Thrust
Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per Stretch, no rest between Stretches (4:00)
- Quads/Hip Flexors Stretch - R
- Hamstrings Hip Hinge Stretch – R
- Quads/Hip Flexors Stretch - L
- Hamstrings Hip Hinge Stretch – L
- Lateral Lunge Hold – R
- Lateral Lunge Hold – L
- Hands Overhead + Side Bends (alternating)
- Chest Opener + Tree Hug Stretch (alternating)