Many people want to show up to the gym, exercise just enough to achieve their results, and get out ASAP to return to “the real world.” Sure, there are some who use the gym as a meditative space and nearly reach a Zen state after a few dozen sets of moving iron, but that’s not the majority.
Fast and efficient training is essential for getting results with relatively short workouts, and HIIT workouts are one effective way to get there. High intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a training technique that repeats alternating periods of challenging exercise with periods of recovery throughout a training session.
HIIT can be applied to any number of workout methods, from barbell training to treadmill workouts. To crank up the efficiency to the maximum, here is a detailed routine to train your entire body with a single HIIT workout.
This total-body workout requires a pair of dumbbells at an appropriate weight and some clear floor space. That’s it. With this minimal setup, you can perform the workout at home, outdoors, in a crowded commercial gym, at the most barebones hotel gym when traveling, or anywhere you need a quick and effective workout.
Because you’re training your entire body, perform the workout one to three times per week depending on your overall training plan. You can program the workout as a cardiovascular conditioning session or, if you pair it with a well-designed nutrition plan, it can fit right into a fat loss routine.
HIIT workouts are typically defined by intense training phases interspersed with periods of rest. This workout satisfies that approach by working your upper and lower body with supersets (the intense phase) and capping off the paired exercises with a loaded carry (the “recovery”). Repeat the first three-exercise series for three to four total sets before moving to the second three-exercise series.
If needed, rest up to three minutes between each series, but aim to complete the full workout without significant rest.
The deadlift is a high-impact, bang for your buck exercise. Switching from a barbell to dumbbells trades maximum weight for slightly more muscle recruitment and longer range of motion, which can yield better overall results from a conditioning and muscle-building perspective.
The weights will likely not challenge your grip strength significantly, so focus on strict form throughout the set. Don’t allow the circuit format to trick you into rushing through a partial range of motion.
Benefits of the Dumbbell Deadlift
This is a dumbbell variation of a clean and press, which works the majority of muscles in your upper body. The standard clean and press uses explosive lower body movement to initiate the exercise, but the hammer curl and press maintains focus on your upper body — specifically your shoulders, upper back, and arms.
The thumbs-up, hammer curl position puts your arms in a mechanically strong pulling position (compared to a traditional palm-up curl) while also recruiting your brachialis for increased overall arm size.
Benefits of the Hammer Curl and Press
The rack walk is a farmer’s carry variation that supports the weight with your arms bent and the weight at shoulder-level. This shifts your center of gravity, making the exercise much more demanding on your core than your grip.
Unlike a traditional farmer’s walk with your arms by your side, your grip strength is nearly a non-issue with the exercise because your hands and forearms aren’t supporting the weight. Your upper back, shoulders, abdominals, and lower back are the primary stabilizers.
Benefits of the Rack Walk
The reverse lunge is a unilateral (single-leg) exercise which helps to address the kinds of strength and muscular discrepancies that naturally occur in most people. Many lifters overfocus on bilateral (two-leg) movements, but the simple addition of a lunge can significantly improve overall results.
By stepping backward, your front leg — the one doing the majority of the work — is kept in a relatively stable position. This helps to decrease knee strain, making the exercise an ideal choice for anyone with lower body aches and pains.
Benefits of the Reverse Lunge
The renegade row just might be one of the most efficient ways to build high-level strength in your entire upper body. It combines the dynamic core-stability benefits of a plank with the back and shoulder muscle-building benefits of a dumbbell row, using no equipment beyond some simple dumbbells.
This exercise can even be performed without any weights. You’ll lose almost all of the back and shoulder-building benefits, but you’ll still have an intense plank variation to work your abs, obliques, lower back, and hips. A more advanced variation adds a push-up after each dumbbell row.
Benefits of the Renegade Row
The suitcase carry is essentially a one-arm farmer’s walk. It yields the head-to-toe strength and conditioning benefits of the classic farmer’s walk while overloading your core stabilizers by offsetting the load to one side of your body.
When performing the suitcase carry, aim to walk with a relatively smooth stride. Try not to let the weight lurch you off-course with each step. Control the weight and maintain your posture for maximum benefit.
Benefits of the Suitcase Carry
While this is technically a full-body HIIT workout, and your entire body is being stimulated throughout the session, some body parts are more directly recruited than others.
The muscles across your entire back — including your lower back, upper back, and lats — will be recruited during the majority of exercises in the workout. Your back muscles will either be involved actively (for example, during the hammer curl and press and the renegade row) or as stabilizers (during the dumbbell deadlift and loaded carries)
Your shoulder muscles are heavily involved to stabilize the weight during any loaded carry. They are also directly recruited during the hammer curl and press and renegade row. Due to their relative size and strength, your shoulders may fatigue before other body parts during the workout.
Adjust the weight (and, if necessary, the sets and reps) to accommodate the weakest link. As your body progressively adapts to the strain, your shoulder strength should significantly improve.
Your hips, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves will receive ample stimulation from the majority of exercises in the workout. The dumbbell deadlift emphasizes your glutes and hamstrings, while the reverse lunge is a very effective quadriceps exercise.
Both the rack walk and suitcase carry will work your hips and calves, as those muscle groups are highly active during unweighted walking. Performing any loaded carry increases the recruitment of these critical muscles even moreso. The suitcase carry, interestingly, may also increase recruitment of the glutes to provide stability while walking. (2)
Your core, generally considered to include your abdominals and lower back, gets a serious workout during any loaded carry. Because the renegade row could be considered a dynamic variation of the plank (which is a fundamental core-training exercise), it also directly works your core.
A dedicated ab exercise isn’t included in this full-body HIIT workout because it could potentially cause excessive fatigue and interrupt performance of the primary exercises. A separate ab workout could be performed on a day when you’re not also performing this HIIT workout.
A thorough, if brief, warm-up can improve performance in a weight training session. (3) These benefits are essential even when the session is conditioning-focused, rather than a training plan designed for strength or muscle-building. Here’s an efficient way to prepare yourself for this full-body HIIT workout without high levels of fatigue.
Run through the following series as a circuit, performing the exercises in sequence, before resting briefly. Repeat for a total of three circuits. This efficient warm-up is done using only your body weight.
HIIT workouts don’t need to include high-repetition bodyweight exercises or high-athleticism explosive plyometrics. A HIIT session only needs you to push yourself hard before recovering enough to go just as hard in the next set. This blend of full-body supersets and loaded carries fits the bill. If and when you discover an appreciation for HIIT, don’t be surprised if these efficient sessions make recurring appearances in your regular programming.
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