Full-Body HIIT Workout with Buy-In

*This blog post was originally published in 2015. It was updated in 2018 with a video*

Hello from Martha’s Vineyard! I had a fun weekend here with a bunch of my friends visiting, and now that they’ve all gone back to the city, I still have a few days on island to just relax with my family and catch up with my high school friends. I’m getting so nostalgic for the days in college when I’d get to spend the entire summer here! Gah what a life.

Full-Body HIIT Workout with Buy-In

• A 10-lb dumbbell (you could also use a medicine ball)
• Gymboss Interval Timer
• Exercise mat

Set a timer for 16 rounds of 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. You’ll go through the following circuit of exercises four times (45 seconds of exercise 1, rest 15 seconds, 45 seconds of exercise 2, rest 15, etc., etc.) Before you can do the circuit, however, you’ve got a 2-minute “buy-in”: 60 seconds of burpees followed by a 60-second forearm plank. Think of it as a warm-up/pre-workout.  

BUY IN

60 seconds of each

Burpees | Start standing, feet about shoulder-width apart. Squat down, bringing your hands to the ground by your feet and jump both feet back into a plank position. Quickly jump your feet back up by your hands and shift the weight into your feet, bring torso upright into a low squat position. From here, jump up, arms overhead. Land softly on your feet, sinking right back down into a squat and starting from the top.

Forearm Plank

INTERVAL CIRCUIT

Go through the four exercises four times: 45 seconds of work / 15 seconds of rest

Truck Drivers | Start by squatting down, weight in your heels, hips down and back, core engaged and chest open. Hold a dumbbell on the ends, palms facing in towards each other, and extend arms straight in front of you at chest height. You’re going to maintain this position the entire duration of the exercise. From here, you’re just going to rotate the weight in your hands, tipping one end up and then the other, as if your hand were on a steering wheel (hence the exercise name). Try not to bend the arms or let them drop below chest height as you rotate them back and forth.

Surfer Get-Ups | Start laying on your stomach with hands by your side. Squeeze your back and glutes to lift your chest and hands off the ground. Lower your hands back to the ground by your rib cage. From here, you’re going to explosively press up and jump into a low squat with one foot in front and the other staggered behind (think of a surfer jumping up on their board to catch a wave). From here, bring your hands back to the ground as you jump your feet back into plank lower your body to the ground with control. Repeat from the top, this time landing in low squat with your other foot in front.

Front Lunge with Torso Twist | Start standing holding a dumbbell in both hands at chest height, arms held straight in front of you. To make sure you have proper form, roll your shoulder cage back and down before you start the exercise. From there, lunge forward, stepping your right foot in front of you as you bend both knees to opposing 90-degree angles. Holding this low lunge, twist your torso to the right, keeping arms straight as you do. You want your whole upper half moving as one unit on this—imagine your waist is a wet towel that you’re wringing out as you twist. Reverse the sequence, twisting back to center and pushing off that front right foot to return back up to standing. Repeat, this time stepping forward on your left foot and twisting to the left. Continue alternating legs.

Twisted Push Up with Top Crunch | From the waist up, you’ll be in a push up position: hands on the ground a little wider than shoulder width apart, chest square to the ground. From the waist down, you’ll be in a side plank with the left foot stacked on top of the right. It’s important that the twist is from the waist; you want equal weight in both hands. From here, you’ll do a push up, engaging that right oblique to keep your body in a straight line as you lower the chest towards the ground and then press up, straightening your arms. At the top, crunch your top left knee in towards the left shoulder; set it back straight on top of the right foot; and go down into your next twisted push up.

Beginners: modify by doing this from your knees (still twist the low body, left knee stacked on top of right knee) and omit the top crunch. Alternate side each round: So the first time you get to this exercise, spend the entire 45 seconds on the right; the second time on the left. In total, you spend two intervals on each side.

WEARING IN POST | tank & shorts: Fabletics // bra: c/o Reebok (old – this from New Balance is similar)  // sneakers: Nike (old, shop current here)

WEARING IN VIDEO | leggings & bra top: Outdoor Voices (<– get $20 off your first order of $100+ using that link) // sneakers: adidas

I shot this workout in Breather’s Gloucester Street room. You can get your first hour of Breather free when you use the code PUMPIRON.

Enjoy your day!

xo Nicole