Burpees are a great bodyweight exercise that double up as cardio and strength training. But, we wouldn’t judge if they were enough to put you off a HIIT workout, as they’re not exactly the most beginner-friendly exercise out there. This HIIT workout doesn’t include any though. In fact, there’s no floor exercises, they’re all completed standing. Yep, that's right, so there’s not even a mountain climber in sight either!
Standing workouts actually have multiple benefits. For starters, you have a great range of motion when standing, so you use more muscles to help keep you balanced, which also challenges your core more. They also take up less room, so they’re ideal for even the smallest of spaces. Plus, if you’re someone who suffers from neck or shoulder pain, the last thing you'll want to be doing is lying on the floor.
For this workout you've got 12 exercises and you're going to do each one for 30 seconds of work, with a 10 second rest in between. You'll also do the exercises on both sides where applicable and it's going to take you 30 minutes to complete. There's no repeats in this workout, once you've done the exercise once, you won't do it again, so it'll go by quicker than you think! Although no HIIT equipment is needed for this workout, we do really recommend wearing a good pair of workout shoes (especially as this is standing workout) to aid your balance and stability further. Here's your workout:
- Marches
- Squats
- Side to side butt kicks
- Squat raises
- Jump with a twist
- Reverse lunges left
- Reverse lunges right
- Jumping jacks
- Opposite knee to elbow crunch into opposite hand to toe touches
- Side lunges left
- Side lunges right
- Oblique side crunch
- Squats with a floor touch into a reach
- Ice skaters
Make sure you have your gym water bottle to hand too and take small sips of water during your 10 second breaks to avoid dehydration. If you own a fitness tracker then it's also worth wearing this throughout this workout, so you can track your calories burned, VO2 max and heart rate. We've also got this 10 minute HIIT workout, which also has no burpees or mountain climbers, just in case you need something a bit shorter. But, if you're ready to step it up a notch, try this six-move bodyweight HIIT workout.
