4 HIIT Workouts at Home: Get Shredded Without the Gym
These HIIT workouts at home are designed to fuel the burn and melt more fat. They’re intense, tough and challenging… but they guarantee results.
The best part about high-intensity interval training is it’s portable.
You don’t have to rely on equipment and you only need a small space to crank out some calorie-scolding moves. You can lose fat and get fit practically anywhere.
You don’t even need to leave your own home to ramp up your metabolic rate, burn some calories and improve your fitness levels.
HIIT workouts are short and intense, meaning they fit into your day effortlessly. And with so many variations you can focus on everything from muscle build and tone, to super-shredding or conditioning.
If you want to get shredded and tighten up problem areas without leaving your front room, you’re in the right place…
What is HIIT?
High-intensity interval training is a short, sharp and intense workout system guaranteed to blast body fat and build fitness.
As a workout revolution, high-intensity interval training changed the face of fitness when it exploded onto the mainstream scene in the 2000’s.
Also referred to as high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE), interval training is based on simple principles:
- Short periods of all-out intensity
- …followed by either active recover or complete rest.
The idea is to use your time recovering to gather enough energy to push as hard as you can on the subsequent rep. So, how hard should you push yourself? Well, the clue is in the name… high-intensity.
There’s no room here for coasting. HIIT is all about brutal leg speed, lung-burning ferocity and maximum calorie burn.
It’s common to use cardio equipment for HIIT workouts in the gym. You can easily perform these short and intense workouts on the track, court, garden or home.
High-intensity interval training improves fat oxidation and increases energy expenditure
A study published in the Journal of Obesity found that compared to traditional cardio, HIIT led to the following benefits [1].
- Significantly higher rate of calorie burn and energy expenditure
- Elevated relative fat oxidation
- Improved insulin sensitivity
- Better aerobic and anaerobic fitness
- More favorable skeletal muscle adaptations
“Emerging research examining high-intensity intermittent exercise indicates that it may be more effective at reducing subcutaneous and abdominal body fat than other types of exercise” [1].
Ramp up the afterburn effect with interval training
One key feature of HIIT is its ability to burn calories, even after the workout has finished.
Research shows that high-intensity interval training increases what’s called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This is where your metabolism is raised for long periods after exercise, leading to a significantly elevated calorie burn… and of course, more fat loss.
One study found that when athletes used intervals at maximum intensity, metabolism was higher for a full 24-hours post-workout [2].
Build fitness and burn belly fat in a fraction of the time
The great thing about HIIT is that it can provide the exact same conditioning benefits as steady-state cardio. But in significantly less time.
As a busy professional person, time is always on the short side. Being able to get the same adaptations in a fraction of the time is a real selling point.
Research published in the International Journal of Obesity [3] reported a significant reduction in total body fat, belly fat and increase in fitness in a group of women taking part in high-intensity intermittent exercise training compared to those assigned to steady-state cardio.
Interval training three times per week is associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat, and insulin resistance in young women.
HIIT workouts at home or a 2-hour run out in the cold?
We definitely know which we prefer…
The 4 very best HIIT workouts at home
Try these time-efficient, fat-melting workouts and transform the way you look and feel.
If you want to burn fat but not hit the gym, these are the workouts for you.
Our experts at Greatest Physiques have compiled their very best fat burner workouts just for you. They’ve been research, tried and tested with hundreds of clients.
And now they’re all yours…
#1. Tabata home workout
Designed by Japanese scientist Izumi Tabata, this interval workout is only 4-minutes long. Yep, just 4-minutes.
It’s a perfect addition to our HIIT workouts at home for anyone short on time but high on motivation.
But what it lacks in duration it more than makes up for in intensity. Originally performed on a bike in a laboratory, this HIIT workout at home sees you choosing a range of exercises that you can perform safely and with great technique.
And then you just go for it!
As time has passed, we’ve realized that the bike isn’t the only great way to use Tabata intervals. HIIT workouts at home using body weight exercises combine the power of strength training with the fat-scorching weaponry of cardio.
It’s a brutally-effective combination for fat loss and conditioning.
You go from maximal work to minimal recovery. It’s tough, it’s challenging, but the results are phenomenal. Studies have shown improvements in everything from blood sugar and high cholesterol, to aerobic fitness levels and body composition.
Workout protocol
- Pick a range of compound, body weight exercises. Burpees, tuck jumps and mountain climbers work well. Experiment, and go with what works best for you.
- Set a timer for 20 seconds with 10 seconds recovery for a total of 8 reps
- Go hard during work intervals… aim for absolute all-out intensity. Fast, explosive reps are key.
- During your short recovery periods, get as much oxygen into your lungs as you can.
#2. 5-minute cardio HIIT workouts at home
This one isn’t all that different from Tabata. Even a subtle change in work duration makes a hell of a difference to performance and recovery though.
Working at high-intensity for longer periods means a much higher build up a lactate in the blood. This leads to an uncomfortable (and sometimes unbearable) burning sensation the muscles, but it’s also a powerful trigger for fat loss.
This kind of interval training is used a lot by elite athletes looking to improve resilience as well as fitness. It’s also fantastic for building toned, shapely muscle as lactate helps to release hormones responsible for muscle conditioning.
Workout protocol
This workout targets your legs, butt and abs to tackle common problem areas. Not only will you burn fat, you’ll build a strong, hourglass figure too.
Perform 1-3 rounds in total.
- Perform pulsing jump squats for 40 seconds
- 20 seconds rest
- Perform frog jumps for 40 seconds
- 20 seconds rest
- Perform vertical jump for 40 seconds
- 20 seconds rest
- Perform high knees for 40 seconds
- 20 seconds rest
- Perform jumping jack planks for 40 seconds
#3. 12-minute AMRAP HIIT home workout
AMRAP means ‘as many reps as possible’ and is all about productivity within a set time frame.
Rather than trying to complete a set number of reps as fast as possible, aim to complete as many reps as you can in a set time period.
It’s one of our favorite styles of workout as it’s easy to see when you’re improving. If you manage to crank out a few more reps than the same session the week before, you know you’re getting better – and that’s really motivating.
The choice of exercise is up to you. Go for multi-muscle HIIT activities that target both upper and lower body muscles in the same workout That was you’re building a balanced figure and burning more calories over the course of the workout.
Workout protocol
- Burpees
- Air squats
- Push-ups
- Alternate lunges
- Chair dips
- Glute bridge
Set a timer for 12-minutes. Every 2 minutes you shift from one exercise to the next, keeping a running total of reps performed. There’s no rest between exercises and you can use strategy to maximize rep count – either use a ‘go hard or go home’ approach or approach each 2-minute block in short bursts with plenty of rest.
#4. 15-minute fight blast
There’s nothing better than punching and kicking away your daily stressors; especially when it also boosts your fitness and gets you lean. That’s why we’ve added this punchy interval training session to our HIIT workouts at home schedule.
Fight training such as sparring and technical work is a great calorie burner. Turn into one of the HIIT workouts at home and the fat-melting potential increases exponentially.
Your task here is to complete as many circuits of this fight-inspired workout as you can in 10 minutes. That’s it. Nothing fancy, nothing overly-elaborate… just you and the imaginary person you’re punching in the face.
Workout protocol
- 20 roundhouse kicks
- 50 straight punches
- 20 knee raises
- 20 reverse kicks
- 10 press-up to snap kick
- 20 mountain climbers
You won’t quite need a gum-shield for this one, but the idea is to approach the workout with the same ferocity as a champion fighter would do.
The bottom line
With some motivation and unbreakable resolve, these HIIT workouts at home will help you build a truly greatest physique.
Now get out there and put them to work!
