I just realized it’s been over six months since I’ve shared a workout with you all! Not that you all need it — in fact, I’m often left in awe of all YOUR workouts! But I have to say that lately my favorite way to get my sweat on has been through HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training. This kind of training provides excellent conditioning, improves athletic ability, burns fat, and gives you that runner’s high without all that, you know, running. And since there’s nothing I love more than blasting music and zoning out during a sweat session, how could I not love it?

This particular workout was inspired by one of my best friends, Weggy. She claims she didn’t come up with it but I certainly didn’t so I have to give her all the credit. Regardless of who came up with it, I was sore for two days afterwards — HIIT can have that effect on you.

The Weggy Workout requires nothing more than your body. You can do it anywhere, anytime. It is completed in a tabata style, aka 20 seconds of hard work followed by 10 seconds of rest. You simply work through the initial HIIT circuit of burpees, high knees, mountain climbers and hip twists (aka planks + side dips) in a 20/10 pattern for four minutes. After each round, you work on arms, legs, abs. This can come from whatever group of exercises you like — we’ve included suggestions on the right. My favorites are dips (arms), squats (legs), and bicycles (abs). After you’ve completed the HIIT round (4 minutes) + one circuit of arms/legs/abs, REPEAT it four times. Writing it out makes it sound so much more complicated than it actually is. My suggestion is to create a playlist via Spotify of tabata-specific songs. They have recordings that tell you when to start your exercise, when the 20 seconds are up and your rest begins, and then when the ten seconds are up and it’s time to move on to the next exercise.

The Weggy Workout

Warm up with 200 jumping jacks. Music by Kesha suggested, not required.

• 20 seconds burpees, 10 seconds of rest
• 20 seconds high knees, 10 seconds of rest
• 20 seconds mountain climbers, 10 seconds of rest
• 20 seconds hip twists (aka planks + side dips)

Repeat 2x (total of four minutes)

Complete arms/legs/abs circuit (use suggestions in attached image)

That equals 1 round.

Complete four rounds!

Cool down with a 1 mile run. Prancing around your neighborhood singing “American Girl” by Bonnie McKee suggested, not required.

Wow I’m going to be the worst personal trainer. Must. Improve. Workout. Sharing. Skills.

Disclaimer: Tabata workouts are not limited to Tuesdays, although the alliteration certainly is charming.

Questions:

• Do you like HIIT workouts?
• Do you frequently complete tabata workouts?
• What is your favorite way to sweat currently?