15-minute HIIT Full Body Workouts

Now, more than ever, you need an at home workout routine that really works. When considering home workouts, you have to keep in mind that equipment is usually extremely limited or even non existent.

This can make it very difficult for many of us to feel like we’ve accomplished a worthwhile routine. On top of that, many of us are limited for space. If you’re trying to make your living room, bedroom, or garage double as a fitness studio, we’re right there with you.

That’s why we’ve created a sure-fire workout that blasts fat, builds muscle, and keeps you in shape while you can’t hit the gym.

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Chances are you’ve heard of HIIT but perhaps you’ve never committed to the concept. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and is a superpowered workout that requires no equipment and very little space.

The high intensity intervals involve short bursts of very intense exercise paired with even shorter segments of rest (just long enough to catch a breath or two). This high energy routine is specifically designed to ramp up caloric burn within a short period of time.

You can expect to burn as many calories in a 15 minute HIIT routine as 30-45 minutes of aerobics will get you.

No equipment necessary...

In this routine, we’ve specifically designed it to be bodyweight only. That means no equipment necessary and you will only be using the strength and resistance of your own muscles to get stronger.

Not only is HIIT an effective tool for gaining strength, but you’ll be feeling the cardio effect as well. No doubt, you’ll be sweating, breathing hard, and feeling the burn with this 15 minute HIIT workout at home. Give a try, and stay safe out there.

HIIT Benefits

Before we get into the gory details of the workouts, let’s talk about why HIIT is the way it is. As previously mentioned, the whole point of HIIT is to get a whole lot of work done in not a whole lot of time. According to a 2012 study, HIIT may decrease body fat more rapidly than steadier types of exercise, such as jogging. [1]

A study in 2016 followed participants with vastly different workout routines for 12 weeks. One group performed just 10 minutes of HIIT per day while the other group performed 50 minutes of continuous pace exercise each workout. The results showed that both groups had extremely comparable gains in cardiovascular fitness. [2]

Another study in 2014 found that overweight and obese participants were able to improve the VO2max with just three 20 minute HIIT routines per week. In this study, participants specifically practiced a Tabata method which involves 20 seconds of intense exercise paired with 10 second rest intervals. [3]

So what does all this mean for your workouts? Essentially, that you can get crazy results by simply pushing yourself to do brief but intense workouts instead of spending hours on the treadmill. That’s why we’ve created these at home HIIT routines to keep you on track from home.

The Setup

For these 15 minute routines, you’ll be doing three 5-minute segments. When it comes to HIIT, you really want to push yourself to the max of your abilities. The whole point of exercising this way is to maximize your work done and your results gained in a very short amount of time. The average person can burn between 150-250 calories in one 15 minute session of HIIT.

With these things in mind, remember to push yourself to do each exercise (below) as well and as quickly as you can. Focus first on technique and increase speed from there. Of course, you can always modify these exercises as needed.

Three 5-minute Rounds

Round 1: 4 Exercises in an A, A, B, B, C, C, D, D format. (this just means you do each exercise for two consecutive intervals before moving to the next one.)

Round 2: 4 Exercises in an A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D format.

Round 3: 5 Exercises burn out round A, B, C, D, E format.

This may look complicated but it definitely is not. All these formats indicate to you is the pattern by which you perform your exercises. We switch up the patterns for a few different reasons. For one, part of making your body work harder and smarter means keeping it guessing as to what you’ll do next. If you do 8 straight rounds of burpees, your body will slowly but surely adjust in negative ways to make the move easier. You’ll be less energetic as each round goes by and you will be performing sad burpees by the time round 8 comes.

The second reason is simply to keep you interested. No one likes to repeat the same exercises over and over again. In weight training you often wind up doing 3-6 sets of the same exercise repeatedly in order to build muscle. This can be effective certainly but also quite boring. However, with HIIT, your main goal is elevating your heart rate. Staying mentally stimulated by performing different exercises helps you to keep pushing yourself and not stall out.

Finally, having a simple pattern to follow where you insert different exercises into the slots each time means you can constantly vary your workouts without confusion or needing to reread what to do. Once you’ve followed the pattern a time or two, you’ll be able to do any number of hundreds of exercises in the different slots and build your own workout every time.

The Exercises

1. Wide Mountain Climbers

• Begin in a plank position with palms and toes on the floor.
• Your back should be straight and your core strong.
• Lifting one leg at a time, bring your knee out to the side and up toward your elbow before replacing your foot to the floor and repeating on the other side.

2. Cross Jacks

• Start with with your arms outstretched in a ‘T’ shape and your feet spread wide.
• Perform jumping jacks by crossing your arms in front of your chest like scissors and crossing your feet like scissors.
• Switch which arm and which leg is in front/ on top for each jack.

3. Bicycles

• Lie on your back with hands behind your head and legs extended.
• Lift your chest towards the ceiling while engaging your abs.
• While maintaining this crunch position, bring one knee and the opposite elbow toward each other over your abdomen.
• Switch between elbows and knees to mimic a ‘bicycling’ motion.

4. Squat Knee Tap

• This is a single-leg variation of a squat.
• Stand on one leg with the other leg bent at the knee with your foot raised behind you.
• Perform a single leg squat until your knee touches the floor. Be sure to press your butt backward and squeeze upward when standing.
• Switch and repeat on each leg.

5. Crawl Outs

• Begin in a standing position.
• Without moving your feet back, bring your hands to the floor in front of you and walk your hands out until you are in plank position.
• Walk your hands back towards your feet and return to standing.

6. Plank with Toe Taps

• From a plank position on hands and toes or elbows and toes, tap one foot at a time out about a foot.
• Return to standard plank position each time before moving the other foot outward and back.

7. Lunge Knee Drive

• Starting from a lunging position, balance on your forward foot and drive your opposite knee up toward your chest.
• If possible, return your foot straight back into the lunge position between each knee drive.
• If necessary, you can briefly return to a standing position between lunges and knee drives.

8. Skaters

• Imagine a speed skater on ice. Start standing and move into a curtsy lunge-like position with one foot extending out and behind you toward the opposite side of your body.
• From this position, jump sideways and land on the previously curtsied leg to repeat on the other side.

9. Commando Planks

• Begin in a standard plank position; either toes and elbows or toes and palms.
• For this exercise, move between elbow plank and hand plank one hand at a time.
• Focus on keeping your hips steady and core strong.

10. Mountain Climbers

• From hand and toe plank position, drive one knee at a time up under your belly and toward your chest.
• Keep your core strong and your hips facing downward as you work toward more and more quickly driving your knees forward.

11. Side Plank Dips

• In a side plank position, you can choose your level of intensity. Hand and feet, elbow and feet, or elbow and knee modification.
• From your choice of plank position, slowly lower your hip toward the floor before raising back up and squeezing at the top.

12. Alternating Leg Drop

• Lying on your back with legs extended straight into the air and feet flexed, slowly lower one leg toward the floor.
• Drop each leg as far as you feel you can control before raising back up slowly.
• Focus on pressing your low back to the floor.

13. Plank Switch Jumps

• Similar to a mountain climber, plank switch jumps begin in a high plank position and drive the knees upward.
• This time, you are driving your knees up and to the side of your body. You are also aiming to have both feet leave the floor at the same time.
• Your feet positions should switch simultaneously as opposed to consecutively.

14. Standing Elbow to Knee Crunch

• Start in a standing position with feet shoulder distance apart.
• Bring one knee up and the opposite elbow down to meet in front of your abdomen.
• Squeeze your abs like you’re doing a crunch on the floor and switch legs/arms.

15. Plank (knee to opposite elbow)

• Begin in a high plank position with hands and toes on the floor.
• Like a mountain climber, bring your knee up under your stomach but towards the opposite elbow.
• Remember to keep your back straight and core strong as you switch between legs.

16. Opposite Elbow to Knee Side Plank

• Start in a side plank position on one elbow and your lower leg bent for stabilization.
• Your top leg should be extended and non weight bearing arm extended overhead.
• Bring together your knee and elbow in a side crunch.
• Repeat on other side.

17. Toe Taps

• Lie flat on your back with legs extended straight upward.
• Come into a crunch with your hands reaching toward your toes.
• Remain in a crunch while repeatedly reaching for toes and relaxing slightly in between.

18. Split Jumps

• Begin standing with feet close together.
• Jump your feet landing with one forward and one behind you.
• Switch back in forth between feet positions by jumping both feet off the ground and landing in the new position each time.

19. Spiderman Plank

• This exercise essentially combines pushups with mountain climbers.
• Start in a high plank position.
• As you lower toward the floor like a pushup, simultaneously bring one knee out and up toward your elbow.
• Switch which knee comes up each time.

20. Sit Throughs

• Begin in a high plank position.
• Open your chest up to one side while balancing on one hand.
• Kick the opposite leg out to meet the outstretched hand.
• Replace your hand and foot to the ground before repeating on the opposite side.

21. Tricep Dip Toe Touch

• Start in a modified reverse plank position by bringing your feet under your knees and lifting up onto your extended arms. (Imagine a crab walk).
• Lower your body toward the floor by bending at the elbow.
• Press back up and lift one foot off the floor, tapping it with the opposite hand.
• Repeat and switch limbs.

The Workouts

This killer HIIT workout will burn major calories while cutting some seriously sleek abs. By mixing plyo moves with core-centric planks, we keep your heart rate up and your entire body working with every move. And let us remind you, HIIT workouts are designed for you to push yourself and go at 90 percent of your personal max.

Keep in mind that your personal max and your best friends could be totally different. In fact, your max can change by the day! Just focus on pushing yourself as much as you feel you can each time you practice HIIT.

Finally, take as much advantage of those rest intervals. Take deep breaths and remind yourself it’s only a few seconds of hard work at a time and only 15 minutes of a workout total! You can do this!

WORKOUT 1

1. Wide mountain climbers
2. Lunge knee drives (one interval per leg)
3. Bicycles
4. Side plank dips (one interval per side)

1. Skaters
2. Squat knee tap (one leg per interval)
3. Cross jacks
4. Commando planks

1. Crawl outs
2. Plank switch jumps
3. Alternating leg drops
4. Mountain climbers
5. Plank toe taps

WORKOUT 2

1. Split Jumps
2. Standing elbow to knee crunch
3. Spiderman plank
4. Toe taps

1. Plank knee to opposite elbow
2. Opposite elbow to knee side plank (one round per side)
3. Tricep dip toe touch
4. Commando planks

1. Crawl outs
2. Plank switch jumps
3. Alternating leg drops
4. Sit Throughs
5. Plank toe taps

WORKOUT 3

1. Spiderman Plank
2. Lunge knee drives (one interval per leg)
3. Split Jumps
4. Side plank dips (one interval per side)

1. Skaters
2. Squat knee tap (one leg per interval)
3. Cross jacks
4. Plank switch jumps

1. Skaters
2. Tricep dip toe touch
3. Cross Jacks
4. Mountain climbers
5. Toe taps

These suggested workout routines are all designed to keep your heart rate elevated while blasting your core. Most of the exercises specifically target the core. Remember to keep your core tight and engaged even on the exercises that don’t. You can use these routines and insert any number of exercises from our list or your own.

Add LISS to your HIIT

While HIIT is undoubtedly important, don't forget LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) exercises. The term LISS has been made famous by personal trainers Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce. LISS is used extensively through the SWEAT programs.

HIIT alternates between powerful, limit-pushing bursts and slowed-down recovery periods. HIIT workouts can fire up your metabolism, while increasing strength and muscle mass. Whereas LISS is great for fat burning and weight loss. Using LISS workouts in between your HIIT workouts is the best way to both recover from HIIT and also increase your overall fat burn and weight loss potential. Both, combined with a balanced diet is a fantastic recipe to get you fit and healthy.