Listen up, guys: You don't have to spend hours in the gym to get the body you want. If your schedule's tight, but you still want to stick to your routine, there's nothing wrong with pounding out a few exercises at home.
High-intensity-interval training workouts, specifically, can help torch calories and build muscle even inside the comfort of your living room or backyard. In a March 2012 study published in the Journal of Physiology, researchers found that HIIT can serve as an effective alternative to traditional endurance-based training. This HIIT cardio workout from International Sports Sciences Association-certified fitness trainer Vince Sant, the co-founder of V Shred, is a great place to start.
A No-Equipment, HIIT Workout for Men
After a three- to five-minute warm-up session, you'll do the main part of this workout, which consists of five exercises, each done for 40 seconds of all-out, max effort, followed by 20 seconds of rest. When you've done all five exercises this way, you'll repeat the circuit for three to four rounds total, followed by a cool down and some light stretches.
Move 1: Burpee
- Jump up off the ground with your hands above your head.
- Upon landing, bend down, put your hands on the floor in front of you and kick your legs back so that you're in a push-up position.
- Do a push-up, and then hop your feet toward your hands, stand up and explode into a jump.
Move 2: Cross-Body Mountain Climber
- Starting in a high plank, take your right knee and drive it across your body up to your left elbow. Keep your spine and hips in a straight line.
- Return your foot back to the start, and then repeat this move with the opposite leg, taking your left knee and driving it across your body to your right elbow.
Tip
To make this exercise harder and engage your abs more, breathe out each time you bring a knee up to the opposite elbow. To scale it back a bit, drive your knee to the elbow on the same side of your body instead.
Move 3: High Knees
- Stand and hold your hands out in front of you, about waist high, with your palms facing down.
- From there, raise one knee up until it touches your palm, and then quickly set that foot down as you lift the other knee up to your hand. It'll feel like a bit like you're running in place.
Move 3: Spiderman Push-Up
- Start in a high plank, and then bend your elbows and lower your chest to the ground, as if doing a regular push-up.
- Once you're half-way down, bring your right knee up to your right elbow, as if crawling like Spiderman.
- Return your foot back to its starting position as you press back up.
- Repeat this same movement to the other side.
Move 4: Squat Jump Rotation
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Squat down until your quads are parallel to the ground.
- From there, jump and turn 180 degrees in mid-air.
- When you land, facing the opposite direction, immediately go into another squat.
- Repeat the same movement in the opposite direction to avoid getting dizzy.