Combine Cardio and Strength Training with Quick, Effective HIIT Workouts

I deeply admire people who love running, and can run for miles.  I feel like they’re a kind of superhuman.  I’ve tried (kind of) to be one of them, but it hasn’t happened for me yet.  For whatever reason, running is the one type of exercise that hasn’t stuck, or just doesn’t feel natural for me.  Ironically, the time I ran the most (jogged may be more accurate) was when I was in my third trimester with both of my pregnancies.  Weird, I know.  But outside of that, I’ve found other ways to get my cardio in – plyometrics (have you ever tried Insanity? It lives up to it’s name!), hiking, and spinning are my favorites.

But what I really love is strength training.  The problem is, I feel like my workout is lacking if my heart rate doesn’t spike enough.  Not that this is always true – yoga and pilates, for example, are amazing for you, but often the heart rate doesn’t quite get there.  So, one thing I love to do if I’m feeling the need to get my heart rate up is to choose one cardio move to incorporate into strength circuits.  This way, in between each circuit I’m spiking my heart rate and I end up feeling like I got the best of both worlds.  And I feel super validated by my fitbit watch, which gives me virtual high fives (I take it where I can get it!).

So, if you’re like me and you love strength training but want to incorporate cardio, here is a 25-minute HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout I did today that was quick but effective, and can be switched up any which way you’d like if you want to sub in different strength or cardio moves, like jumping rope.  And it only requires a couple of weights (or kettlebells, heavy and light) and a booty band (also known as a resistance loop—check them out here).  I broke it down into three circuits, with each circuit repeated twice:

Circuit One (repeat twice)

• 120 high knees
• 20 bicep curls
• 50 lateral banded walks (heavy band around thighs, squat, and walk laterally)
• 25 banded kickbacks (standing, band around ankles, kick straight back to engage glute, 25 reps each leg)

Circuit Two (repeat twice)

• 120 high knees
• 30 weighted side punches (lighter weight, pivot side to side, punch laterally with weights)
• 50 weighted goblet squats (heavy weight held in front of chest, feet hip width, squat)
• 50 weighted calf raises (heavy weight)

Circuit Three (repeat twice)

• 120 high knees
• 25 tricep dips on a bench (or any raised surface, legs straight)
• 50 weighted lateral lunges (wide stance, one heavy weight held in front of chest, lean forward and lunge side-to-side)
• 60-second chair sit (knees bent and in-line with toes, butt back, lean forward with hands raised parallel with ears, and hold)

• End with an additional round of 120 high knees.

By the end of the circuits, you’ll have done 7 rounds of high knees, allowing your heart rate to spike at least that many times throughout your brief workout, so you get a good cardio sesh intermingled with your strength training.  And if you’re really pushing it on the high knees, your heart rate should rise significantly, and doing this seven times in a 25-30 minute workout session is highly effective.  As you may already know, research has shown that even brief cardio activity bursts—provided they are at least at moderate levels of intensity and add up to a meaningful amount of overall activity daily and weekly—can be just as effective (for heart health, reduction of overall mortality risk, and weight loss) as longer cardio sessions.  (This Medical News Today article has a nice summary of some of the benefits of HIIT workouts).  Yay for those of us who find long-distance running challenging!  And certainly, for us parents running around and fitting our fitness into tiny pockets of the day, this is pretty great news. 

So go HIIT it and get your sweat on! And please share your favorite HIIT workouts in the comments!