High-intensity interval training is making a comeback. Not that it really went anywhere, but it’s definitely taking a firmer place in our training as, these days, many of us need workouts that are fast and effective – like this one. In just 15 minutes this workout will have helped you burn plenty of calories, whilst adding in a pair of dumbbells will challenge your muscles further to help you build some solid gains.
HIIT is well-known for its muscle-building and fat-burning benefits, but this style of training possesses many other advantages too. A study published in the National Library of Medicine revealed HIIT is highly effective at boosting our cardiovascular fitness, more so than traditional endurance training. While another study has shown that doing three HIIT workouts a week can have the same benefits to our blood pressure as those who completed endurance training four times a week. Basically, despite the workouts being short, they pack a punch.
This workout may only have four exercises, but they'll certainly leave you sweating afterwards, so make sure your gym water bottle is within easy reach. Also, don't worry that a fixed barbell is being used in the video above, two medium-weight dumbbells (or even kettlebells) are perfectly fine. Perform each exercise for 30 seconds on, followed by a 15-second rest. Take a 45-second rest in between each round and repeat the workout four times. Here are your exercises:
- Dumbbell squat thrusters
- Bent over dumbbell row into burpee
- Reverse lunges with a dumbbell front raise
- Flutter kicks (hold one dumbbell above your head)
That may have been hard work, but we bet it's left you feeling 10 times better than when you started. Fancy more workouts like this one? Check out this other great 30-minute full-body HIIT session, using a mixture of dumbbell and bodyweight exercises. If you don't own any home gym equipment and aren't heading to the gym, here's a 20-minute bodyweight HIIT workout, that'll still fire up all your muscles.
