Browse The Most recent Serious Home Work out routine: Weight Training Program And HIIT Routine

Article by Jacob Blackhite

After a lackluster workout schedule for the past month and a half which has included a bachelor party, two weddings, birthday parties, and a bout with bronchitis, I’ve decided it’s time to once again perform an intense home workout routine. Luckily, due to the activities of the last six weeks, my body is truly primed for this kind of an intense workout. Of course, I did not lose any weight over the past 1 1/2 months, but I didn’t gain any either. My goal has been to stay on a maintenance schedule to make sure I was preserving my muscles without adding any fat to my body. This way I don’t have to be worried that my body will break down when I return to a much more aggressive workout routine.

First of all, the HIIT routine and strength training routine I’ve outlined below are not something you want to do on a regular basis. Such a regimen should only be used every few months in order to intensely target fat. I will just do this regimen for about 30 days at a time. Any longer and I would risk overtraining. Even though the intensity of my workout will be increased, I have no intention of increasing the duration of my exercise. Generally I exercise 4 days per week, 45 minutes per day. My goal for the next month is to workout 30-45 minutes per day, 6 days per week.

To get really lean, tight muscles, my strength training routine includes low rep, heavy weight training. To make sure my workout is time efficient I also use supersets. This is the routine I’ll be using on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. For each move, I will perform 3 reps for 3 sets. But with dips and pull ups, I will perform 5 reps slowly. I will end my regimen with kickboxing. The first set for each exercise will be a warm up set using approximately 75% of the weight I do for the 3 rep sets. I perform this warm up set using slow reps to increase time under tension. I allow myself a 2 minute rest in between the sets, which is when I do the other superset exercise. I do whatever I can to avoid training to failure.

Because I’m working out at home, I’ve put some of these supersets together for specific reasons. For example, to avoid time spent changing weights, I pair a barbell exercise with a dumbbell exercise. I also like to end my strength training routine with a kickboxing workout to accelerate my heart rate. Besides the fact I started martial arts training when I was young, I find it fun to include this kind of routine. I use ankle weights to increase tension for kicks and do punches with 10lb dumbbells. You can achieve an excellent fat loss effect by adding this kind of weighted cardio workout. All in all, my total strength training routine is 30-35 minutes. Each superset only takes 6-7 minutes and kickboxing is about 5-10 minutes.

To really develop lean muscle, incorporate HIIT or high intensity interval training into your regimen. On Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, I will do a HIIT workout. Due to how intense the HIIT workout will be, I do not do strength training for my legs. I start my HIIT regimen with a HIIT in short intervals. I take 2 minutes to warm up and then do eight sets with 15 seconds of sprints at full speed, and 45 seconds of jogging. This exercise will put fatty acids into my blood, so after the HIIT regimen, I do 10 or 15 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike at a single speed and intensity. This exercise is also great for helping my legs recover as well.

Usually, I will complete my regimen with 10 minutes of HIIT long intervals which incorporates 1 minute of full running and 1 minute of jogging. However, now I intend to change my regimen a bit. I will be doing a plyometrics routine that includes everything from calf raises to step ups to broad jumps. It works out great because it’s like a longer routine time of HIIT, but only takes 10 minutes, and still works great for increasing the lactic acid, while reducing glycogen, which helps a significant fat burn when my workout is done. In addition, my legs end up being strengthened a lot more with plyometrics than regular cardio. This regimen is completed in approximately a half an hour too.

As this intense workout regimen is performed for the month, be sure to eat properly. Personally, I fast intermittently two times each week, but I also eat properly the rest of the time. A lot of people do their strength workouts when they fast, but I am in favor of fasting on HIIT days, and eating more on the days I do my strength traingin. Therefore I fast on Mondays and Fridays. Wednesday is my day to pass on breakfast and create additional calorie reduction. I also restrict calories during this month on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as well. Sunday will be my cheat day to let my body restore leptin levels.

But, I will eat more properly than I would normally do. I will eat a lean protein, veggies, and fruit for dinner on Monday. Similarly, I will be avoiding saturated fat and refined sugars on Wednesday as well. Even though I will reduce the number of calories I consume on every other day besides Sunday, I will give my self permission to eat a few reduced-calorie snacks. On Sunday, I will eat whatever I want so I do not feel deprived by my diet, which means I can eat barbecue in the warmer months.

While the above provides a very intense home workout for me, I like to stretch things a bit further for the final week or two. I will add a 10 minute circuit training workout to my strength training routine to further burn fat while preserving muscle. In addition, I will use a Tabata program, which includes 8 sets of a 20-second sprint and 10 second rest period, to the HIIT routine on both Wednesday and Saturday. I will not do this to my workout on Monday. Lastly, I will not eat breakfast on Thursday and Tuesday mornings to lesson my calorie intake even more.

My expectation is that this HIIT routine and strength training routine will blast me through a fat loss plateau during the next month. Then I can reduce the intensity of my workout to avoid overtraining.

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