Whether you spent the past week indulging in your grandmother’s kugel or eating enough Peeps and chocolate Easter eggs to give you a three-month sugar high, I think we can all agree we could use a quick high-intensity sweat session to burn some of that shit off. In case you’ve been under a rock or on your couch for the past year, high intensity interval training, or HIIT is basically where you do short intervals of intense exercise where you feel like you might die followed by a brief recovery period. HIIT, so hot right now. Anyway, this workout is only 10 minutes, so you literally have no excuse not to get it done and go as hard as you can during every interval. The idea is to do each of these five moves for 45 seconds with 15 seconds of rest in between them, and then repeat all five one more time. You’ll probably be panting on the floor by the end, but you’ll thank us when your shorts from last summer still fit. Here’s the workout:.
1. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers are a great move if you’re doing them right, because they work your abs, shoulders, and legs while giving you a cardio workout. Place your hands on the floor with your shoulders over your wrist and your legs straight back in a plank position. Then, climb your knees into your chest one at a time while engaging your core. The faster you go, the higher you’ll get your heart rate and the more calories you’ll burn.
2. Jump Squats
Your legs burn the most calories out of all the muscles in your body, so doing jumping exercises while combining squats or lunges is super effective. It’s also really hard, so pace yourself. Start in a squat position, making sure your knees are behind your feet so you don’t hurt yourself. Get super low, and then jump up explosively while straightening out your legs and arms. Keep going until the 45 seconds are up, or until you literally can’t feel your ass anymore. Either one works.
3. Froggers
Froggers sound cute and innocent, but as soon as you start, you’ll notice they’re fucking brutal. Stand with your feet spread about shoulder width apart and bend at your knees with your palms on the ground slightly in front of you. Keep your palms on the ground the whole time while you straighten your legs out behind you by jumping your feet backward, and then jump them inward close to your hands. This move is similar to a squat thrust, but you’re staying low close to the ground the entire time without standing all the way up. If you’re doing it right, you should feel the burn in your arms, legs, and butt.
4. Tuck Jumps
If the idea of tucking your knees to your chest while jumping sounds like you’d rather take a Xanax and pass out on the couch, pay attention. Tuck jumps are a plyometric move that shoots your heart rate up in seconds, so you’ll burn a ton of calories and look like an idiot while doing it. Starting in a normal standing position, jump up, bringing your knees as high as you can, ideally tucking them into your chest. 45 seconds will be tough, but the trick is to keep jumping without resting in between so you don’t have to overthink it.
5. Burpees
Burpees are the ultimate hell when it comes to HIIT workouts, but let’s just say, if it’s not intense, it’s not doing much for you. Burpees are the exercise we all know and hate, and we’ve written about them in almost every single workout article, but in case you’re not getting the hint: START DOING BURPEES. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides. Then, lower your body into a squat and place your hands on the floor in front of you, jumping your feet back so that you’re in a plank position. Once your body is in a straight line, lower your chest to the floor and then bring it back up as quickly as you can. Then, jump your feet forward, outside of your hands, and jump up with your arms in the air. This is a full-body move, so make sure you follow the movements without just slamming your body down to the ground in the sloppiest way possible.
