Intense Home Workout: Strength Training Routine & HIIT Routine

Since my workout schedule went to the backburner this past month due to two weddings, a bachelor party, several birthday parties, and a personal bout of bronchitis, I've told myself it's now time to get back on track with an intense home workout session. Luckily, these past 45 days have made my body ready to resume an intense exercise regimen. 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. These routines are what I will incorporate every 3 or 4 months when I want to really blast the body fat. In addition, I will be using this routine for just the next month. If I did it for more time, I would be overusing my muscles. Even though I will be exercising more intensely, I am not going to do each move for a lot longer. My general plan is to exercise 45 minutes per day and 4 days per week. For next month I'm aiming to workout at least 30-45 minutes every day, for 6 days of the week.

Since my goal is to have lean and really tight muscles, I keep my strength training routine to low reps and heavy weight training. To make my workout regimen more effective, I use supersets. Thursday, Sunday, and Tuesday will be the days I do the supersets. My plan is to do 3 sets of 3 reps for each of the exercises, except when I'm doing weighted pull ups and dips which is when I do 5 slow reps, and end with a kickboxing routine. 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. The warm up sets are always done as slow reps, which increases the time while under tension. I will rest for 2 minutes between each set, but I will also be doing the other movement that makes up the superset. I do not train until I can no longer lift the weight.
* Superset 1: Closed Grip Bench Press, Seated Individual Dumbbell Curls
* Superset 2: Incline Dumbbell Press, Straight Barbell Curls
* Superset 3: Shoulder Press, Abs (Planks, Renegade Rows)
* Superset 4: Weighted Pull Ups, Weighted Dips
* Kickboxing: Weighted Kicks, Weighted Punches

Since I workout at home, some of these supersets were put together for practical reasons. For example, to avoid time spent changing weights, I pair a barbell exercise with a dumbbell exercise. To make sure I accelerate my heart rate when I finish my strength training routine, I end with a kickboxing workout. Besides the fact I started martial arts training when I was young, I find it fun to include this kind of routine. To help increase tension for kicks I use ankle weights, and then do my punches with 10 lb dumbbells. You can achieve an excellent fat loss effect by adding this kind of weighted cardio workout. Overall, my strength training routine runs for about 30 to 35 minutes. The breakdown is 6-7 minutes for each super-set, and roughly 5-10 minutes for kickboxing.

High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great way to get really lean. My days for doing the HIIT routine are Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. My HIIT routine is very high intensity, so I avoid doing any strength training for my legs. The first part of my HIIT workout is short interval HIIT. I start out with a 2 minute warm up and then move to 8 sets which include all out sprints lasting 15 seconds and jogging on the elliptical for 45 seconds. Since this releases fatty acids into my bloodstream, I like to perform 10-15 minutes of steady state cardio on the exercise bike afterward to burn those fatty acids. Doing this allows my legs to recover better.

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. Instead, I am incorporating a plyometrics regimen that will incorporate calf raises, broad jumps and step ups. It’s about a 10 minute routine and serves a similar function as long interval HIIT in that it increases lactic acid and reduces glycogen to allow for significant fat burn after my workout is completed. In addition, my legs end up being strengthened a lot more with plyometrics than regular cardio. The total time for this workout is around 30-35 minutes as well.

Keep in mind that when you're doing short term and intense workouts, your diet is very important. 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. My designated days for fasting are Mondays and Fridays. I skip breakfast on Wednesday as well to create another calorie restriction. For the 30 days, I intend to eat less on Saturday, Thursday, and Tuesday as well. I will eat whatever I want on Sunday in order to return my leptin levels to normal.

I also choose to eat a lot cleaner than normal. I will eat a lean protein, veggies, and fruit for dinner on Monday. Additionally, I will make sure to avoid all saturated fats and any refined sugars on Wednesday. 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. Anything goes Sunday which prevents my diet from dominating my lifestyle (I love to host BBQs in the summer).

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. I will also add a Tabata workout (20 second sprint, 10 second rest for 8 sets; a total of 4 minutes) to my HIIT routine on Saturday and Wednesday (too intense to perform on Monday as well). 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. After this time, I will lower how intense my regimen is to make sure I do not overwork my body.