The best training (without material) for people who have little time

Within HIIT training there is all types of cardio or strength exercises. The idea is to combine both issues in your circuits. Obviously, if you want to prioritize strength, to make your HIIT more complete and diverse it is convenient to have material. They can be dumbbells, kettlebells, elastic bands of different resistances, bags… and it doesn’t hurt either, for example, a jump rope, since you will add a range of other options to your cardio work if you have it.

But it is not always possible to have equipment at home, and not everyone has enough time to get to and from the gym. So, in this case, as the objective is to help people who have little time to train, we have prepared a selection of short and powerful workouts, all HIIT dynamics, without material.

They are very versatile workouts because you can leave them in just 20 minutesbut if you add more laps they can become 30 or 45 minute work sessions. And even an hour if you can afford to dedicate 60 minutes of your day to taking care of yourself. In all cases it is important that you close your training with at least five minutes of (good) stretching).

20 Minute Fat Burning HiiT Workout

In 20 minutes you can sweat bullets with this fat-burning HIIT workout from personal trainer Javier Orta. You don’t need material. Just repeat these three series of two exercises each three times, with 30 seconds for activation and 15 seconds for rest between exercises.

Block 1:

Worm: walk forward to plank position and return to upright position

Back lunge and knee lift

Block 2:

Sit thru extended or hip hop movement (due to its similarity to the typical floor step of this dance)

Jump squat

Block 3:

Half burpee, without lowering to touch with the chest

Tripod, looking for a position similar to the bridge handstand but with one hand and with the body diagonally

30-minute self-weight training

In 30 minutes (less if you lower the number of laps) you can do this fat-burning workout with your own body proposed by personal trainer Rafael Ramiro. There are five rounds of these five exercises (30 seconds of work and 10 of rest).

Link four quick steps forward and back with two jumping strides.

Quadruped turns (Sit thru extended) or hip hop position.

Complete burpee.

Flexion and crossed or normal climber (personal choice between one option and the other).

One and a half burpees. The first is complete and the second only up to the squat position, without standing upright or jumping.

Fast and powerful cardio workout

HIIT workouts can focus exclusively on cardiovascular work. This is the case of this session recommended by Luis Ricardo Bou, with whom we also work on coordination. Complete three or four rounds depending on your fitness level and the time you have to train. 40 seconds of work and 15 of rest.

Pivot squat (hip rotation after each jump)

Pivot squat with knee to elbow. Same as the previous one but adding a knee elevation.

Crunches with knee to elbow vertically.

Toe touch squat: with front kick

Ground Touch to Drop Squats

Alternate jumps with split squats: two short lounges with bounce and full lounge with jump.

Complete HiiT training for people short on time

A variant of short, explosive workouts is to use the number of repetitions instead of work time. In this session, Willy Ríos proposes doing 20 repetitions of each exercise and completing at least five laps with a long rest between each one.

Climbers more openings

Pop squat: squat with jump and touch down

Hip hop position or quadruped turns

Alternate abdominal crunch + punch when you get to the top

Burpee with support, without lowering your chest to touch the floor.

HiiT cardio training by number of repetitions

If you prefer to work for repetitions instead of time, try this short and very explosive work session from personal trainer Ferran García. You set the total work time based on the laps you complete.

30 jumping jacks

10 frog push-ups: with a small jump, shrink and stretch your legs in the air.

30 flat jacks

12 jump squats plus skipping

30 lateral jumps

10 half burpees + jump with knees to the chest as high as possible

Training without material with only three exercises

Just three exercises combined. It is all the difficulty of this training without material for people with little time that the athlete Álvaro Crespo proposes. Perform each exercise for one minute and rest another minute at the end of the circuit. Repeat 4 to 5 times.

Climber + plank with shoulder touches (4 of each): to work core and stability

Press squat (x3) + jump: the first are short squats with bounce. The goal is to work the quadriceps and glutes.

Lunges + push-ups (2 push-ups with the same leg, front and back, and two dips): it is a unilateral work, which demands more from the muscles that are activated.

High intensity and demanding HiiT training

If you still don’t believe that you can train in a demanding and complete way without equipment and in a short time, you have to try this HIIT session by personal trainer Pepe Lledó. You can keep it simple by working for 30 seconds and resting for 30 or more advanced by opting for 40-45 seconds of work and 15-20 seconds of rest. You choose.

Full Burpees

Lateral quadruped walk: it is a core workout that must be done with a lot of control, the abdomen contracted and the back straight.

Ground to overhead (squat touching your arms down and raising them up): if you want to add intensity you can take a weight, bag or bottle of water or oil, for example.

Push-ups raising hands (touching with the chest) or classic push-ups. If you can’t, rest your knees on the floor.

High knees + punching: consists of skipping combined with direct punches. This combination also works on coordination.

Depending on the number of laps you do of these seven HIIT training routines without material, this will be the work time. As you have seen, there are many workouts in which each exercise is marked by time (30 or 45 seconds) but it may also be calculated based on the number of repetitions (10, 20, 30, etc.)