20 minute bodyweight HIIT workout at home – Full body HIIT workout
Bodyweight HIIT workouts – HIIT is one of the fastest way to boost your fitness levels and you don’t even have to use equipment.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, and it allows you to leverage the power of intensity to accumulate a large calorie count.
Working at high intensity allows you to burn a significantly higher amount of calories per minute compared to low intensity.
This means that in just 20 minutes you can burn as many calories as you can in 60 minutes at lower intensity.
Are there any scientific papers to back this up?
There are many studies that have measured the results of low to moderate training vs HIIT using two groups of beginner exercisers.
One group would use HIIT, while the other group exercised at low intensity for 60 minutes. These studies would usually last for 2 weeks.
20-Minute Bodyweight HIIT workout at home to burn fat
The improvements in fitness and calories burned between the groups were either exactly the SAME or slightly better for the HIIT group.
This means that you can train for just 20 minutes and get the same results if not better than if you trained for one hour.
So the question is which group would you like to be, the group that trained for twenty minutes or one hour? It’s a no brainer right? Hit it hard and go home right? No pun intended.
How do you do high-intensity interval training workouts?
HIIT workouts can be done with kettlebells, TRX, battleropes, body weight, the bulgarian bag and can be done with no equipment by running.
During a HIIT session you will do short burst of explosive exercise using maximum effort followed by a rest period.
The combination of the rest & exercise go hand in hand. You want to work at 90% of your maximum heart rate which is not easy.
However, the rest period is there to help. Resting after doing a bout of exercise allows your body recovery time. The longer the rest period the more you recover.
As a beginner you will need a longer rest period. However, don’t just pick a number at random. Ratio it according to the length of time you have exercised.
Choosing your rest period
HIIT Work & Rest Periods According To Ability Level
| Exercise Length (seconds) | Rest (seconds) | |
| Beginner | 15 | 45 |
| Intermediate | 20 | 40 |
| Advanced | 30 | 30 |
For example, if you have just done a maximum effort sprint and nearly broke the 100 meter world record than allow yourself a 1:6 ratio. This means that if you sprinted for 10 second rest for 60 seconds.
As you get better you can rest for shorter periods. For instance, 1:4, 1:2 and even 1:1. If your bouts of exercise are 30 seconds to 1-minute I would use 1:3 or 1:4 as a beginner.
Five bodyweight HIIT exercises & workout
Exercises to perform in rotation
- Pendulum jumps
- Standing long jumps
- Push up and scorpion
- Vertical jump with arm swing
- Knee tucks
Pendulum jumps
Jump side to side continuously trying to cover as large a distance as you can. Stay on the balls of your feet at all times.
Standing long jump
Perform an arm swing and squat down as low as you can. Explode out of your squatted position to jump as far as you can. Repeat this movement and try to keep your rest between each jump to 3 seconds.
Press up and scorpion
Make sure that when you do the press up that you feel your chest touch the floor on each one.
Vertical squat jump
Swing your arms back and squat down. Explode out of your squat to jump as high as you can. Ensure that your rest between jumps is less than 3 seconds.
Tuck jumps
Jump as high as you can and lift your knees to your chest.