You don’t need an hour, a gym full of equipment or an elaborate workout plan to get a decent training session in.
High-intensity interval training, better known as HIIT, can give you an effective conditioning workout in a relatively short period of time. You can also adapt it to your fitness level and, with the right exercise selection, it requires little more than some floor space and a timer.
But before we get into the workouts, we need to make an important distinction.
HIIT isn’t simply doing burpees until you collapse in a heap on the floor. A properly structured HIIT workout alternates periods of hard work with periods of recovery, allowing you to produce a higher level of effort repeatedly.
Done well, it is short, challenging and effective. Done badly, it is just exhausting.
The HIIT Benefit
One of HIIT’s biggest advantages is efficiency.
Periods of higher-intensity exercise challenge your cardiovascular system and your ability to produce and recover from harder efforts repeatedly. Depending on the workout, you can train both aerobic and anaerobic fitness without spending much time exercising.
That makes HIIT particularly useful when time is limited.
There is also evidence that HIIT can improve cardiovascular and metabolic fitness, but that doesn’t mean it automatically beats every other form of cardio.
Walking, running, cycling and lower-intensity aerobic work all have their place. HIIT provides a different stimulus.
And because it is demanding, you don’t necessarily need much of it.
If you already strength train several times each week, adding hard conditioning sessions can interfere with recovery. As with most things in training, more isn’t automatically better.
HIIT and Fat Loss
HIIT is frequently promoted as the ultimate fat-burning workout, but we need to put that into perspective.
HIIT can certainly support fat loss because it increases energy expenditure and can help improve fitness. However, no particular workout overrides the fundamentals of energy balance.
If fat loss is your goal, your overall nutrition, activity levels, strength training and consistency matter considerably more than whether you choose HIIT or another form of cardio.
The same principle runs through Foundry’s approach to nutrition: sustainable results ultimately depend on finding an approach you can consistently stick to rather than searching for a magic method.
Think of HIIT as one useful tool, not the whole toolbox.
Home HIIT Doesn’t Need To Be Complicated
One of the best things about HIIT is that you can do it almost anywhere.
You don’t necessarily need dumbbells, kettlebells, bikes or rowing machines. Your bodyweight provides plenty of resistance, especially when you combine exercises such as squats, lunges, press-ups, mountain climbers, and burpees.
Bodyweight training can be scaled to suit different ability levels too. You can do a press-up from the floor or with your hands elevated. A squat jump can become a normal bodyweight squat. A jumping lunge can become a reverse lunge.
The goal isn’t to choose the hardest possible version. Choose the version that allows you to move well while still working hard.
Before You Start
Spend five minutes getting yourself ready to train.
You don’t need an elaborate warm-up, but going from sitting at your desk straight into maximum-effort burpees isn’t particularly clever.
Start with some easy movement to raise your heart rate before working through a few squats, lunges, walkouts, shoulder movements and easier versions of the exercises you’re about to perform.
Good technique still matters when you’re tired. In fact, it matters even more.
Foundry’s training approach emphasises laying the groundwork, mastering basic squat, hinge, push, and pull patterns, and progressively increasing the amount of quality work you can handle.
If your movement starts falling apart during one of the workouts below, reduce the reps, slow down, or take extra recovery.
Now you’re ready.
1. The Leg Burner
4 rounds
- 20 bodyweight squats
- 10 squat jumps
- 10 reverse lunges on each leg
- 10 alternating lunge jumps
Complete each round at a challenging but controlled pace. Rest for 60 to 90 seconds between rounds if needed.
This one is heavily lower-body focused, so expect your quads and glutes to know about it.
Make it easier: Replace the squat jumps with squats and the lunge jumps with alternating reverse lunges.
Make it harder: Reduce the recovery between rounds rather than immediately adding more repetitions.
2. Five-Round Mayhem
5 rounds
- 10 burpees
- 10 prisoner squats
- 10 press-ups
- 10 tuck-ups
- 10 mountain climbers each side
The challenge here comes from moving between whole-body exercises while maintaining a steady work rate.
Don’t sprint through the first round and spend the remaining four regretting it. Find a pace you can maintain.
If full press-ups aren’t there yet, elevate your hands onto a solid surface rather than forcing poor repetitions from the floor. You can find another simple press-up and squat progression in our home bodyweight workout.
3. The Dynamic EMOM
16-minute EMOM
EMOM means Every Minute On the Minute. Start the prescribed exercises at the beginning of each minute. Whatever time remains after you complete the reps is your recovery.
Odd minutes:
- 5 burpees
- 5 squat jumps
Even minutes:
- 10 press-ups
- 10 mountain climbers each side
Repeat for eight rounds of each minute.
The clever bit with an EMOM is choosing appropriate repetitions. If the exercises take 55 seconds, you haven’t really got an interval workout because you’ve removed almost all of your recovery.
Aim to finish each minute with enough time to regain some composure before starting again.
4. The Movement AMRAP
15-minute AMRAP
AMRAP means As Many Rounds As Possible within the allotted time.
Complete:
- 10 reverse lunges each leg
- 10 bear crawl steps forwards and backwards
- 10 inchworms
- 15 bodyweight squats
Your score is the number of quality rounds completed.
Notice the word quality. AMRAP doesn’t mean abandoning technique to squeeze another round onto the scoreboard.
This is a good option if you want something less jump-heavy while still keeping yourself moving.
5. To Hell And Back
Complete the following exercises using a descending pyramid:
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps
- Burpees
- Inchworms
- Press-ups
- Tuck-ups
Start with 10 repetitions of every exercise, then nine of everything, continuing until you reach one.
This gives you 55 repetitions of each movement by the time you’re finished, so don’t underestimate it.
For a more manageable version, start at six or eight rather than ten. The workout structure stays the same, but total volume drops considerably.
6. The Grinder
5 rounds
- 10 burpees
- 20 alternating walking lunges
- 10 press-ups
- 20 mountain climbers
Rest for 60 seconds between rounds.
We’ve modified the original Grinder, which called for 100 burpees, 100 lunges and 100 press-ups for time. That’s a lot of repetitive volume for a home conditioning workout and, for most people, it isn’t necessary.
This version still provides plenty of work while making it easier to maintain good movement throughout.
If you want more simple sessions using similar movements, our home bodyweight workout provides another straightforward option.
7. The Stabiliser
5 rounds
- 10 elevated press-ups
- 10 side plank rotations each side
- 10 burpees
- 20-second plank
Rest as required between rounds.
This workout combines conditioning with more controlled trunk and upper-body work.
Don’t rush the side plank rotations simply because the clock is running. Keep them controlled, maintain your position and make every repetition count.
If five rounds is too much, start with three.
8. Burpee Intervals
Instead of simply doing as many burpees as possible in 15 minutes, we’re going to add a little more structure.
10 rounds:
- 30 seconds burpees
- 30 seconds recovery
That’s ten minutes in total.
Try to keep your repetitions relatively consistent across all ten rounds. If you manage 12 in round one and three in round ten, you probably attacked the opening rounds too aggressively.
If burpees aren’t appropriate for you, use squat thrusts or another whole-body exercise that allows you to work hard safely.
9. Get Some 50s
5 rounds
- 10 Cossack squats, alternating sides
- 10 prisoner squats
- 10 reverse lunges
- 10 tuck-ups
- 10 press-ups
That’s 50 repetitions per round and 250 across the entire workout.
It sounds simple. It isn’t.
Cossack squats require more mobility and control than standard squats, so don’t force a range you don’t have. Swap them for lateral lunges or regular bodyweight squats if necessary.
For anyone relatively new to this style of training, start with three rounds or take a look at our beginner HIIT workouts at home first.
10. The Filthy Fifty
Finish with the big one.
Complete:
- 50 bodyweight squats
- 50 reverse lunges
- 50 mountain climbers each side
- 50 press-ups
- 50 burpees
You can break the repetitions into smaller sets however you like.
For example, completing five rounds of 10 repetitions will often allow you to maintain better technique than trying to grind through all 50 repetitions of each exercise consecutively.
This is a high-volume session and isn’t where we’d recommend starting if you’re new to training. Work your way up to it.
Scaling Your Home HIIT Workout
There is no prize for choosing an exercise variation you can’t perform properly.
Scaling is part of good training.
If jumping bothers your knees or you aren’t comfortable with plyometric movements yet, swap squat jumps for squats and jumping lunges for reverse lunges. If floor press-ups are too difficult, elevate your hands onto a stable surface. If burpees become messy, remove the jump or step your feet back instead of jumping.
You can also manipulate the workout itself.
Reduce the number of rounds, shorten the work intervals, increase the recovery periods or decrease the repetitions. All of these let you keep the basic structure while matching the session to your current capacity.
As your fitness improves, progress gradually.
HIIT Doesn’t Have To Mean Maximum Effort Every Day
This is probably the most important point in the article.
A short workout doesn’t mean it has no recovery cost.
Hard interval training is demanding, particularly when you’re combining it with strength training and an otherwise busy life. Our guide to using cardio for better results explains why high-intensity conditioning needs to be considered alongside the rest of your weekly training rather than piled on top.
You don’t need to finish every session lying on the floor.
You need enough training stimulus to improve, enough recovery to adapt, and enough consistency to keep doing it.
That’s a much better recipe for progress.
Make Your Training Work For You
Home HIIT workouts are useful because they remove a lot of the usual barriers to exercise. You don’t have to travel anywhere, you need very little equipment, and even 10 to 20 minutes can be enough to get some useful conditioning work done.
But random workouts can only take you so far.
Training becomes much more effective when there is progression behind it. Learning the basic movements, improving your strength, building your conditioning and gradually increasing what your body can handle gives you something far more valuable than simply chasing another exhausting workout.
That is the approach we take at Foundry. Our small group personal training combines structured strength and conditioning with coaching that can be adapted to your ability, goals and progress.
Because getting fitter isn’t about seeing how much punishment you can survive in 15 minutes.
It’s about becoming stronger, fitter and more capable for everything you want to do outside the gym.
Related Articles
- Unpacking What Makes HIIT So Effective
- HIIT Workouts for Beginners at Home
- What is HIIT and Why Is It So Effective For Burning Fat?
- What’s Important for Beginner Fitness?
- The 45-Minute Lunch Break Workout
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