Monday, November 2, 2009

GREATEST HIITS

Hammer your conditioning at home with this full-body blast

YOUR SETUP:
You want to lose pounds, shed fat and preserve muscle through the magic of high-intensity interval training (HUT], but you need a break from cardio machines and want a progression that'll take 10 minutes or less. Our old-school setup — a barbell and plates, some floor space and a measure of testicular fortitude — will give your conditioning the boost it deserves.

YOUR SOLUTION: The workout below is as adaptable as it is convenient. It consists of four rounds of four exercises, five reps each, with only one minute of rest between rounds to push your heart rate through the roof — and you don't have to move more than 3 feet in any. direction. We've provided a terrific starter routine here, but these circuits can be arranged in any permutation you're comfortable with. Just remember, the Olympic lifts we've listed — the power clean, burpee clean and snatch — will take the most out of you, so designate them as your anchor exercises and experiment from there.

The basic idea behind HIIT is to perform a specific period of all-out exercise followed by a relatively short rest period, then repeat for an allotted total workout time or until you complete all the exercises. When you're looking to improve your endurance — your anaerobic capacity, in this case — it's important to monitor your work-rest intervals, or the ratio of how long you're moving to how long you're at rest. Make sure you keep your rest periods uniform between each round of the circuit, and decrease the amount of time you rest as you increase the amount of work you do in subsequent weeks as your body begins to adapt to HIIT-style workouts.

• G0 T0 MUSCLEANDFITNESS.COM TO SEE A VIDEO OF THE CIRCUIT

BARBELL HIIT CIRCUIT

Round 1: Power Clean, Bent-Over Row, Push-Up, Burpee

Round 2: Power Clean + Clean-Grip Snatch , Bent-Over Row, Push-Up, Burpee

Round 3: Burpee Clean3, Bent-Over Row, Push-Up, Burpee

Round 4: Snatch, Bent-Over Row, Push-Up, Burpee

* Perform each round of the routine as a circuit with no rest between exercises. Do five reps of each exercise. Once you complete a round, rest one minute and then begin the next round.
* If you've never done a taxing circuit like this before, you may need longer rest periods. Start with 90 seconds; after a few weeks, begin reducing the rest by 10 seconds each week.
* Begin with a manageable amount of weight — 95 pounds for Olympic lifting novices — and try to complete at least two rounds with perfect form before you add weight to the bar.
* 1 a power clean followed immediately by a snatch, using a clean grip (hands narrower than traditional snatch grip)
* 2 a burpee performed with your hands on the bar, not the floor, followed immediately by a clean

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