Building Better HIIT Workouts & Conditioning

When a lot of people talk about HIIT workouts and conditioning programs, it sadly often decays into “anything goes” type of mentality. The goal of most people when they do HIIT workouts or any form of conditioning is to just make themselves as tired as humanly possible. That unfortunately ignores a much better understanding of the science of conditioning and that being smart with our HIIT workouts and conditioning only leads to better results with less injuries.

For example, not all exercises are equal when it comes to getting the most out of our HIIT workouts. For one, you need to have proficiency in the movement. If you don’t perform ANY exercise well, you won’t be able to train it hard enough to get not just the proper intensity for your training, but you also won’t get the strength gains that can come from it as well. So, selecting movements we can do well is the first step of understanding better HIIT workouts and conditioning overall.

Another is being aware of movement redundancy. I see it all the time on social media, people perform the same general movement pattern over and over again like you see below…

Performing 3 minutes straight of being in a plank position is not good programming, but neither is performing a kettlebell complex of 4 straight hip hinge movements. Since we know we have 7 movement patterns, it makes much better sense to have a more well rounded program of movement patterns.

 

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Coach Cari Satre shows a combination of 2 DVRT exercises that when executed well can develop great conditioning as well as all around functional fitness. These are complimentary movements that cover, hip hinge, lunge, push, and pull so they are incredibly efficient too!

 

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Here is another combo by Coach Satre that shows two different lower body based movements that represent what we want from our HIIT workouts. One is more power based and we are in a more stable position to begin, the other is a more complex power and stability movement in the lunge. Even though both have power elements, they are different and the differing of patterns will prevent excessive stress to any one part of the body.

Of course people want to know, is this really effective? As I’ve shared many times, we see from research that movements like lunges can out perform heavier bilateral lifts like squats.

Why don’t more people program in this manner then? The easiest answer is that people focus ONLY on weight and forget that there are other variables that can make our body work at high levels. The best part though is that we don’t have to choose single leg exercises over bilateral, or multi-planar training over just sagittal, it IS about how we use them together as Coach Satre shows below!

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