Metabolic 3: Beginner HIIT Essentials
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All right. Welcome back to The Living Life Well show. So if you listened to our last episode, we talked a lot about HIIT, or high intensity interval training. We talked about the different descriptions of how best to measure exercise and, and where you are. And we even gave you some different formulas to, to use to back into that.
Today, we're going to get really granular. By the end of this podcast, you are going to have the opportunity to download a quick start guide for free. It's one of the things that I use in my practice with my patients, and I think it's beneficial and a good starting point that you can utilize and not even have to [00:01:00] have any special equipment or go anywhere.
Something that you can do right in the comfort of your home in probably as little as 15 to, to 20 minutes or so in total. So with that being said, let's go ahead and jump right in. So if you recall when we talked about HIIT before, we talked about the short interval, medium, and, and longer intervals.
And so for today, we are going to make an assumption. We're going to make an assumption that you are a beginner so with that assumption comes a few things. One, we are not going to assume that anybody is at any set level of fitness or should be able to do any set number of repetitions in a given timeframe. So that's number one. Number two is we are [00:02:00] also going to assume that not everybody knows exactly how to perform an exercise, and so we are going to give some descriptions of how you could alter a set exercise to benefit you at your current level of fitness.
So before we get into HIIT, let's talk about what we need to be able to do before We even get there, right? And so there are some basic exercises that I think you really need to be able to, to do and complete without a lot of difficulty prior to really starting a HIIT style or HIIT level workout, even if you're doing the, quote, easy version of each one of the movements that are going to be in our HIIT [00:03:00] guide.
So, with that being said, let's kinda get right into those workouts that I consider to be the most significant and beneficial for you long-term. The Metabolic 3 Workout Guide. So first things that we're gonna be talking about are squats, okay? Then we're gonna be talking about pushups, and then we're going to be talking about planks.
So why are we really looking at these three? Well, because these are full body exercises. When you do them properly, you are engaging your core and your larger muscles. Always, with all of them, you are doing this. You'll be engaging the larger muscles in your lower body when we're looking at the sit-to-stand squats.
You will be engaging the larger muscles in your upper body when we look at doing the [00:04:00] pushups. And the planks you will be really engaging all of your body if you do them properly. So let's start with the sit-to-stand squats and/or just squats. So sit to stand. This would be the lower level of the version.
Basically, what you're going to be doing is, number one, you're going to stand. You're going to engage your core, your abdominal muscles. Think just tightening your muscles and your back. Think tightening of your buttocks or your glutes, and then you're gonna sit down into a chair. You're gonna sit down into that chair, let you- your bottom hit, the bottom of your legs hit, and then you're gonna stand right back up.
You are going to inhale on the way down. You're going to exhale on the way up. [00:05:00] This is going to help you maintain that tight core. So that's the proper way to do sit-to-stand squats. Now, maybe- You're more advanced. Maybe you want to move past this. Well, then you're going to do air squats. Air squats would be the next thing.
You're going to do that same thing, keep everything tight. You're gonna inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up, but you are now gonna go all the way down until your legs, your thighs, are parallel with the ground. Now, if you can't get to parallel, but the sit-to-stand squats are not quite enough, go to where you can in this, and that will really help you increase that muscle tone throughout the core, but also in the [00:06:00] thighs and in the buttock.
That is really where we are looking for the power from this exercise. Then finally, the third version of this exercise is jump squats. Okay? So now you're doing the same thing. You are inhaling on the way down, exhaling on the way up, but instead of just standing up, you are exploding up. Your toes should come off the ground.
You should reach for the sky on the way up. These are the three versions of the exercise that you would need to be able to perform before moving on to HIIT. Now, do you need to get to where you are able to do exploding jump squats before you get to HIIT? No, you don't. Do you need to be able to perform a reasonable number of sit-to-stand squats in a reasonable timeframe before moving to HIIT?
Absolutely. [00:07:00] So that reasonable number would be, you would need to be able to perform 10 squats, sit-to-stand squats, in about 30 to 45 seconds before you were to move on to a HIIT-style workout. This is going to ensure that you have enough power and stamina to be able to go through a full round of HIIT.
Now, so that brings us to a second exercise, push-ups, right? So, so everybody thinks of push-ups as being kind of the military style, all the way down, all the way up, nose touching the floor those things. So where we need to start with push-ups though, we're actually gonna come back to this and start with planks because you start a push-up in a plank position.
So what is a plank? So a plank, a full plank, is going to be you all [00:08:00] the way out in push-up position on your hands, or the way we describe it in the exercise, on your elbows. This would be an elbow plank, okay? Your elbows and your forearms are flat against the flo- floor. Your fists can be like this with this being the floor, or you could put your palms flat if you needed to on the floor and rotate.
The main thing though is weight is distributed through the elbow into the shoulder and on the forearms for stability. Now, when you're doing this, the full version... I'm gonna go into the full version and back into the easier versions. The full version would be you fully laid out with feet extended long.
You are upright on your, your elbows and, and forearms here and pushing away so that the, the shoulder [00:09:00] is engaged out away from the shoulder joint a little bit. And your legs would be fully extended. You would be squeezing isometrically the buttock muscles, the thigh muscles, and the core.
This is the standard position for a full plank, and you would hold that plank for really hopefully be able to work up to one minute. But start with 15 to 30 seconds. That's where you wanna start, whichever position you start in. Once you're able to achieve 30 seconds in one position, whether it's the easiest, which we'll talk about in a minute, or the in-between, that is when you move to the next most difficult position and/or extend time if you're in that full plank.
Okay, so that's the full plank. So what is a modification? A modification of this would be instead of out on the toes, now you're on the knees. [00:10:00] Same thing, though. You are extending out, preferably toes off the floor and just knees touching the floor, and you're tightening up those quads, those hamstrings, those buttock muscles, those thigh muscles, that back, extending those shoulders out as much as possible and on those forearms or, a- and this is the one big difference. The full plank you can do all the way out just on hands and let go of the, the elbows and forearms. When you're on your knees, the only way to really do this properly is to actually be on the elbow and forearm position, not at an extended position. So that would be a slight difference here.
But again, you'd wanna hold this for 15 to 30 seconds. Now, the last would be a counter plank. This is gonna be the easiest position. So, just think of bellying up to your kitchen counter putting those forearms there, [00:11:00] and then having that plank position to where you are still tightening those abs, tightening those leg muscles, tightening that buttock muscle, and holding that position for 15 to 30 seconds before moving on to the knee plank, then holding that for up to 30 seconds before moving on to the full plank.
Okay, so that's plank. Now, the variation for push-ups is that we're always gonna start out here, hands fully extended palms and fingers flat against the ground. The- Easy version is similar to where we ended when talking about planks. Now, we're talking about wall pushups. So now you're not on the counter, but you're against a wall.
And so you are doing those pushups in which you are lowering down . You should start out on the floor with your hands right about your shoulders so that your elbows come back against your [00:12:00] ribs. Then when you push out and in, you're gonna feel that kind of rubbing against your ribs as you come down.
You want your nose and head and neck all to be in line with your spine. So you don't want to do this version of pushups, 'cause you're not getting anywhere. We want range of motion. So when you're going down, you want the full body to go down, neck stays in line, so that, A, you don't get neck issues but B, you also get full range of motion and full exercise with this.
Now, with this, we're doing that same thing. We are tightening the abs, we are tightening the buttocks, we're tightening the thighs as we do this to keep this rigid, straight line. Next, as you guess, the next most difficult is going to be going to knee pushups. Same thing. [00:13:00] Toes don't touch the ground, knees do.
You create this standard stiff and straight line back, neck and thighs all the way through, and now you're going all the way down and up with trying to get that nose almost to the floor, if you can. And then finally, taking that full pushup position and then really kind of going through there, again, just tightening the core and, and really making sure that your hand position is good.
These are going to be the three critical workouts. Now, for this, before you can consider moving up again, I suggest that you be able to go a, to a set of 10 on pushups, a set of 10 on sit-to-stand squats, and hold a plank of some version for 30 seconds before you move in. Now, if you're only able [00:14:00] to do s- 10 sit-to-stand, 10 wall pushups, does that mean that you can't move to HIIT?
No, absolutely not. You can move to HIIT. You are going to be though, on the lower version of those exercises, and that's gonna be the important thing. So once you can do- The sit to stand squats. Once you can do the pushups and the planks and do those three in a unison unified set, 10 sit to stand, 10 pushups, and planks of some sort...
and you can do that one, two, three, right in a row without really having to rest, you're ready. You're ready to go. You're ready for HIIT, because essentially, you have completed a short cycle of HIIT, if you are doing that and able to complete those exercises for the sit to stand, the pushups, within 30 to [00:15:00] 45 seconds.
Okay. So that's how you get ready for graduating to a HIIT workout. Now, what is the right HIIT workout? Well, you could easily take these three exercises, do them back to back, one, two, three in a row. Set an interval timer of 30 seconds, So it would be 30 seconds for squats, 30 seconds for pushups, and 30 seconds for planks.
You would crank out as many repetitions as you can in that 30 seconds for the squats, 30 seconds for the pushups, and hold that plank for 30 seconds. You would then take a rest for about 30 to 45 seconds, maybe even a minute, then repeat that same process. And you could do that over and over again just with these three simple exercises to get [00:16:00] you to moving on to HIIT.
Once you feel comfortable with that, you could move into my full HIIT workout. You would need to be able to complete at least five rounds of that without really having to stop before you started this full HIIT workout. Now, the, the HIIT workout that we're gonna talk about has a progression in it as well.
It has progressions from easiest to hardest. So we start with the air squats, and we do sit to stand, or the body weight, or the jump squats. We also do lunges. You could do a supported lunge a standard reverse lunge, or you can do a plyometric, or, or the high intensity, where you're jumping to, to switch your feet on the lunges.
We're also gonna do high knees, which would be either a slow march, a high knee run, or sprinter high knees. We're gonna use glute bridges. [00:17:00] And- Basically, what we're doing with this is we're looking to get a true full body workout with this. These are all going to be exercises that are going to create a, a burn for you in the lower body, the upper body, and the core.
Round one, especially with those exercises that I've just described to you, is primarily gonna be all lower body with a little bit of core. Round two is gonna be heavy upper body with some core, and then round three is really gonna have all of it. Okay? And so but it's gonna be heavier on the core than anything else.
Now, when we are talking about doing this, really we have about six exercises within each round. You would go through all six [00:18:00] exercises before you take a rest. So if you are new to this, then you wanna set your interval low. You wanna set your interval at about fifteen seconds. Then once you work through all six of those exercises, that's gonna be a total of ninety seconds that you would be going, which is equivalent to what you had been doing in that metabolic three.
You are then gonna take a rest that's either at least half of that time, so forty-five seconds, up to equivalent of that time, which would be ninety seconds. Then you would move on to round two, which is gonna be the upper body, looking at push-ups and doing things like tricep, tricep dips and plank holds and shoulder taps even.
So these are going to be a progressive type of exercise where you have the ability to increase time, which [00:19:00] increases intensity increase the level of difficulty within the exercise as well. And so again, when we say high intensity, high intensity, the number one thing that you have to remember about this is high intensity is relative to you on that day.
So with that being said, I, I hope you have found this beneficial. I hope you have found this encouraging because I really believe anybody can do HIIT with the proper modification and- paying attention to what your body is telling you. I will include a link in the show notes or in the comments on YouTube if you would like to download that Metabolic 3 and/or the Quick HIIT Guide to get started to a body weight HIIT workout.
So thanks and God [00:20:00] bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only.
It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services. If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
