A 20-Minute Bodyweight HIIT Workout You Can Do in Your Living Room

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), a workout style that involves brief bursts of high-intensity intervals followed by brief periods of low-intensity recovery, is known for being just what the name suggests: high-intensity. And although that may make it sound a little scary, HIIT workouts are actually very short—which for many people makes it sound quite appealing. Yes, HIIT is meant to get you working hard and sweating, but only for very short periods of time. This is what makes HIIT so efficient—you can squeeze a great workout into a small amount of time.

To do the HIIT workout below, created by certified personal trainer and Equinox group fitness instructor Colleen Conlon, you need nothing more than your body (and a little bit of floor space). Conlon explains that the exercises she chose “allow you to move at a pace that can result in breathlessness, which is what HIIT is all about.”

They’re also a little gentler on your body and joints than many traditional HIIT workouts. “When we typically think of HIIT, we think of high-impact plyometric moves, aka lots of jumping. However, you can still do many bodyweight plyometrics that are lower-impact and are kinder on your joints,” she says. Note that while some of these moves are quite low-impact, a few do still involve some jumping, so be careful if you have issues with impact and talk with your doctor if you’re unsure if this workout is safe for you.

She also notes that these moves use many different muscle groups and will get you moving in all three planes of motion, so you’ll truly get a full-body workout. How long will it take, you ask? Twenty minutes.

This particular workout follows a Tabata protocol, which Conlon says is her favorite because of how efficient it is. Tabata is set up so that you’ll do each exercise for four minutes straight before moving onto the next. Those four minutes are broken up into 20-second work intervals and 10-second rest intervals. So basically you’ll alternate between 20 seconds of all-out intense work, and 10 seconds of rest, eight times, until you’ve hit four minutes. Then you’ll move onto the next move. This particular workout includes five moves, so the whole thing takes 20 minutes to complete. But you’re never working intensely for longer than 20 seconds at a time.

The Workout

Instructions:

Do each exercise for 4 minutes, alternating between 20-second intervals of intense work and 10-second intervals of rest. After you do 8 intervals of each (or hit 4 minutes total), move onto the next exercise. Follow this pattern—20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 8 times—for each exercise on the list.

• Side Kick-Through—20 seconds
• Rest—10 seconds
• Do 8 times.
• Skater Hop—20 seconds
• Rest—10 seconds
• Do 8 times.
• Crab Toe Touch—20 seconds
• Rest—10 seconds
• Do 8 times.
• Frogger—20 seconds
• Rest—10 seconds
• Do 8 times.
• Curtsy Lunge—20 seconds
• Rest—10 seconds
• Do 8 times.

Here’s how to do each move:

Demoing the moves below is Amanda Wheeler, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and cofounder of Formation Strength, an online women’s training group that serves the LGBTQ community and allies.