Hit cardio finishers

[EMPIREMIND]

Thinking about adding 15 mins of HIIT to the tail end of my workouts. I have a bunch of things I have in my mind, but curious iwhat others have done or are doing. Currently doing a Pull Push Leg split.

Any suggestions?

 

[BXFROMMTL]

25minutes to 35minutes steady pace works great for me!

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Was look for something 8-15 mins that continues the high intensity of my training. I do around 45mins liss per day away from workouts for health and cardio. Figured I could introduce something intense to speed up some fat loss. I was thinking just bouts of treadmill sprints or windgate sprints on the bike.

 

[Whisky]

I have loads of these bro.......a few of my favourites

- 6 to 8 heavy front squats followed by max effort for 10 secs on an assault bike, rest 60s and repeat 5 times

- treadmill sprints, 30 on 30 off with an incline at max pace for 10 mins

- kettlebell swing/burpee emom (like these as a finisher on a day I’ve deadlifted). Odd mins is 20 heavy as fcuk Russian swings, even mins is 15 full burpees

- 6 tyre flips and 2 widths sled push. 1:1 rest period, 12 mins

- 9 clean and press (2x35lb bells is my max) plus 1 burpee as a 9 min emom, add an additional burpee each min. This is probably my favourite of all

- 10 to 1 reps of thrusters (90 to 100lbs sort of weight) and bent over row with 2 widths of bear crawl each round, as fast as possible

 

[BlockBuilder]

I’m a big fan of treadmill sprints as whisky stated I do the 30 seconds on 30 off for 10 minutes. For Bike I’ll do 3-5 minute warmup 10 minutes 30 seconds on 30 off at 7-8 intensity and 10 minutes of 1 minute on 1 minute off as hard as humanly possible and a 5 minute cool down. I sometimes do ladders also which can be very very painful. I’ll start on let’s say a stationary bike at level 8 go 30 seconds and every 30 seconds increase resistance until I’ve hit the max and then go back down. Repeat if necessary. I’ve done that on the treadmill as well. If you can get to the point where your lungs are burning you’re doing HIIT right. Uphill sprints seem to be the best at getting that type of feeling. The “I might actually die oh ****” feeling lol

 

[Whisky]

I’m a big fan of treadmill sprints as whisky stated I do the 30 seconds on 30 off for 10 minutes. For Bike I’ll do 3-5 minute warmup 10 minutes 30 seconds on 30 off at 7-8 intensity and 10 minutes of 1 minute on 1 minute off as hard as humanly possible and a 5 minute cool down. I sometimes do ladders also which can be very very painful. I’ll start on let’s say a stationary bike at level 8 go 30 seconds and every 30 seconds increase resistance until I’ve hit the max and then go back down. Repeat if necessary. I’ve done that on the treadmill as well. If you can get to the point where your lungs are burning you’re doing HIIT right. Uphill sprints seem to be the best at getting that type of feeling. The “I might actually die oh ****” feeling lol

Yeah 100%, uphill sprints especially if you ladder up the pace on a treadmill are awesome for that, when I use a ladder I keep the incline the same and increase pace by 1 every round until I hit a point where I literally have to use everything I have to stay on for the full 30s, then drop back 1 and try to see out the remaining time at that level. Sick but good lol

 

[jrock645]

How high are you getting your HR in these HIIT sessions? Im curious because I see the duration some of you are going for(15-30mins) and i cant imagine how you guys do it. I cant do more than 6-8 minutes properly hitting the HR im looking for in an interval session.

 

[Whisky]

How high are you getting your HR in these HIIT sessions? Im curious because I see the duration some of you are going for(15-30mins) and i cant imagine how you guys do it. I cant do more than 6-8 minutes properly hitting the HR im looking for in an interval session.

Are you taking into account these are 1:1 or 2:1 type test period protocols? So of the 12 mins you might only be working for 6 mins and that’s in short bursts?

Hr should be pretty much maximal for HIIT

 

[AlexPowell]

Nothing strips fat like the Concept 2 rower. Rowing 500m as fast as you can will lay waste to you and takes less than 2 minutes.

 

[Whisky]

Nothing strips fat like the Concept 2 rower. Rowing 500m as fast as you can will lay waste to you and takes less than 2 minutes.

Rowing is great, If you really want to hammer yourself do a 500m sprint every 3 mins (I.e do one and rest for however long you have left until 3 mins is up, then go again for 5 rounds total). 1min 30s is a decent target for 500m and the rower should be set to resistance setting 6 or 7 (same resistance as water)

 

[AlexPowell]

Rowing is great, If you really want to hammer yourself do a 500m sprint every 3 mins (I.e do one and rest for however long you have left until 3 mins is up, then go again for 5 rounds total). 1min 30s is a decent target for 500m and the rower should be set to resistance setting 6 or 7 (same resistance as water)

1:30 is pretty much an elite rowing time. Definitely a decent target

 

[Whisky]

1:30 is pretty much an elite rowing time. Definitely a decent target

Really? Honestly I’m not elite rower, long legs, long arms and a decent engine make it well suited for me but I’m at 1.32 and I’m probably not the quickest in my gym. I’d be surprised if most on here weren’t sub 1.40?

 

[AlexPowell]

Really? Honestly I’m not elite rower, long legs, long arms and a decent engine make it well suited for me but I’m at 1.32 and I’m probably not the quickest in my gym. I’d be surprised if most on here weren’t sub 1.40?

I think the world record is around the 1:15 mark. 1:30 is pretty damn good

 

[jgntyce]

Jumping Rope is a great cardio/HIIT workout.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Jumping Rope is a great cardio/HIIT workout.

Awesome for calves too!

 

[EMPIREMIND]

I've been thinking of doing something related to my split. So it's pull push legs, so maybe cleans with 135: sets of 5, fast tempo then 1 min rest and repeat. Maybe 5 - 6 rounds and add a rep to each round.

For push maybe 25 push ups next to an arc trainer, followed by 15secs Sprint then 1 min jog and repeat

For legs maybe squats with 225 20 reps TUT no lock out, 60 sec rest, then repeat for 5 rounds

 

[AlexPowell]

I've been thinking of doing something related to my split. So it's pull push legs, so maybe cleans with 135: sets of 5, fast tempo then 1 min rest and repeat. Maybe 5 - 6 rounds and add a rep to each round.

For push maybe 25 push ups next to an arc trainer, followed by 15secs Sprint then 1 min jog and repeat

For legs maybe squats with 225 20 reps TUT no lock out, 60 sec rest, then repeat for 5 rounds

I don't know if this counts as HIT, but you could definitely do The Bear Complex with 100lb after legs

 

[EMPIREMIND]

I don't know if this counts as HIT, but you could definitely do The Bear Complex with 100lb after legs

Probably would be if I timed it with 1 min rests.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

I think that if I train legs effectively I definitely should be able to do any high intensity leg work. Maybe I'll keep the hit sessions to back nd chest days and just do some steady state incline walking cardio on leg days. That's still 3-4 hiit sessions a week

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Got legs today,

I am going to try this as my finisher.... The leg routine looks brutal so I figure why not hit chest and Tris and sour some sweat while doing it!

Descending Ladder Chest Finisher

This chest finisher is set up as a descending ladder utilizing dips and pushups.

A1. Start with 7 reps of dips. Rest as little as possible.
A2. Perform 7 reps of pushups. Rest as little as possible.
A3. Perform 6 reps of dips, followed by 6 reps of pushups.

Continue this descending rep pattern (5 reps of dips, 5 reps of pushups, 4 reps of dips, etc.) all the way down until you’re getting one rep of each movement.

Tips:
a) The goal is to complete all the reps under control and with good form but rest as little as possible between sets.
b) The dip should be performed with a slightly forward lean as to place more emphasis on the chest as opposed to the triceps. And you can think of the 7 reps as a benchmark starting point.
c) If the finisher was too easy, try starting at 10 and work your way down to one next time.
d) Or, if it was too difficult, start at 5 reps.

 

[Dustin07]

Thinking about adding 15 mins of HIIT to the tail end of my workouts. I have a bunch of things I have in my mind, but curious iwhat others have done or are doing. Currently doing a Pull Push Leg split.

Any suggestions?

Lots of great suggestions already provided. But basically my format is to do my main compound lift, then run my accessory lifts in a HIIT/Circuit/Crossfit WOD fashion.

so after squats I might do something like:

3 rounds:
row 500m
2 x heavy front squats
10 x goblet squats
20 x walking db lunges with 2 x 35-40lb dbs

etc etc something like that. or, last night we did a 15min amrap cause we knew we wanted a 15min workout and sometimes it's easier to work backwards from a time cap vs setting rounds. so my pain sessions was Bench/Press/Deads, then our wod was:

15min amrap
6 x 135lb deadlift
4 x 135lb hang power cleans
2 x 135lb push press
10 x burpees

that was enough to leave the body feeling rekt.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Lots of great suggestions already provided. But basically my format is to do my main compound lift, then run my accessory lifts in a HIIT/Circuit/Crossfit WOD fashion.

so after squats I might do something like:

3 rounds:
row 500m
2 x heavy front squats
10 x goblet squats
20 x walking db lunges with 2 x 35-40lb dbs

etc etc something like that. or, last night we did a 15min amrap cause we knew we wanted a 15min workout and sometimes it's easier to work backwards from a time cap vs setting rounds. so my pain sessions was Bench/Press/Deads, then our wod was:

15min amrap
6 x 135lb deadlift
4 x 135lb hang power cleans
2 x 135lb push press
10 x burpees

that was enough to leave the body feeling rekt.

Cool man. Sounds like a great workout. The more I have been trying things I am starting to think that straight cardio finishers might be best suited for me... Yesterday for example was a push day and was like 30 working sets... I was fried lol

 

[Dustin07]

Cool man. Sounds like a great workout. The more I have been trying things I am starting to think that straight cardio finishers might be best suited for me... Yesterday for example was a push day and was like 30 working sets... I was fried lol

I'm a crossfitter at heart. I drank the koolaid a long time ago and love it for many reasons. It can get you shredded. But I will say this. it's really really easy to get too much volume via xfit and risk strength gains. maintaining balance is the big challenge.

Here are a few more wods I had done recently and recorded on my log;

squats
3 x 5

wod
5 rounds for time
3 x 155lb front squat
20 x 35lb (x's 2) walking db lunges
10 x toes to bar
350m row

another day:

WOD 1
10 x 95lb/65lb push press
4 x 70lb/35lb weighted dips
10 x 60lb/35lb kb snatch
5 rounds for time.
Rest 5 minutes, then:

WOD 2
10 Dips
10 burpees
10 pullups
5 rounds for time.


a different day:
rowing
6 x 250m row sprints. 2:1 work to rest ratio, so rest for half as long as your 250m sprint takes.
finish with:
2 x 500m row sprints. same work/rest ratio

then:

6min amrap reps ladder
1 x 225lb deadlift
1 x 20lb wall ball
2 x
2 x
etc


and on a different day:

"Grace"

30 x 135lb / 95lb Clean and Jerks for time.

Rest 10 minutes, then:

5 Rounds for time:
3 x bar muscle ups
6 x 95/65lb power snatch
9 x dips (+weight for RX+, bodyweight for RX)
30 x double unders



So you can see sorta how a lot of my wods have sorta specific programming to accessorize something I'm working that day (push, pull, etc.) I also like to have a heavy weight component in my wod for low reps mixed with higher rep accessory work, and a conditioning item (like burpees or rowing). To maintain balance, I do try to have at least one opposite movement in my wods as well. so on that first one you'll see it was all legs but I threw in the T2B for the upper/back/core/pull. Or I'll add rowing for some pull or something like that. I don't like to be all push push push or all pull pull pull in a wod. doesn't feel balanced to me. but you still have to be smart and not do a huge deadlift wod the day before you train deads for strength.

I'll have some days where it's a short burner. like 2 x 3 minute wods, or a 6 minute wod. other days like last night, I'll mix in a harder 15-20 minute wod. But you have to be smart about volume. You can't do 6 days a week of 30 minute hard all out heavy barbell wods and expect anything but weakness and injury.



Hell, I used to take "Grace" which is just 30 x 135lb clean and jerks and do what I called "super grace" or something like that:

6 rounds of
5 x 185lb power clean and jerk
50 x double unders.

that was always fun.

 

[Dustin07]

Cool man. Sounds like a great workout. The more I have been trying things I am starting to think that straight cardio finishers might be best suited for me... Yesterday for example was a push day and was like 30 working sets... I was fried lol

Hey when I did this wod below, I did it with two new guys. one was dry heaving before round 3. the other took 29 minutes to complete 4 rounds. I think my 5 round time was around 20 minutes. I'm not in great conditioning shape anymore but that gives you a reference for our 3 guys did on it: we always scale weights as well to be safe and accurate to the lifter, so one guy did like a 40lb goblet squat instead of fronts and the other guy did 95lb fronts. I post my workouts based upon the hardest version, and scale down for anyone that needs it to be safe. give it a try.

wod
5 rounds for time
3 x 155lb front squat
20 x 35lb (x's 2) walking db lunges
10 x toes to bar
350m row

 

[Whisky]

Hey when I did this wod below, I did it with two new guys. one was dry heaving before round 3. the other took 29 minutes to complete 4 rounds. I think my 5 round time was around 20 minutes. I'm not in great conditioning shape anymore but that gives you a reference for our 3 guys did on it: we always scale weights as well to be safe and accurate to the lifter, so one guy did like a 40lb goblet squat instead of fronts and the other guy did 95lb fronts. I post my workouts based upon the hardest version, and scale down for anyone that needs it to be safe. give it a try.

wod
5 rounds for time
3 x 155lb front squat
20 x 35lb (x's 2) walking db lunges
10 x toes to bar
350m row

The lunges are the b1tch in that one.....it’s only 2x35lbs but front racked that weight gets heavy quick. In my head I’d like to think 4 mins a round is roughly where I’d be at but gonna have to try it now lol

 

[rodefeeh]

I do Tabata style HIIT cardio a lot:

20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest for 8x, that adds up to 4 minutes, rest a full min and do a different exercise, do 3 exercises and you got 15 minutes

Here are the exercises I rotate:

Jump squats
Mountain climbers
Weighted punches
Kettlebell swings
Donkey kicks
Burpees
Stairs
Toe taps on stairs

 

[AlexPowell]

That reminds me actually, in "Beyond 5/3/1" there is a whole section dedicated to Crossfit style metabolic conditioning that you can do after your training. I'll dig out my copy of the book

 

[Dustin07]

The lunges are the b1tch in that one.....it’s only 2x35lbs but front racked that weight gets heavy quick. In my head I’d like to think 4 mins a round is roughly where I’d be at but gonna have to try it now lol

Oh yeah you could definitely do front rack with the db's or a barbell. When I do walking lunges I've been doing them at the side like farmers carry, but that's a good idea, I'll throw in some front rack! A few times I have done the walking lunges up to like 45lb dbs but for lower reps... like 12-16 (6-8 per leg). its crazy how fast something as light as 35s hits you lol

 

[Dustin07]

I do Tabata style HIIT cardio a lot:

20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest for 8x, that adds up to 4 minutes, rest a full min and do a different exercise, do 3 exercises and you got 15 minutes

Here are the exercises I rotate:

Jump squats
Mountain climbers
Weighted punches
Kettlebell swings
Donkey kicks
Burpees
Stairs
Toe taps on stairs

Tabata's are wicked effective. And I love using them for a body weight day in conditioning because I feel like you get your 16 minutes of massive conditioning work, but you recover WAY better than if it was 16 minutes of heavy barbell work. I like this app for various timers, it has a built in tabata timer too

Invalid Link Removed

Your tabata list is solid stuff. those kb swings and burpees will get you. we often will also throw in situps, pull ups, double unders, pushups, etc. basically any bodyweight movement at all that you can rep out fast and safe.

That reminds me actually, in "Beyond 5/3/1" there is a whole section dedicated to Crossfit style metabolic conditioning that you can do after your training. I'll dig out my copy of the book

that would be interesting to look at, I'm not familiar with Beyond 5/3/1, its been a few years since I looked at 5/3/1 seriously.

 

[Whisky]

Oh yeah you could definitely do front rack with the db's or a barbell. When I do walking lunges I've been doing them at the side like farmers carry, but that's a good idea, I'll throw in some front rack! A few times I have done the walking lunges up to like 45lb dbs but for lower reps... like 12-16 (6-8 per leg). its crazy how fast something as light as 35s hits you lol

I rarely use anything above 35s for conditioning, I’ll swing a 96lb bell for high reps (something I’ve always been strong at for some reason so I brought that Bell for my gym specifically for me lol) but pretty much anything else is 35s.....

 

[AlexPowell]

It's actually in 5/3/1 second edition and I don't seem to be able to find it. Perhaps someone else can screenshot it and post it here

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Thinking about adding 15 mins of HIIT to the tail end of my workouts. I have a bunch of things I have in my mind, but curious iwhat others have done or are doing. Currently doing a Pull Push Leg split.

Any suggestions?

The Solution pyrobatt any suggestions?

 

[Dustin07]

I rarely use anything above 35s for conditioning, I’ll swing a 96lb bell for high reps (something I’ve always been strong at for some reason so I brought that Bell for my gym specifically for me lol) but pretty much anything else is 35s.....

One thing I see a lot of people doing with kettlebells is having full extended arms in front of their body during the swing and often times working their lower back more than they should, the glutes and hamstrings should get the lions share of the workout and this is better accomplished by maintaining slightly bent elbows and engaged lats through the middle of the movement. The bell comes down so tight to your balls in the bottom of the movement that the cue is to think "witch on a broomstick" as it passes through your legs. then glutes and hamstrings pop that mofo back up. The only reason I bring up that form aspect is because if you're fully extended, turning your lower back into the pendulum basically, it may make higher kb weights more difficult than they should be. I prefer to run a minimum of 53lb kbs for swing, clean and jerk, snatch, goblets etc. lately I've been using the 60 whenever possible for kb snatch wods as a shoulder accessory but that's the heaviest we currently have at our gym.

It's actually in 5/3/1 second edition and I don't seem to be able to find it. Perhaps someone else can screenshot it and post it here

thanks man, I'll look it up.

 

[Whisky]

One thing I see a lot of people doing with kettlebells is having full extended arms in front of their body during the swing and often times working their lower back more than they should, the glutes and hamstrings should get the lions share of the workout and this is better accomplished by maintaining slightly bent elbows and engaged lats through the middle of the movement. The bell comes down so tight to your balls in the bottom of the movement that the cue is to think "witch on a broomstick" as it passes through your legs. then glutes and hamstrings pop that mofo back up. The only reason I bring up that form aspect is because if you're fully extended, turning your lower back into the pendulum basically, it may make higher kb weights more difficult than they should be. I prefer to run a minimum of 53lb kbs for swing, clean and jerk, snatch, goblets etc. lately I've been using the 60 whenever possible for kb snatch wods as a shoulder accessory but that's the heaviest we currently have at our gym.




thanks man, I'll look it up.

Completely agree it’s often butchered - I see a lot of the straight arm low Bell stuff as well as people who turn it into a squat rather than hip hinge. When I teach it I typically use ‘ass to the wall behind you’ for the hinge component and ‘crowd the groin’ for the positioning at the bottom of the swing. I find banded pull throughs a great teaching tool as well but with some it’s a slow progress lol.

 

[pyrobatt]

The Solution pyrobatt any suggestions?

I would add the hit to the pull workout.

For example,

Pull/hit on monday

Push on wednesday

Legs on friday.

Reason being is I feel you could eat into recovery if you put the hit too close to legs.