High intensity workouts are those that are meant to fatigue your body within 30 seconds to one minute. Whether they use heavy weights or intense cardio, the National Strength and Conditioning Association states that these workouts are designed to challenge your anaerobic system to increase aerobic capacity, strength, metabolism and power. Total body workouts are designed to use most of the muscles in the body in unison to develop functional strength. These high intensity total body workouts burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time, making them more efficient and more challenging than your typical moderate-intensity cardio and weight training.
Intervals
The best way to make a typical workout into a total body high intensity workout is to add intervals of intense cardio. Interval training involves anaerobic training that lasts 10 seconds to three minutes, with the shorter bouts being at maximal intensity. Intervals can involve running sprints, cycle sprints, plyometrics or short burst high intensity power weight training. You can perform them between strength training sets to keep heart rate elevated, or as a workout all of their own.
Guidelines
Always perform a five- to 10-minute light cardiovascular exercise warm-up before beginning high-intensity activities. According to Sports Fitness Advisor, you need to have an adequate work-to-rest ratio with total body maximal exercises. If you perform five to 10 seconds of maximal exercise, then rest one to two minutes. If you perform 15 to 30 seconds of near maximal activity, rest for 45 seconds to one minute. If you perform one to three minutes of exercise, rest for three minutes. Bodybuilding.com recommends only doing full body high intensity workouts every two to three days, allowing your body to get the rest it needs to repair muscles.
Medicine Balls
Medicine balls offer a total body workout because you can throw them, catch them and perform various weighted exercise with them. These motions involve interactions of many muscle groups. Throwing requires back, chest, arm, leg and core muscles. Try throwing the ball overhead, backwards, or sideways with an abdominal twist. For a slight variation, try slamming a medicine ball on the ground and catching it on the rebound repeatedly for one minute.
Kettlebells
Kettlebell training involves the entire body. Kettlebells resemble a cannon ball or bowling ball with a handle. They were developed for high speed ballistic total body training. The kettlebell moves with your power and momentum, so much of the benefit of kettlebells is learning to control the movement. The most basic move is the general kettlebell swing. Stand and hold the kettlebell with both hands and feet shoulder-width apart. Squat low, swing the kettlebell between the legs and explode up, straightening the legs and swinging the kettlebell just above horizontal. Repeat 20 times.
References
- Bodybuilding.com: Kettlebell Exercises
- Sports Fitness Advisor: Interval Training for Sport Specific Endurance
- Bodybuilding.com: Full Body Workouts
- "Tactical Strength and Conditioning: Training the Tactical Athlete"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; Dr. Jay Hoffman, Dr. Doug Kleiner; 2010
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