With everything going on around us in the world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed. Working out is one of the best ways to channel your stress and Shape’s 45-minute HIIT and strength workout is here to get you through your most challenging days.
Mary Onyango, a personal trainer from New York City, designed this full-body workout that helps build mental and physical strength. “With all that’s going on in this country right now, it’s hard not to feel like you’re being knocked down over and over again,” says Onyango. “While it’s so easy to get swallowed up in the negativity, my goal with this workout is to encourage people to get their heart racing and blood pumping to de-stress healthily and productively.”
The workout starts with a 10-minute Tabata round that includes two moves—crunches and alternating plank lunges. Each move is completed for 20 seconds, followed by a 10 second rest.
After that, the workout is divided into three blocks, each of which includes three minutes of strength training, two minutes of cardio, one minute of core work, and one minute of recovery. The first block focuses on the lower body with moves like glute bridges, dumbbell squat jumps, dumbbell halos to squats, and dumbbell plank toe touches. The second block focuses on the upper body with knee tucks with a dumbbell overhead, squat with dumbbell curls, drop squats, and skaters. The last block has compound exercises that target the lower and upper body.
Lastly, the workout ends with a six-minute finisher made of inchworms shoulder taps, half burpees, and squats.
If the workout becomes to challenging at any point, Onyango says to ditch the dumbbells and to use your bodyweight.
