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HIIT For Beginners – No Equipment Necessary

Christian Pinedo

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In this article, we’re going to talk about HIIT for beginners. So since this video is for beginners specifically, I’m not going to go into every single little detail about high-intensity interval training, I just want to get you guys started on the right foot. 

If you do want to read an entire article on the subject of high-intensity interval training, I have written one here. It is an entire article explaining every single thing you need to know about HIIT.

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First, What is High-Intensity Interval Training?

What is high intensity interval training?

If you’ve ever seen rocky think of that scene in Rocky two of them sprinting on the beach, that’s basically HIIT in the simplest terms. 

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You’re sprinting, that’s your high-intensity interval, and then you rest.

So that’s the easiest way I can explain high intensity interval training, you go at almost all out intensity for a short period of time, and then rest.

So a high-intensity interval, that is the interval where you’re going as hard as you can, technically shouldn’t be any longer than 25 seconds.

If you are going anywhere between 15 and 25 seconds, and if you’re sprinting at an all-out intensity, you’re not going to be able to hold it for a minute, or 45 seconds, or whatever, if you’re truly going all out.

It’s just not going to happen. 

A quick note on that 15 or 25 second interval. 

That’s usually what most people do with HIIT.

That’s like the general recommendation.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do anything past 25 seconds.

Because there are specific programs that recommend longer interval sessions and they do work and any type of endurance training and will help with cardiovascular health and weight loss in general.

For the simplicity of this article, I’m going to stick to that 15 to 25 second range.

Hiit Workout At Home Without Equipment

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So now I’m going to move on to this HIIT workout at home without equipment.

This is if you’re at home, you:

  • have nothing substantial in terms or equipment or 
  • maybe you’re at a hotel,
  • maybe you’re away for some reason and you don’t have a gym near you that you can access
  • or you just want to do body weight training.

So if you guys have ever heard of Brandon Carter, he’s an awesome YouTuber.

He is specifically the king of body weight high intensity interval training. So for example, you would do all these body weight exercises in a row, that’s one round and then do that three times.

In this example below, you would do 20 seconds of all the following exercises in a “SPRINT-LIKE” fashion, followed by 10 seconds of rest before moving on to the next exercise:

  1. Burpees 
  2. jumping squats,
  3. mountain climbers,
  4. Spider Man push ups,
  5. high knees,
  6. jumping lunches.

These are all in a sprint like fashion.

Once you’re done with this first round you do that three times and that’s basically a beginner HIIT workout without equipment.

HIIT Workout At The Gym

HIIT Treadmill Workout

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What I like to do is a pyramid style sprint workout.

So you start off with a three minute jog as a warm up.

First, you start off at speed nine.

Now since you’re a beginner, I’m not really sure how fast you can run with good form on a treadmill.

For example the treadmill at my gym only goes up to speed 12.

When I first began doing sprints on the treadmill regularly, I could only go up to speed 10 with good form.

So depending on how much of a beginner you are, make sure to adjust this accordingly.

You might start speed 7 or speed 9. Adjust accordingly.

Here’s the workout if you were starting at speed 9 and topping out at speed 11:

  • Speed 9 for 45 sec to 1 min
  • Speed 10 for 35 seconds
  • Speed 11 for 20 to 25 seconds
  • Speed 11 again for 20 to 25 seconds
  • Speed 10 for 35 seconds
  • Speed 9 for 45 seconds to 1 min

So you go up the pyramid (Speed 9 to 11) and down the pyramid (speed 11 to 9). Makes sense?

Now remember that 15 to 25 second period that I want you to stay in for your sprints. 

Well that should be how long you’re sprinting when you’re at speed 11.

For the other speeds, you can go longer. 

I do speed 9 for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Then I rest how we talked about earlier.

Then, since the speed is going up, I do speed 10 for maybe 35 seconds and then when we get to speed 11.

That’s the hardest Sprint’s right, so this is when I can do maybe 25 seconds, maybe 20 seconds.

At speed 11, it’s almost all out intensity with good form. Once I get past 25 seconds, I start  losing my good form.

Then I do that speed again, after resting of course in between sprint, and go back down the pyramid.

That’s all there is to it.

Since this whole workout doesn’t take too long, I do 15 minutes of incline walking afterwards.

Totally optional, but it does get you a bit more calorie burn and feels good as a cool down.That was a quick treadmill high intensity interval training workout.

Here’s another one I like to do:

If you like cardio machines, you can model these two workouts above for other machines like the elliptical, stationary bike or Stairmasterr.

We’ve went over both types of cardio.

We went over the body weight, so no equipment, high intensity interval training and then we did the cardio equipment, high intensity interval training.

If you like doing cardio on machines like Stairmaster, treadmills, I like Visual Impact Cardio from Rusty Moore from Visual Impact Fitness. 

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Visual Impact Cardio

I like both styles of HIIT.

I do a mix of both whenever I can.

But mostly I stick to the cardio machines. 

That’s just what I like to do.So if you’re if you’re a beginner and you want to get a head start, the 90 day program from Brandon Carter direct HIIT is a great way to get fit.

Again, if you like HIIT on cardio machines Visual Impact Cardio is a great program as well.

They’re both beginner friendly and they both have beginner program cycles built into them.So that’s going to be it for this article you guys. If you liked this article, share this with your friends, leave a comment if you have any questions, and I’ll see you soon.

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Christian Pinedo

Hey there, Christian here. I'm a former fat guy who just wants to help you succeed in your fitness journey. I share my own experiences and experiments right here on this site. Let me know how I can be of help by leaving a comment below. If you want to learn more about my 50 lb weight loss journey, click here.

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