This Bodyweight HIIT Workout Will Help You Move From Every Direction

In today’s bodyweight HIIT workout, you’ll be hammering out exercises that will help you build strength and move more efficiently from every direction—something super important both in everyday life and in your workouts, especially when you add more advanced movements to the mix.

This routine has you moving in all three planes of motion: the sagittal plane, which takes care of forward and backward movement (like with the squat and reverse lunge to kick-up), the frontal plane, which involves side-to-side movement (like with the lateral lunge and lateral shuffle), and the transverse plane, which involves rotation or twisting (like the mountain climber twist). By working in all three planes of motion, this better mimics the kind of movement you do in everyday life—meaning this workout has some serious real-world carryover.

Because you’ll be doing all the moves with HIIT-based programming—meaning periods of hard effort and shorter periods of recovery—your heart rate is going to stay elevated, and you’ll feel pretty breathless throughout. While it’ll feel tough, this kind of workout can help your cardiovascular system get stronger.

Your goal throughout this bodyweight HIIT workout: really concentrate on nailing the form. Not only does this help you get more out of the move, but it also helps protect against injury. It’s all about safely pushing yourself and having fun for the duration of the routine!

The workout below is for day 24 of the SELF New Year’s Challenge. Check out the full four-week workout program right here. Or go to the workout calendar here. If you’d like to sign up to receive daily emails for this challenge, you can do that here.

WORKOUT DIRECTIONS

Complete each exercise for the chosen work/rest interval:

I = 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest
II = 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest
III = 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

Rest 30–60 seconds between rounds. Complete 3–5 rounds.

EXERCISES