Just when you think you can’t hold your arms up any longer and the hit pads seem to be blurring out of focus… your legs are aching, your shoulders burning and the sweat is flooding from you and your partner yells, “30 more seconds!”.
High intensity interval training (HIIT) is an integral part of The Girlfriend Workout, and for good reason.
HIIT is an extremely effective method of cardiovascular training which takes very little time but yields huge results. It has been shown to increase EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption, which is one of the main factors in fat loss) for 24 hours afterwards and improves maximal oxygen consumption (VO2Max) more than traditional long aerobic workouts. In under 30 minutes you can be done for the day!
The Girlfriend Workout
Ok so I must confess – the reason for this article is that I was training some people this morning with HIIT boxing circuits and I decided I’d kick my own ass too… and did we ever kick our own asses, and I thought I’d write a quick article on an easy and quick HIIT Boxing workout.
From here in let’s assume you have gloves and hit pads.
What you want to do is get a nice light sweat going before you get going too hard. You want your muscles nice and warmed up and to be firing before you come out sluggin’, champ.
- Try a light jog or some skipping
- Throw in a bit of shadow boxing (punching the air while looking in a mirror)
- Some good stretching of your chest, shoulder, arm and back muscles
Now you’ll want to be paired up with one of you in gloves and one with the hit pads, and I suggest you start slowly for the first couple of sets. For the below we’ll assume it is always Left Punch, Right Punch… or vice versa if you are left handed). Here’s my suggested workout routine, do circuit one, alternate positions with your partner and they complete circuit, then swap back and move on to circuit two.
Circuit One
1. Ladders: For 60 seconds do the following (these are always Left, Right, Left, Right – or vice versa if you are left handed);
- 2 punch combo, reset
- 4 punch combo, reset
- 6 punch combo, reset
- 8 punch combo, reset
- 10 punch combo, reset
- 8 punch combo…
- And so on down to 2 then back up to 10
- Do this until time is up
2. Rest 60 seconds
3. Punch/Push Ups: For 60 seconds do the following;
- 6 quick punches
- Then both of you drop down and do 2 push ups
- Repeat
4. Rest 60 seconds
5. Uppercuts: 30 seconds of non-stop uppercuts
Then swap positions.
Circuit Two
1. Combos for power: For 60 seconds do the following;
2. Rest 60 seconds
3. Combos for speed: For 60 seconds do the following;
- Jab, Jab, Cross, Slip, Cross
4. Rest 60 seconds
5. Full Combo: For 60 seconds do the following;
- Jab, Jab, Cross, Slip, Cross, Hook, Cross
Then swap positions.
Remember, you can incorporate a heavy bag, speedball, skipping, shadow boxing and even duck and weaves (string up a rope at head height and duck and weave back and forth under it), but this should give you some ideas.
That is pretty much it. If you are working hard you will be breathing pretty hard and will get a great workout in. You can always add one more cycle if you wish.
Enjoy!
This sounds like a heavy routine but at the same time it sounds fun… I actually want to get up and try this now… I would like to get the book so I can try the rest of the exercises
The first session usually leaves people quite sore, particularly in the shoulders and chest… but after a couple of sessions, you will really enjoy the rush!
Also, your coordination and timing will drastically improve. I remember punching my own hands a bit on the first session through sheer lack of coordination.
Of course, these training sessions should only be used on your non weight training days as described in our book – so check it out for full details!
Great stuff as usual…