Medicine Ball HIIT Routine
Ready to sweat? Good. Here’s a medicine ball (and a few other goodies) HIIT routine to get you going.
In a live scenario this was 4 rounds – 30 seconds of work – 20 seconds to switch – with 1 minute of recovery after each round. As always, adjust the weight and recovery periods to your current fitness level.
Also – engage your core on all of these exercises. This is one of those things I assume people remember to do, but you know what they say about “assuming” right?
Medicine Ball Front Lunge with Rotation
Need a video representation? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pv7zHNzg08
We’ll be working both our lunge and rotation at the same time on this one. You don’t need to lunge across the room like she does in the video above, just forward lunge, rotate over the forward knee (keeping a vertical shin and fully extended arms), then push through your heel to activate the hamstring (one of those muscles we always forget about in modern society) to return to standing. Rinse and repeat alternating legs.
Medicine Ball Standing Chest Press
Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-5ivSFlMmE
This is a core stability exercise plus a pushing motion working the upper chest and shoulders (particularly the front of the shoulder.) If you wanted to work power and had something to throw at you could chest pass here, the slower you move through this movement the more you’re going to work those shoulder stabilization muscles that may be neglected.
Medicine Ball Slams
Get in a ready / active state, bring the ball up overhead with a slight bend at the elbows, then swing the ball down, watch it bounce, catch, bring back up, rinse and repeat.
On the Back Medicine Ball Chest Passes
The trick here is to try and press the ball up so it travels back down to you in the same general-ish position. Think about angles. You don’t want the ball landing on your face (or away from you forcing you to get up and go chase it, like a dog chasing a sock.)
Bulgarian Bag Calf Raises
Put the bag up on your shoulders and raise up onto your toes then SLOWLY lower back to the ground. Being that I’m a Cardio Muay Thai and Bulgarian Bag enthusiast you didn’t think you’d get out of using a bag in this routine did you?
Bulgarian Bag Squats
The bag is already up on your shoulders so keep it there during the rest period then when the bell goes off again start squatting. I had thought about doing a sandbag clean to squat here, and you could technically do the lunge with rotation as a sandbag clean to lunge to twist as well (if you wanted to substitute a piece of gear) but the actual program I’m writing about is a Bulgarian Bag on the shoulders doing a squat. You could even clean the Bulgarian bag to change up from a back squat to a front squat.
Bulgarian Bag Main Handle Bent Over Row
Hip hinge, flat back, grab the bag. Elbow pits (the part where your elbow bends) pointed forward. Pull the arms up and close to the ribs squeezing the shoulders. Lower the bag to the ground and repeat.
Lat Pull Downs
I use a pull up assist band with some caribiner clips and handles for this but you can use whatever you have available. If you have a bag, a belt, and a pull up bar (or just a bar that goes across your doorway) you can build your own lat pulley system. Adjust the weight by adding books or sand.
Have a wonderful workout!
