In my books, it’s always ”chest day is the best day” and when I don’t have the time to go through my full 50-minute gym set, I make sure I get a few sets of High-Intensity Interval Training with a chest focus done.
Even with just one set lasting less than 10 minutes, you can be sweating like a regular trip to the gym would cause. But before you just follow some random YouTube video, let me explain the basics and some tips to you.
High-Intensity Interval Training that targets all the parts of your body that you’ll show off at the beach is basically all about pushups and squats to get the burn from your lower abs all the way up to your neck.
The main idea is that you should workout at high speed and intensity for a short period of time to kick your metabolism into overdrive and build some new muscle tissue.
How Does It Work?
Rather than do many slower sets over a period of 45 minutes, you go through 8 exercises and absolute maximum pace for 40 seconds. After just a 10 second rest, you jump straight into the next exercise and repeat until you complete one set.
By the end, you’ll be dripping in sweat and if you’ve done it right, just a few weeks of this will result in some serious results. As you gain some strength and endurance, you’ll be able to do multiple sets to get you beach-ready.
What Are The Benefits?
1. Rapid Fat Loss
Because of the constant high intensity, you can maximize fat loss as your metabolism will target all the stored energy you have in the flabby stuff.
2. Muscle Growth
All of the sudden bursts targeting multiple muscle groups trigger physiological processes that will make sure your muscles build more fibers faster.
3. Releasing Of Muscle-Building Hormones
This is another effect from the sudden bursts of muscle activity that tell your body to release more testosterone and growth hormone. The result is faster muscle growth in just the right areas.
4. Increased Muscle Endurance
As your fitness levels improve and you build more muscle, you’ll notice that you can keep going for longer. Going through 2 or 3 sets will become a reality in a matter of a few days.
5. Muscle Conditioning
Between the fat loss and muscle growth, you’ll quickly start noticing that your muscles become more defined.
6. Quicker Muscle Recovery
After the first couple of days, you will likely be sore. But if you stick with these routines on a daily basis, then your recovery time will speed up.
Pushup Attack – HIIT Chest Workout: Exercise Breakdown
You’ll soon see that it’s a lot about push-ups. Remember, it’s always quality over quantity. Doing a load of fast push-ups but only getting halfway down isn’t going to get you the results you’re looking for.
Work towards the full range of motion and watch the videos first so that you know what’s ahead and you don’t waste time figuring out the moves.
1. Warm Up
If you have a treadmill or rowing machine, then warm up your muscles for about 5 minutes first. But you can also run or jog on the spot and do some star jumps. Basically, you don’t want to start these things with a cold body.
2. Push-Up To Knee Tuck
This actually looks easier than it is, so prepare for immediate strain. Get into the standard push-up position and do one full motion pushup as far down as possible. Once you’re back in your starting position, pull up your left knee to your chest, followed by your right knee. Continue this for 40 seconds for maximum reps.
3. Squat Jumps
Stand straight with your feet about shoulder width apart. Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the ground and then explosively push yourself up. Try to jump as high as you can for as many times as possible in 40 seconds.
4. Elevated Pushup
You’ll need a chair or couch for this, and it’s basically a pushup with your feet on top of the chair. Don’t underestimate the strain this will put on your muscles, and remember to aim for getting as low as you can.
5. High Knees
This is a slightly easier abs and core muscle exercise. It’s kind of like jogging on the spot, but you pull up your knees as high as possible. You can even do this with a jumping action to get your blood pumping some more.
6. Pushup To Leg Extension
Start off with a simple push-up, and as you get back to the starting position, you lift one leg straight up in the air. This engages the lower core muscles for some bonus burn.
7. Turbo Crab Kicks
This is an easy exercise that will get your blood flowing, and you’ll feel the burn from your abs to your chest. Simply sit on the ground with your hands behind your backside and your legs bent in front of you. Then kick each foot out one at a time for the full 40 seconds.
8. Pushup Row
Here’s another tough one, and ideally you’ll have some small dumbbells to do these. Do your push as normal but with your hands on the dumbbells. Then, when you get back to the starting position, lift one hand up as far as possible.
9. Squat Jacks
Just when you thought you’d get an easy exercise at the end, you’re heading for some serious burning. Move into a squatting position with your thighs about parallel to the ground. From here do some jumping jacks, but keep your backside at the same height.
Rules And Tips
Conclusion
If you want to get that seriously ripped upper body, then HIIT is the best thing you can do to maximize your training time. You don’t have to spend endless hours at the gym, as long as you get the above moves right and really start pushing yourself.
Let us know on our Facebook page how you get on and if you have some other good moves that you’ve found.
