Creating high intensity drills for a small room or space is difficult. Perhaps you normally run your sessions outside but bad weather has got you indoors or huddling under some shelter.
It’s easy in those situations to end up having to use the same handful of exercises. But if you run your normal workout campers are always getting in each others way.
Below is a workout that I hope will help you out. For one, only half the group is exercising at a time so they can stay out of the way. It also contains just some skipping ropes (which you can always sub out for star jumps) so you don’t need a lot of equipment.
HIIT Me!
Goal: High Intensity Training
Time: 60 minutes
Equipment: Cones, Mats, Skipping Rope
Warm Up
Mobility – 1-2 minutes each:
- Walking Stretches (quads, hams, glutes)
- High Knee Skipping
- Yoga Push Ups
A 5 minute running drill of your choice
Drill DEP (Demonstrate, Explain, Practice)
After demonstrating and explaining each exercise, do a practice round all together spending one minute on each exercise:
- Skipping (also known as Jumping Rope)
- Shuttles (forwards, backpedal)
- Plank (add twist)
- Rest
Repeat once more before moving on to the next stage. On the second round of skips have client count and remember how many skips they can do in one minute. You will use this number to pair up clients below.
The Workout Challenge
Set out 2 lines of cones 12m apart.
This workout is a self paced interval workout done in pairs. One client will rest while the other completes a set of exercises. Resting clients should be encouraging and cheering on their team mates to keep the pace.
The long rest times will allow for full recovery between sets so when a client is exercising they should be working at maximum capacity.
Use the 60 second skip test to determine the pairs (most skips goes with least skips, second more skips goes with second least skips and so on).
Each round, the number of repetitions decreases.
| Round | Skips | Shuttle Runs | Chest Lifts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 70 | 7 | 35 |
| 2 | 60 | 6 | 30 |
3 | 50 | 5 | 25 |
| 4 | 40 | 4 | 20 |
| 5 | 30 | 3 | 15 |
6 | 20 | 2 | 10 |
7 | 10 | 1 | 5 |
Note: One shuttle run is a 12m (40 ft.) run and 12m backpedal.
Finisher
Have pairs team up with other pairs to form two teams.
Each team’s goal is to run 50 shuttles total as a group but only two members from each team may run at a time.
The first team to finish all of their shuttles wins.
Cooldown
Stretch it out.
Originally published in 2012. Updated in 2022 to add more photos and improve descriptions of drills. No changes made to workout.
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Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.
What’s a chest lift ?
Hey Will, I do a faster movement of the pilates exercise with the same name.
Kyle, is this pretty much the same as an ab crunch? I had to look this move up. And when I watched vids on youtube it seemed like a crunch…?
Very similar Jaclyn. A crunch focuses more on spinal flexion though, this is more about lifting the chest from the ground and keeping the neck neutral. It’s a smaller movement.
My clients really liked this workout, they pushed themselves really hard knowing that they could rest after each round. They also became quite competitive with the other teams which was quite entertaining. Thanks Kyle.
Did this one outdoor, great workout! For the resting round i put down some ‘toys’ and a list of exercises, optional to do (TRX, mats, boxing gloves and pads…).This finisher is always fun!
Thanks for the tip Jacqueline 😊