12 week HIIT cardio and weight training work-out program (Weeks 1-4)

As I mentioned in my latest work out post - Strong is the new skinny - I am starting a new "challenge" of sorts. Women's Training Bible on bodybuilding.com has great tips on work outs and training tips and I found the majority of this program from here.  The difference between this and any of the ones I have done before is this one is 12 weeks long (as opposed to 30 days) and combines a lifting regime with a 15-20 minute HIIT (High intensity interval training) cardio workout.

 I am not a great fan of cardio. It's all the breathing. It gets hard.

When I first looked at the daily guide and estimated it would only take about 35-40 minutes a day, I thought "Eh, it can't be that bad."

I forgot how much I dislike cardio.

In the couple days since I started, I am having a more difficult time than I originally thought and attribute it to doing the HIIT cardio before I do the lifting.  In getting my heart rate up and my muscles moving quickly, I notice that I am straining more when lifting the same amount of weight as I did in the Operation Zombie Challenge when I wasn't doing cardio.

This is good.  It means I am kicking butt.

Anyway, I compiled the two different workouts into a daily list so I would know exactly what I was doing every day and I wanted to share it with you, for now or for the future.  I have only included the first two weeks this time because of the length of the post.  And also I need to research more HIIT cardio work outs (I get bored easily).  I will post the next two weeks work outs next week.

It looks a little unorganized because of the picture files for the HIIT part, so if you have any questions about the lifting movements, please refer to the Women's Training Bible page where there are detailed break downs of each step.

12 WEEK HIIT CARDIO AND LIFTING WORKOUT

WEEK ONE AND TWO

MONDAY

Cardio

I do this one time

Lifting (all 4-6 reps)

Bench press

Bent over barbell rows

Dumbbell shoulder press

Skull crushers

Barbell curls

Repeat 3 times

TUESDAY

Cardio

I do this three times

Lifting (all 8-12 reps)

Barbell squats

Stiff leg dead lifts

Leg extensions

Dumbbell lunges

Standing calf raises

Lying leg raises

Exercise ball crunches

Repeat 3 times

WEDNESDAY - REST DAY

THURSDAY

Cardio

I do this one time

Lifting (all 8-12 reps)

Tricep dips

Pull ups

Lateral raises

Tricep pull downs

Bicep curls

Repeat 3 times

FRIDAY

Cardio

I do this three times

Lifting

Dead lift (8-12 reps)

Leg extensions (8-12 reps)

Dumbbell lunges (8-12 reps)

Standing calf raises (8-12 reps)

Dumbbell shrugs (8-12 reps)

Decline crunches (10-15 reps)

Back Hyper extensions (10-15 reps)

Repeat 3 times

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