We all pretty much know the basic types of workouts that can be done, right? There’s cardio, weight lifting, high intensity, low intensity, body weight training, etc. But, are you familiar with the different workout formats that you can incorporate all these types of exercises in? I don’t know about you, but I get bored pretty easily doing the same thing all the time. I have my favorite go to exercises, however sometimes I need to change things up a bit to keep me motivated.
Sometimes all it takes is a change of format, not an entirely different workout to spark my motivation again. If you’re not already familiar with all different formats, keep reading. Some of you may have heard of and some you may not have, and some you might have heard of and thought “what in the world does that mean?”.
What are the Workout Formats
HIIT
Most people have probably at least heard of HIIT and many have even tried it. It stands for “high intensity interval training”. It basically just means that you use a timer and have set times that you alternate between exercise and rest. These times can vary, but you generally want to keep the exercise interval time short enough that you’re able to keep going at a high intensity with proper form throughout the designated time. Some examples are, intervals of 20 seconds of work alternating with 10 seconds of rest, or 30 seconds of work with 15 seconds of rest.
Most of us aren’t going to be able to keep up the intensity at greater than 45-60 second intervals of work, so it’s best to keep it under that. Also, the more time your exercise interval is, the more time your rest/recovery time should be. If you don’t give yourself enough time to recover then you’re not going to be able to finish the workout with high intensity. Besides picking your interval times, you’ll also need to decide how many intervals you’ll complete. Again, this should not be a large number. Start off with 8 intervals and go from there. The whole point of this type of workout is to put in a lot of effort for a short amount of time and still get great results.
Tabata
I think Tabata is less well known than HIIT, although it really is in the same category as HIIT. It’s the same type of workout. It just has a more specific timing and name because it is named after Dr. Izumi Tabata. He came up with this workout to further the performance of the Japanese speed skating team in the 1990’s. So, basically it’s the same as above, but it uses the 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest format. A Tabata set is 8 rounds and takes a total of 4 minutes to complete. You can do the same exercise for all 8 rounds or you can choose different ones, but the point is to fatigue the same muscles during the set, so don’t switch it up too much within a set.
You should feel significant muscle fatigue by the end. These could be body weight or cardio moves or even weighted exercises. Want some ideas? Check out some of the Tabata workouts that I’ve created for you. This continues to be one of my favorite formats that I’ve been doing for at least 10 years now.
EMOM
I’ll admit that I didn’t know what this stood for until a couple of years ago, and exercise is my thing. EMOM stands for “every minute on the minute”. So basically, you’ll choose a certain number of reps of an exercise to perform within each minute. Once you’ve completed that number the rest of that minute is for recovery. Starting on the next minute you do it all again. You continue this way until you’ve completed as many minutes/rounds as you had planned. That’s EMOM in it’s basic form.
If you want to make it a little more challenging, you can have a set of exercises that you have to complete within each minute. For example, 10 push-up, 10 squats and 5 burpees, and then recover for the remainder of the minute if you have time left. You could also add or subtract exercises in each successive minute. So many ways to change this format up and not get bored. Remember though, you should still have some recovery time within each interval or you’re doing too much. Most likely your workout will just turn into a moderate steady state or weight lifting workout which will not get you the same results. This format is also meant to be a high intensity type workout.
AMRAP
Ok, once again you’ll need a timer, but not an interval timer. AMRAP stands for “as many rounds as possible”. First you decide how many minutes your workout will be. If you haven’t tried this before, I’d say 10-12 minutes is a good starting point, Next you’ll choose your exercises and how many reps of each you’ll do. If you’re doing 10-12 minutes choose 4-5 exercises and no more than 10 reps each. Feel free to try one of my AMRAP workouts that I’ve created. There’s no resting intervals in this workout format, You just keep moving through your exercises, completing a set of each in a row over and over again until your time runs out. Trust me, you’ll be sweaty and your heart rate will be up by the end.
Just because there’s no build in recovery time doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to your body and rest as needed. Rest for short periods if your heart rate seems to get too high, you’re too short of breath or you start to lose proper form while completing the exercises. You can also perform the exercises with less intensity and still get a great workout. It keeps you from standing around and wasting time, so you can get it done and get on with your life.
Circuit
I think most people have heard of circuit training before. It’s been around for quite a while now. There were whole gyms based off these types of workouts. Maybe there still is. It’s a basic concept and easy to follow. You have a certain number of exercises that you plan to perform and a certain number of reps or amount of time that you’ll perform them for. You’ll do each exercise in the same order for a set amount of rounds and then you’ll be done with you’re workout.
The exercises could be all machine based, all body weight, all cardio, or all free weight exercises. You could also create a combination of different types of the above exercises. The possibilities are almost endless. This workout format usually involves a greater number of exercises than the formats above and takes longer than high intensity type workouts. It’s great for getting a comprehensive full body workout with lots of variety, but not the best if you’re short on time.
Ladder
No, I don’t mean that you have to have an exercise ladder (although that is one of my favorite pieces of equipment). The ladder format is comprised of a set number of exercises that you’ll complete in each round. Choose a handful of exercises that you want to include and how many reps you want to start with. An example of this would be, 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 rows, 10 bicep curls, and 10 dips. That would be your first round (first step on the ladder). During the second round you would complete each exercise 9 times. Each round afterwards (step on the ladder) would have one less rep for each exercise until you get to one rep of each for the finish.
This workout format is similar to AMRAP and Circuit because you just keep going without any set resting time, but of course you can rest when you need and you’re not going to run the clock out like you would in an AMRAP. You’ll be done when you finish all the sets, like in a circuit. This one is motivating because you know you are closer to the end when you have less reps of each exercise. And how awesome does it feel to only have one rep of each to finish up? But, that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park. It can still be tough and get the muscles working and heart rate going. This can also be done with cardio moves as well or a mixture of both.
Why You Should Try Different Formats
Have you tried all or some of these types of workout formats in the past? Do you use some of them now? If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend that you do. If you workout on a regular basis, it’s easy to get stuck in a routine and start losing motivation and/or stop seeing results. You don’t have to change your whole form of exercise to gain some motivation and results. It could be as simple as changing up the format using your most loved exercises (although I would change some of those from time to time too). Your brain and your body could use the change. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover your new favorite way to exercise and maybe even save some time in the process.
Let me know what you think, and if you want to chat about different workouts and how to make them work for you, comment below!
