Perhaps you’ve already implemented all kinds of interval training into your classes in hopes of helping your participants achieve greater fitness goals in a hurry. Maybe you are already using timing apps, speed drills, intensity cues, and every proven method of interval training that the formats you currently teach allow.
Perhaps not, either way you have likely heard the term HIIT, an acronym for High Intensity Interval Training.
Class formats offering HIIT are doing very well all over the world and there are LOTS of them out there to choose from. For the most part, interval training classes feature high intensity interval training exercises like plyometric work- think “tuck jumps”, agility drills like running through the agility ladder in a certain pattern or speed work like doing as many high knees as you can do in thirty seconds, coupled with lower intensity intervals like standing lunges. The work-to-rest ratio varies with each format and depends on what type of interval is being executed.
No matter which type of HIIT class you are teaching, you can add some fun, function and flexibility by utilizing the “original” form of interval training: DANCE! No wait -Don’t stop reading…even if you just thought to yourself “I can’t dance”, keep reading it will be worth it!
Add some fun, function and flexibility to your next HIIT class!
HIIT in Dance Classes
Dance is the same thing as walking in all different directions to the beat of the music. I’m serious, if you can walk, you can dance.
Try this pattern.
- Walk Forward:
- Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Tap your left foot next to your right foot
- Walk Backward:
- Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Tap your right foot next to your left foot
If you do this pattern to music and sort of on the beat, you will be DANCING!
Now try it traveling to your right and left, also known as a Grapevine:
- Step out to the right with your right foot,
- Cross your left foot behind you still moving to the right
- Step out to the right with your right foot again
- Tap your left foot next to your right
Try the same pattern to the left!
If you put these two patterns together moving front, back, right and left, you will have a Whole 32-Count Dance interval!
You can determine how intense you will make the interval by speeding up or slowing down the music, adding big arm movements, hops or jumps. You can repeat the same dance interval alternating it with other types of interval training and add a little more fun, function and flexibility to your HIIT classes!
For a GREAT program that is truly a complete guide to interval training including strength, cardio, agility, speed, Tabata timing AND dance intervals suitable for anyone (remember it’s just walking!!), check out LTS LeHIIT by the incomparable Sharon Mann (www.lebertfitness.com).
