During the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, I started offering live online HIIT workouts. From March to June 2020, I ran these session for free, to help people with both their physical and mental health.
Since July 2020, I now offer 4 live online group workouts every week, which you can join either via Zoom or Facebook, together with:
- 24/7 unlimited access to On Demand workouts including:
- HIIT
- recovery stretch sessions
- aerobic dance workouts
- dumbbell resisted workouts.
- EXPRESS workouts that are only 15-20 minutes for when you need something shorter to fit into your day.
- membership of a private Facebook group where the live workouts are available to watch at any time after they have been streamed live.
The DCS Monthly Pass is £40,
but if you subscribe to the Monthly Pass and pay for each coming month by the 25th, it costs £36 a month.
A typical online session would last about 45 minutes, starting with a gentle warm-up. Then we go into combinations of exercise where you work hard for a short period and then have a shorter rest. The exercise and rest patterns are repeated 3 or 4 times before you have a minute’s rest, whilst I demonstrate the next exercises.
For each exercise, there are different levels of difficulty and you pick the level you work at. There is always a low impact option for people who need to be careful or who are new to exercise or who may be less mobile and unable to get up and down from the floor easily.
Every session finishes with a series of cool down stretches.
You don’t need any gym equipment for the online workouts although you may want an exercise mat if you are working outside or for floor work. For some of the low impact exercises, you may also need a raised surface – a chair or countertop are fine. There are “resisted workouts” which require an external resistance to work against, normally dumbbells. If you don’t own any dumbbells, you can use alternatives you may find round the house, such as tinned food or refilled bottles/cartons. Just make sure what ever you chose you can hold in one hand and is safe.
The live workouts are broadcast using Zoom and Facebook so you will need a smartphone or a tablet or a computer in order to see the workout.
John joined my online workouts during lockdown and has consistently attended the live sessions ever since – this is his transformation, which I’m sure you’ll agree is amazing.
Here’s what John has to say:
“I’ve never been one to go to the gym and always had a good excuse for it, too busy at work, cannot justify month subscriptions, not wanting to embarrass myself by going to a gym full of the young and beautiful (I am now 56 years old!).
When I retired in November 2019 I had lots of ideas to get myself fit, but never really got going and then Covid hit! As we all know this meant everyone was in lockdown, so another excuse for not getting myself fit. However, my daughter pointed me in the direction of DCS Health and Fitness HIIT sessions.
“I’ve never been one to go to the gym and always had a good excuse for it, too busy at work, cannot justify month subscriptions, not wanting to embarrass myself by going to a gym full of the young and beautiful (I am now 56 years old!).
When I retired in November 2019 I had lots of ideas to get myself fit, but never really got going and then Covid hit! As we all know this meant everyone was in lockdown, so another excuse for not getting myself fit. However, my daughter pointed me in the direction of DCS Health and Fitness HIIT sessions.
Initially I was really worried that I was not fit enough to do HIIT sessions, but thought that I give them a go as I had no good excuses. I was relieved to find out that Darren accommodated for starters and those of a more mature years by doing 3 levels of exercise from low impact (starters or injuries) to extreme (for the young fit ones!). I initially started off on level one, but have now worked my way up to level two and sometimes even level three!
I have found the online capability to be great as I can participate with a group while being in the comfort of my own home (especially handy with Covid restrictions) and without having to travel. I can even do a session later as Darren recorded them and makes them available online. Now that I have been doing the sessions regularly for several months my friends and family are noticing a different in my body shape, with me losing my pot belly (middle age spread) and even my guy mates commented on it during a recent golfing weekend. Surprising cause guys never notice these things and if they do they don’t usually say.
Participating in Darren’s regular HIIT session has gotten me info a fitness regime that I always wanted to do but always had an excuse not to do and I feel great as a result.
Thank you Darren, keep up the great work. Cheers John”
Would you like to try a workout for FREE?
Then CLICK HERE
MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION
£45 per month*
If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer, please use the following bank details:
Bank: HSBC
Account name: Darren Steward
Account number: 31355627
Sort code: 40-47-19
*Payment will be taken around the end of the month for the coming calendar month. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by emailing subscriptions@dcshealthandfitness.co.uk
No refunds will be given for any month if you have been issued with your Monthly Pass and Password
What sort of exercises are in the live workouts?
Each workout will have a specific focus on a particular aspect of fitness. These can be categorised into Strength, Cardio Vascular, Metabolic and Mobility.
Whilst all workouts will help you burn calories towards any weight loss or maintenance goals you may find the different types of exercises used challenging in different ways.
STRENGTH
CONDITIONING
Using either your own body weight or external loads, such as dumbbells, these sessions will challenge your muscles.
You may not feel so out of breath with these, but you should “feel the burn” in the parts of the body being focused on.
CARDIO VASCULAR CONDITIONING
Faster paced, continuous, full body movements will help to elevate your heart rate as the demand for oxygen increases.
This is great for burning calories during the session and is also central to improve heart health.
METABOLIC CONDITIONING
This is a combination of resistance and cardio vascular work. In these sessions we will most likely utilise forms of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to burn plenty of calories both during and after the workout.
You can read about the benefits of HIIT here
For our 40/20 workouts, after the warm up, you do
40 seconds exercise
20 seconds rest
40 seconds exercise
20 seconds rest
40 seconds exercise
1 minutes rest whilst I demonstrate the next exercise
For each exercise, there are 3 different levels of difficulty and you pick the level you work at. You can choose different levels for different exercises and if during a set of exercises you are finding it difficult to maintain the level you move down a level.
There’s also an EXTREME version for each level. This is where you continue to work through the 20 seconds rest – so you are effectively exercising for nearly 3 minutes before resting.
We finish each session with a series of cool down stretches.
With the 30/15 workouts, we use ‘supersets’. Each superset is made up of Exercise A and Exercise B. There are two levels for each exercise, one of which is low impact.
After the warm up, you do
Exercise A for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
Exercise B for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
Exercise A for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
Exercise B for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
Exercise A for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
Exercise B for 30 seconds
15 seconds rest
1 minutes rest whilst I demonstrate the next exercise
We finish each session with a series of cool down stretches.
Similar to the 30/15 work out, but shorter exercise times and rests. Each superset is made up of Exercise A and Exercise B. There are two levels for each exercise, one of which is low impact.
After the warm up, you do
Exercise A for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise B for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise A for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise B for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise A for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise B for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise A for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Exercise B for 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
1 minutes rest whilst I demonstrate the next exercise
We finish each session with a series of cool down stretches.
TIMETABLE
On Demand HIIT workouts via website:
40/20, 30/15 and 20/10
These will change each Sunday
Each day’s Catch Up HIIT workout on Facebook will be the same combo as the previous Live workout.
LIVE HIIT WORKOUTS
| Date | Day | Time | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd June | Wednesday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 40/20 |
| 4th June | Friday | 10:00 am | 20/10 |
| 5th June | Saturday | 11:00 am | 40/20 |
| 7th June | Monday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 20/10 |
| 9th June | Wednesday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 40/20 |
| 11th June | Friday | 10:00 am | 30/15 |
| 12th June | Saturday | 11:00 am | 40/20 |
| 14th June | Monday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 30/15 |
| 16th June | Wednesday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 40/20 |
| 18th June | Friday | 10:00 am | 20/10 |
| 19th June | Saturday | 11:00 am | 40/20 |
| 21st June | Monday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 20/10 |
| 23rd June | Wednesday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 40/20 |
| 25th June | Friday | 10:00 am | 30/15 |
| 26th June | Saturday | 11:00 am | 40/20 |
| 28th June | Monday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 30/15 |
| 30th June | Wednesday | 10:00 am & 5:30 pm | 40/20 |
See what people say about Darren's Online Workouts
The Benefits of HIIT
You burn calories quickly
HIIT may help you burn more calories than traditional exercises. Or you may burn the same amount of calories but in a shorter time.
Your metabolic rate remains high after exercise
Because of the intensity of a HIIT workout, your metabolism can remain elevated for hours after the session resultng in additional calories being burned after you have finished exercising.
It can help you lose fat
HIIT can produce a similar fat loss to traditional types of endurance exercises, but will take up less of your time. HITT van also help reduce unhealthy visceral fat - the body fat stored in the abdominal cavity.
It may help you gain muscle
HIIT can help to increase muscle mass for people who are not very active, but not as much as if they were to do weight training.
It may help improve oxygen consumption
Oxygen consumption relates to your muscles' ability to use oxygen. HIIT can produce the same sort of improvement in oxygen consumption as traditional endurance exercises such as running and cycling, but in a shorter time frame.
It may help reduce blood pressure and heart rate
HIIT may help with blood pressure and heart rate, mainly in overweight or obese people with high blood pressure.
It may help reduce blood sugar
Studies have shown that HIIT can help reduce blood sugar and improve insulin resistance more than traditional continuous exercise. The effects have been seen in both diabetic and healthy people.
More detailed information on the benefits of HIIT and the research can be found here.
