STORY TIME
The Bigger Impact of Fitness
Nothing drives me crazier than hearing a client talk about some insane 60 day program they’re going to do just to see them burn out, stop, and then lose all of their progress.
Aerobic exercise creates neuron generation which reduces the risk of dementia and increases cognitive performance.
That makes me sound fancy af.
But it’s true.
The workouts that you’re doing DO more for you than just giving you an instantaneous 6 pack. They improve the quality of your life.
That’s why your workouts can’t be a temporary solution. They have to be a part of your life. They have to grow and change with you. They need to be flexible with your crazy schedule, with your goals, and with your LIFE.
Nothing drives me crazier than hearing a client talk about some insane 60 day program they’re going to do just to see them burn out, stop, and then lose all of their progress.
That’s not the realistic approach to health and wellness.
It needs to be imperfect, it needs to be messy, and it needs to be forever changing.
Because that’s who we are. Imperfectly perfect humans who are still learning what works the best for us in ever facet of our lives.
Humans who approach working out as a permanent part of our lives even if what we did yesterday isn’t the same as what we do tomorrow.
Humans who give ourselves grace and patience to show up for ourselves in the midst of all the other demands of our time.
Humans who understand that seeking the mirror results of a workout might matter but the life long impact of moving your body and taking care of yourself matters more.
Benchmark Workouts
Reality is that life won’t always go as planned and you could get into a benchmark workout day and fall short of where you were last month. That can lead to feeling frustrated and discouraged because you’re not where you THINK you should be.
Let’s talk benchmark workouts.
Do you know what they are? No?
No worries. Here’s a quick run down:
The purpose of a benchmark workout is to show you that you’re progressing on your workouts. Be it in strength or endurance, they’re the reinforcing factor you need to show you that you workouts are worth the time sacrifice in other areas of your life.
You need one for strength and one for endurance.
Think single rep max weight for strength
Think max rounds on an AMRAP for endurance
These are workouts you’ll do every other month.
Should you have one? Yes.
Should you be tracking it? Also yes. Like in a journal, writing it down, tracking it.
But here’s the thing…
A benchmark workout doesn’t mean you have to always be going for the PR.
Sure, PR’s are cool. You can definitely go for increases in weight or rounds.
I’m always here for those gains, but don’t negate other gains that matter just as much.
Reality is that life won’t always go as planned and you could get into a benchmark workout day and fall short of where you were last month. That can lead to feeling frustrated and discouraged because you’re not where you THINK you should be.
Be sure to focus on every aspect of the workout. Not just the number of weight, the number of rounds, or the number of reps. Maybe you find more depth on your squat, maybe you do those push ups from your toes, or maybe you do the chest to deck burpee.
All of it shows improvement. All of it shows strength. All of it shows that the time you’re taking for yourself is WORTH IT.
Here’s one of my benchmark workouts for rounds:
AMRAP
10 minutes
10 push ups
10 push press
10 reverse lunges
10 squats
How to Make HIIT Work
You get into the interval and you push super hard right from the start, gassing yourself out in the first 10ish seconds. That makes you want to take a break, and when you do that, you’re not utilizing the interval in the way it was intended.
How do I work a HIIT workout?
When I started getting certified to train people, I got certifications in the modalities of fitness that interested me. The first being CrossFit.
Back in the day, the components of CrossFit were unheard of to the majority of the population. The biggest of these being the utilization of HIIT in a workout routine.
Over the years, with the popularity of CrossFit and HIIT workouts growing, HIIT is one modality of fitness I train on a consistent basis.
It is also, arguably, the one that intimidates people the most. There’s hesitance to try it because it looks cool but also scary as hell, and the general thought of getting that uncomfortable during a workout doesn’t endear us to do the workout.
Buuutttt…while there’s great science behind its benefits, there’s also strategy behind how to start it.
Here’s what I notice:
If you’re new to it, it’s intimidating AF. You see those people making the burpees look easy and you’re like “well, that’ll never be me”.
That breathless feeling sucks. You either come to love it or hate it but there’s often no in between.
A lot of people train HIIT incorrectly. This is what I mean:
You get into the interval and you push super hard right from the start, gassing yourself out in the first 10ish seconds. That makes you want to take a break, and when you do that, you’re not utilizing the interval in the way it was intended.
HIIT work is not intended for you to break until the break is written in. You gotta earn that rest girl.
Here’s my Top 3 Tips for Pacing Yourself During a HIIT Workout for Optimal Results:
Find a comfortably uncomfortable pace. That’s the pace where you don’t feel like you need to take a break 15 seconds in but you do feel like you’re pushing your limits.
Choose the appropriate weights. Heavy enough to challenge you and not so light that you feel like you’re breezing through the work.
Take advantage of the rest. That’s why it’s written in. For you to use it to recover your breath and your heart rate so you can push just as hard on the next interval.
The Science Behind HIIT
I could do things I never thought I would be able to do, and never thought I would be able to do again after my injury. It helped restore my sense of self.
Why do HIIT workouts work?
When I first started going to a CrossFit box in 2007, I went because I wanted to prove to myself that I was still strong after my injury knocked me on my literal ass. After working out at an insane pace for so many years, just to land myself on bed rest, and then to be denied by the community I thought was my family, I was LOST. That’s putting it mildly. I was flailing.
I remember a friend telling me about this CrossFit concept of working out. Olympic lifting, hardcore interval training, body weight work, and gymnastic style exercises that could be done quickly.
It worked perfectly with my work schedule, but more importantly it worked perfectly with my heard. I needed a mindset reset so I could regain the confidence I lost, and also find a place where I felt like I belonged.
Back them, CrossFit and this HIIT style of workout was not a thing. There was ONE box in San Diego, in a not so safe neighborhood. But damn did I fall in love with it.
I loved being able to move heavy things. I loved being able to move quickly, I loved the community I was in, and mostly I loved the results I was getting.
I felt strong.
I could do things I never thought I would be able to do, and never thought I would be able to do again after my injury. It helped restore my sense of self.
But no one around me understood how I could get results from a workout that was 7 minutes long.
HIIT now is a trendy workout. CrossFit is trendy af.
People love it because they see the same results I saw all those years ago, but don’t quite understand the science behind it. My current clientele included.
Here’s a basic way to explain it:
You know when you workout, your heart rate increases. HIIT training exploits the increasing and decreasing of your heart rate as a means to build muscle and burn calories.
Think of it like this: you know in that HIIT workout when you get breathless and you feel like maybe you might just barf?
That’s your body going into an oxygen deficit.
When your workout is complete, your body is determined af to restore it pre-exercise state.
It does this through increasing your metabolic state. Increasing your metabolic state means you’re burning more calories. Burning more calories means you’re going to see better results.
Granted, this rate at which your body can restore its pre-exercise state is different for every body, it does work for every body.
The way to make this work more efficiently is to make sure you’re pairing your nutrition properly post workout. That way you can maximize the caloric burn post workout, seeing even better results.
