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. 

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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. 

Half Assed Results

If you half ass your fitness🏋🏼‍♀️ routine, you can’t expect spectacular results. 

But how can you realistically fit a workout into days that are already jam packed?

Here’s my Top 3 Tips for Crushing Your Workouts 🏋️‍♂️ When You’re Busy AF:

1. Plan. Take time on a Sunday night to plan out your week, including when your workouts can fit into your schedule. Then book mark that time in your calendar 🗓 like you would an appointment to the doctor. You won’t cancel an important appointment, so don’t cancel on yourself.

2. Be realistic. How many days a week are you working out RN? How many days do you WANT to workout 🏋🏼‍♀️? Don’t jump to your most ideal goal, make incremental changes so you can adjust to the new normal without losing your sanity.

3. Have a back up. When you do Step 1, include what workouts you WANT to do during those times. It makes transitioning into the workout faster because it takes out the thinking. And then have a back up workout in case shit hits the fan and you don’t have as much time as you intended.

Make the Change

I had to make a change because I was over having to suck in my tummy ALL THE DAMN TIME. Seriously. My abs hurt 😔 .

I didn’t feel like I was asking a lot to feel comfortable in my own clothes. Much less my own skin.

But dang girl, how do you even take accountability for your health when you’re responsible for EVERYONE AROUND YOU and that To Do List isn’t getting any shorter?

Here’s my Top 3 Easy Changes to Start A Healthful Life NOW:

1. I was realistic with my time. We all have demands on our time that can’t be changed. Don’t put extra pressure on yourself to workout 🏋️‍♀️ on a day when you know it realistically won’t happen.

2. I checked my portions. I’m not one to cut out anything unless it’s due to a medical necessity like an allergy (I mean we only get one life, so I’m gonna eat the chocolate 🍫 and drink the wine 🍷), but life is best lived in moderation so I had to learn how to cut myself off of the things I adored. (Extra PRO TIP: portion out your snacks or meals and then put everything away. That extra level of effort to get more will have you thinking 🤔 twice before you do it).

3. I increased my water intake. Most of us live in a state of dehydration without even realizing it, making us feel sluggish or hungry when we’re truly not, so I invested in an awesome reusable water bottle that I could cover with stickers and I take it with me everywhere. That way I have no reason to NOT drink water.

Discipline Carries You

Discipline carries you when motivation fails you. 

We all hit points in our workout when we would rather be doing anything else EXCEPT what we’re doing. Like peace ✌️ out, I’m gonna go work on my taxes because this workout is HARD. That’s not a bad thing though. Pushing yourself and expanding your comfort zone is a good thing.

But that distraction is to be expected. Maintaining that warrior motivation for a long duration on a workout that has you questioning your life choices is tough. It won’t always go smoothly and it takes a ton of time and practice. 

It’s those moments of sheer struggle where your discipline to show up for yourself kicks in. It doesn’t mean the workout will be the most kick ass thing on the face of the planet, but it does mean you’ll continue to do the work to the best of your ability.

Don’t doubt yourself, don’t doubt your process, rely on the habits you’re already creating to get you through. 

Worth It

Aren’t you worth more than easy?

Choosing to live a healthy lifestyle isn’t easy in the beginning. Making those changes to ensure that you’re doing what’s best for Y O U R well being is actually scary AF at first and kinda difficult.

You’ve gotten used to the life that you have. Your normal is YOUR normal after all and it provides a space of comfort. It’s familiar to you, and familiarity is a hard thing to break through because change is scary. Even just the anticipation of changing can be scary.

Even though you’re living in this space of normal, you know that it’s not good for you. You know that you deserve better and that being healthy in the long run will be the best thing you can do for yourself. But even though you know that, the prospect of changing is scary af. You’re venturing into unchartered territory and since you don’t know what that will look like, the thought of venturing into that space is scary.

But you’re worth it. You’re worth the effort, you’re worth the frustration and you are definitely worth the result.

Don’t feel like this is a process you have to go through alone. Go through it with support, with guidance and it’ll make the process of changing that much easier.

Be Brave

I want you to get brave and curious about your strength. 

We are so quick to tell ourselves that we can’t do something. Really, we’re normally the first ones to doubt ourselves, to convince ourselves that quitting is OK because we wouldn’t have been able to do it anyways and to just plain give up.

When I got hurt, I had two roads in front of me. The one where I doubted myself and my capabilities constantly or the one where I said Fuck it and just tried anyways. It doesn’t mean I didn’t fail, oh girl I have failed and in spectacular fashion, but I’ve tried. 

Failing didn’t mean that I beat myself up about not being successful.

Failing meant I had the opportunity to see where my limitations lie and how I could get past it. It just showed me what edges could get expanded on and what I could change.

When I let go of those thoughts of failing, I could see my strength for where it was really at as well as where it could go. It made me curious to see where I could take things and where I could grow.

How strong are you REALLY? Have you ever even thought about it? If you stopped putting limitations on yourself, how strong could you become and what could you be truly capable of doing?

Bye Bye Distractions

If you’re gonna take time to workout you gotta tell all those distractions to step back. 

We all have the distractions. Those things that pull us from every angle, be them in our mind or our environment. Wow 😳 sacrificing a workout comes so easily when a distraction gets in the way. 

How do I mitigate the distractions?

Here’s My Top 3 Ways:

1. I put my phone on do not disturb and then I put it in a different area from where I’m working out 🏋🏼‍♀️. Because if it’s just on silent, I’ll hear the vibration of a call or text come through. Not to worry though: the people who are saved in your favorites are the only calls that can pass through the do not disturb setting. So you won’t have to worry about missing an emergency.

2. I make sure my distractions are set up with their OWN distractions. Dogs 🐶 with bones, kiddo with something that can keep her busy, you know the things that will keep those physical distractions at bay even if it’s not for the longest period of time. Use them.

3. I tidy up 🧹 before I workout. One of my biggest distractions is seeing clutter in my space or something that needs to be cleaned 🧼 when I go to workout. So I make sure I either workout in a completely different room or I give myself 5 minutes (with a timer so I don’t get distracted) to get it organized before I get going.

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Be Intentional

If you want to have a physical transformation, you have to be intentional about your effort.

You can’t expect to wing it and get the results you’ve been looking for. It’s just reality. Half assed efforts will only yield you half assed results.

I know though, it’s hard AF to be intentional when you have 6 million things you have to do J U S T TODAY, and it feels like everyone around you is pulling you in a different direction.

Like how am I supposed to even keep track of the workouts I’m doing when I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast 🥞? The prospect of even adding onto your already crazy schedule seems insane. 

I know that while I was building my routine for my fitness game and I was actively losing weight, I had to write down what I needed to do. Like what workouts were going to happen on what day and what my back up workouts were just in case everything went to shit. Writing it down helped to reinforce the habits I was creating and it also took the mental pain of remembering what I needed to do out of the equation. 

Grab the calendar below to plan and keep track of all your workouts 🏋️‍♀️ , so you can be intentional and get the results you deserve.

You'll Never Be Ready

If you waited until you were ready it would never happen. Your life will always be busy, your plate will always be full, and there will always be entities in your life demanding of your time and energy.

If we know nothing else for certain, we know that.

Change takes a leap of faith. But not in the way you’re thinking.

This is a leap in faith in YOUR ability to make your workouts work in YOUR life and your schedule. I know it’s the easy answer to tell you that you’ll just figure it out, when the reality of figuring out is super daunting.

But at the end of the day, if you want to see that healthy living change, where living to your best ability means regular workouts and solid nutrition, you will figure it out. Maybe it means HIIT workouts so your workouts aren’t as long, maybe it means being realistic with how many days you can workout, and maybe it means incorporating in some meal prep so you’re not as stressed about grabbing healthy food.

Whatever the solutions are for you to get all these things under control, it’s going to have to happen when you’re not ready. It’s going to have to happen when life is busy and crazy and chaotic. It’s going to happen before your schedule is ready. But it is going to happen when YOU are ready. When the prospect of NOT changing is worse than the prospect of changing, feeling better, and being healthier.

My best advice to you? If you know you need to start before you feel like things are perfect and the planets have aligned, ask for support. Let other people know that what’s going on with you. That doesn’t mean you need to spill your guts and tell them that deep down embarrassing goal, you can keep that to yourself, but you do need to tell at least one person what you’re going to be doing.

Have that person hold you accountable, love you and support you. Then the pivot won’t seem so daunting because you know you’ll have someone in your corner who will love you through it.

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No Limits

Your imagination creates your limitations. I’ve been in this industry long enough to see the power your own thoughts have over your fitness capabilities. When we find something threatening or intimidating, because it looks hard or maybe a little crazy, we’re the first ones to doubt our own strength. We’re the first ones to say “Nope. I CAN’T do that.” Not “I won’t”, but “I CAN’T.” 

Ooo the amount of times I’ve heard “I can’t” or some variation of that…mostly “she’s crazy, why would she have me do that?!”

The rational part of me wonders how you know you can’t do something if you’ve never attempted it before. Just sayin.

Mental roadblocks are our own biggest enemy with fitness. We get in our own way without even realizing there is literally NO way to fail at this as long as you are trying. 

But the coach in me knows that when you’re asked to go heavier on a weight, or do a more complex exercise, you let that imagination take over and you automatically think your body isn’t capable.

You’re scared. I get it. I’ve had those moments too with certain in my fitness journey.

I want to PUSH that line of thinking as your coach. Mostly because I would NEVER give you something you weren’t capable of doing, but I also know the power in being able to accomplish that hard af thing.

Sure, taking on something new can be frustrating at first, but holy shit that moment of sweetness once you conquer it is worth ALL the anguish. Having that internal reinforcement that you are stronger than what you thought, more capable than what you thought, and that you can do HARD things…no one can take that from you.

Try the hard thing. Take it in steps, break it down, make it accessible and then conquer it. Show yourself how strong and capable you truly are.