Showing posts with label HIIT. Show all posts
Ok so once again I am extremely late to the game, but at dinner the other night everyone was talking about yoga and I was like "am I really the last one in the world to not try yoga?" The answer is yes and the reason is that yoga is freaking amazing. I am really bad about stretching, and yoga is like forced stretching + strength building. I did yoga twice this week after HIIT workouts and my lower back pain and hamstring tightness are essentially non-existent. My goal for this week is to follow every HIIT routine with at least 20 minutes of yoga. I'm not flexible at all so I do the moves the best I can and still feel great.  Anyone have good yoga resources to share?


This HIIT workout was killer. I don't have a kettlebell so I just used my 5-lb dumbbells and it was fine. By fine I mean I thought I was going to suffocate and die at minute 7 but that's a personal problem.



Also finally started using FitnessBlender.com where they have these helpful graphics with each video, as well as a description and why the workout works. Click here for more info on this kettlebell workout.


I followed this workout with one of Melissa Bender's yoga flows here:



Ok and can we just talk about this? Like what? Will I be able to comfortably do that someday?-->


Do you do yoga? Why or why not? What are your favorite yoga videos/classes/types of yoga?

Linking up today at #WOWLinkUp, Weigh In Wednesday, and The Humpday Blog Hop. Check them out for some awesome health and fitness inspiration !

Wednesday Workout: HIIT and Yoga

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

So I've found a new youtube fitness instructor to add to the list: Christine Salus has 50 workout videos up on youtube including HIITs, body-part-specific HIITs, and low intensity workouts. The moves she uses mix it up a lot compared to the videos I've gotten used to so I really enjoyed (and almost died from) this workout! Check it out below:


Curious about the benefits of HIIT (aka High Intensity Interval Training)? Here's a quick recap of a previous post on High Intensity Interval Training:
  • While HIIT workouts feel like hell, after 2 weeks of consistent (3xweek) HIIT workouts, a study by American College of Sports and Medicine found one's aerobic capacity will see the same improvement as 8 weeks of endurance training.  Other studies found the same aerobic results for subjects who completed 60 minutes of HIIT each week vs. subjects who completed 160 minutes of treadmill workouts each week.
  • You are supposed to feel like you are dying a slow death by suffocation. This lack of oxygen is essentially putting your body in "oxygen debt" and your body stays burning cals for up to 24 hours (YES 24 HOURS) afterwards trying to "repay" this "debt", i.e. speeding up our metabolism. 
  • HIIT increases your HGH release, meaning these workouts are slowing the aging process (yeah y'all), and helping your body build lean muscle mass (unlike running and similar cardio workouts)
  • HIIT makes your metabolism adapt in a way that uses fat as fuel. Fat. As. Fuel. I'd like to go ahead and sacrifice my saddlebags for fuel...
  • Unlike running
  • Oh yeah, and it's 100% free. You don't need a gym, equipment, or space to do HIIT .I do it in the tiny space between my bed and wall.
Here is some reading on HIIT
Shape's The Research Approved 20 Minute HIIT Workout
Huffington Post: HIIT is the Hottest Workout Trend for 2014- what it is and how it works
Men's Fitness: Everything You Need to Know About Interval Training

HIIT Refresher from MensFitness (visit their site for more cool infographs!)




Video for the day:




Link Ups for today:


The Hump Day Blog Hop
”Femme
Daily Dose of Del Signore

Wednesday Workout: New HIIT

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Happy New Year!!! Let's start this ish off right!

Look I love my friends, and I love going to their weddings, and I love when they have weddings in Jamaica. Do you know what I don't love about this? The fact that the wedding is exactly two weeks after my 2 months-long-Food-and-Booze-Binge-Season, also known as the holidays. So, I'm super pumped about a week long vacation to Jamaica but not super excited about jiggling all over the beach, my thighs flapping in the wind as I stomp across the sand. So these next two weeks are no joke- strictly eating clean, no booze (ok ok LOL we all know that's not happening but cutting back maybe?) and daily exercising. Today's workout: 2 HIIT videos followed by an arm workout. Let's GO!















Sidenote: Can we just talk about this move? WHY DOES IT HURT SO BAD?
”0001dV”
ALSO I'm linking up again with Femme Fatale Fit Club- check them out! Their workout today is a good guide to working out at a gym!

Femme Fitale Fit Club

Wednesday Workout: 2 HIITS + Arms and Back

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

It's as bad as it sounds, I was actually cursing Melissa out during this one (out loud, I know) but really no other exercise works the body as hard as burpees- I've even heard these urban legends of women who had to QUIT EXERCISING before their wedding because they were just too burpee-buff for their strapless wedding gown. Clearly since I max out after this 19 minute workout, I may end up with half of that problem which is awesome.

This 19 minute workout is killer but feels so good at the end! How do you feel about burpees??

I found this solid how-to burpee visual from joshuaspodek.com which is totally necessary since when I am burpeeing I'm like this is too hard, there is no way I'm doing this right. Nope. It's right, it just really really sucks. 

Sidenote: am I burning more calories since I'm crying while burpeeing?



P.S. I'm linking up with an awesome blog I've been following for challenges and lots of motivation! Shoutout to FemmeFatalFitClub for creating a positive and inspiring fitness community! Go check her out!



Femme Fitale Fit Club

Wednesday Workout: Burpee Burnout

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

YALL, I have a new girl crush because omggg just look at her blog- 425+ VIDEOS! And her! Those arms! This website is packed with hundreds of HIIT, Intervals,Yoga workouts, monthly plans...basically everything I've said "man I just want to find a website that does ______" is on this site.

While I don't necessarily want to be as muscular as she is in this pic I figure with my level of motivation and my dependence on nightly cocktails I'll be lucky to get myself halfway to Melissa's Bikini Body and I'll be happy with that. I also like her view on fitness and health, this one quote from her "About Me" section has really stuck with me this week: "By caring for your body and maintaining a healthy lifestyle you help shape the quality of your future. In my field I often see that strength and flexibility can mean the difference between a person returning home to live alone, or requiring long term care. It's time to stop remediating problems, and start preventing them."

So today I did these two videos back-to-back and I was hurrrtttinnggg..Her moves are different from the ones I'm used to with Mr. Shut Up and Train, Blogilates and Fitness Blender and it was nice (and hard) to switch it up!

Sidenote: She has her husband video tape her and I think his comments are adorable/hilarious/a little creepy. Wait unless that's not her husband and it's just a cameraman, then it's real creepy.


Wednesday Workout {Site of 450+ At Home Workouts}

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I feel like I'm cheating on FitnessBlender and Blogilates, but I really needed a change of pace. While I like how peaceful the FitnessBlender guy's voice-over is, I am starting to have nightmares of that monotone voice forcing me to do burpees until I die.

So this was great to change things up a little with different exercises and different routines, and I'd also like to mention that I plan to try their "Skinny Jean Swag" video later this week...

Their customers pay $50/month to get unlimited access to the videos, so these appear to be legit workouts!

Sidenote- doesn't that butt blaster just look like a dirty dance move? For about 4 seconds I was like "ew this man is disgusting he just wants to watch their butts" until my glutes immediately lit on fire. It does work!

Wednesday Workout {33 minutes to death with D180 Fitness}

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

http://christinambove.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/crossfit-turkey.jpg
image from http://christinambove.com/thanksgiving-nutrition-and-fitness-tips

I'm posting this a day early so everyone can do this workout with me tomorrow (Thanksgiving Eve), before the biggest cheat day of the year, no matter what time you work out. I chose this super-tough HIIT because after HIITing, your body repair cycle goes into major overdrive and stays burning calories for 24 hours after the workout.

I also included the playlist from last week's Wednesday Workout- it's over 90 minutes of hype music, so even though I used it for last week's workout, I can fast forward to about 30 minutes into the mix and still have new music and enough playlist left to do the full hour (and 1000 calories). You can play it from this page or go to the soundcloud website (linked).





Wednesday Workout {Thanksgiving Day Eve BURN with a motivational PLAYLIST}

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

I'm 6 weeks out from my second half marathon, and to prep for this one I'm doing a combination of HIIT workouts with long runs and really focusing on building strength. Today I did one of Fitness Blender's Tabata workouts (surprise!). Sidenote: now that I'm regularly working out hard and doing long runs I have been soooo hungry, but I don't remember until it's 9 a.m. and my stomach is growling and I have still packed the same usual amount of snacks. Ugh, first world problems right? Anyway this building rotates between Tabata cardio and strength. Feels so good at the end!

Wednesday Workout {45 minute}

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

This. Was. Killer. But it felt good to get to the end. This HIIT Ladder from Fitness Blender includes a 3 minute warm up (by minute 3 I was like THIS is a warm up??) and 17 minutes of a HIIT Ladder- you start with 4 exercises for 60 seconds each followed by a break, then each exercise for 50 seconds each, break, each exercise for 40 seconds each, break and so on. Trust me, it feels so good at the end. Everything was burning which made the abs challenge incredibly difficult. Click "read more" to see the videos and arm tutorial (click "read full post" to see arms and abs):
Fitness Blender's Brutal HIIT Ladder: (20 mins)
 

Wednesday {40 minute} Workout

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Today I did Fitness Blender's 30 minute workout that combines intervals of 2 minute tabata routines (20 seconds of super high intensity, 10 seconds off) with 50 second ab routines. Let me just say something about Tabata- it was invented in the 70's for Japanese Olympic athletes to stay in the best shape possible.  Beyonce body here I come! I followed the video with a simple arm workout- I've let my upper-body go over the last month, so I'm kind of trying to ease back into the 30-push-up status I used to have by following Ms. Skinny's Summer Arm Challenge for the next week.

Sidenote: I like this video workout because the exercises are easy to modify into an easier or harder workout. I also like that I didn't spend the whole time dreading an arm AND ab workout after... glass is always half full right?

Tabata + Ab video:



Simple Arm Workout (simple meaning I did it while watching a TiVo'd episode of Four Weddings):
15 tricep dips
rest 20 seconds
20 bicep curls
rest 20 seconds
15 tricep extensions
Rest 20 seconds
Repeat this 3 times.

Wednesday Workout

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Unfortunately happy hours have really jammed up my workout schedule this summer. Actually it's not unfortunate, I've had a great summer and now it's time to get back in shape and get training for my second half marathon! Training starts in a few weeks but my goal is to not hate my life so much this time around, i.e. I need to get into some shape before I start training. Here is my 40 minute workout from yesterday:

Fitness Blender's HIIT Like a Girl : This is a good workout for trying to get back into shape- not super hard but not beginner. It's straight High Intensity Interval Training for 22 minutes and doesn't include warm up, cool down or stretching. I counted the next videos as a "cool down" and did some stretching at the end. I also miraculously had energy during the last move so switched it up to monkey jumps.




Blogilates POP Pilates Upper Body Workout (Arms, Shoulders, Chest): Spider pushups- what is that?!??! But hey, it's 10 minutes and I want Michelle Obama arms so let's go.



Blogilates ROAR Ab Challenge: I love Blogilates. I love Katy Perry (I know, I know). I love dancing while I work out. Really just get into it and it's great. 


And that's it! I made sure to stretch afterwards because my favorite excuse to not exercise the next day is "I'm too sore I can't!". I made sure to hit my lower back, calves, and quads. I hold each of these for about 30 seconds:
Get those glutes! Photo credit: www.irclinic.com.au



Quads. Photo credit: www.teachpe.com

Calves. Photo Credit. exercise.about.com

Lower back. Photo Credit: kristinmcgee.com

Wednesday Workout

Thursday, September 12, 2013

HIIT workouts allow you to keep muscle so you can look more like Lady Gaga (yes please) and not twiggy and ano like Miley (no thank you). Sidenote: Lady Gaga's body is my new fitspiration.. Double sidenote: can we discuss how much her body changes?? Who is her trainer and how do I get in touch?

My most common excuse for not working out is that I'm too busy, especially in the summer (so many rooftop happy hours, so little time!). But now that HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) has stepped into the spotlight, even university research studies are telling me that "too little time" isn't a valid excuse. Doing HIIT for 15-20 minutes three times each week yields better cardiovascular and muscle-building results than 60 minutes of jogging each day. Clearly this sounds too good to be true so I did some deep digging and here's what I found (most of this info came from Shape Magazine, Men's Health, and a research study from American College of Sports Medicine):
  • While this is 15-20 minutes of hell, after 2 weeks of consistent (3xweek) HIIT workouts, a study by American College of Sports and Medicine says your aerobic capacity will see the same improvement as 8 weeks of endurance training (!!!). Another study I read showed the same aerobic results for subjects after 60 minutes of HIIT each week vs. 160 minutes of treadmill workouts each week. Suddenly 15 minutes doesn't seem so bad...
  • You are supposed to feel like you are dying a slow death by suffocation. This lack of oxygen is essentially putting your body in "oxygen debt" and your body stays burning cals for 24 hours (YES 24 HOURS) afterwards trying to "repay" this "debt", i.e. speeding up our metabolism. Sidenote: This reminds me of when I was in middle school and my fiends and I decided that fat and calories must not count after you work out so I would come home from a run and binge eat Gushers and Dunkaroos because it "didn't count". I was real dumb back then which is probably why I research everything in depth now before I do it.
  • HIIT increases your HGH release by 450%, meaning those 15 minutes a day are slowing the aging process (yeah y'all)
  • HIIT makes your metabolism adapt in a way that uses fat as fuel. Fat. As. Fuel. I'd like to go ahead and sacrifice my saddlebags for fuel...
  • Oh yeah, and it's 100% free. You don't need a gym, equipment, or space to do HIIT .I do it in the tiny space between my bed and wall.
Here is what HIIT looks like: 1 minute of torture (squat jumps, high knees, burpees, etc) in which you are working so hard you shouldn't be able to talk (my favorite class instructor at the Y used to say 'if you can sing right now you're not working hard enough!') followed by 1 minute of rest. This minute of rest is important! When I first started I was like "I'm hard core I don't need rest!" but the rest is important- it's allowing your body to replenish the anaerobic part and then shocking your body when you start up again. Then another minute of torture, another minute of rest and so on.

Fitness Blender has great free Youtube videos. I recommend switching up the videos because when I know what to expect (please no, not the burpees please no) I have a hard time staying motivated. Here are a few of my favs:

For beginners


More advanced:












Check out Fitness Blender's youtube channel for more workouts







Why HIIT? Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training

Friday, August 30, 2013


Let me start by saying that my goal in doing this 30 Day Challenge was to be able to do 15 pushups by the end (and lose approximately 100 lbs but whatever), and by the 30th day I could do 30 (YES THREE - ZERO) traveling pushups before I had to give myself a break and get on my knees.

Mr. Shut Up and Train is as scary and insane as it sounds. And it's free. When I did the 30 day challenge combined with clean eating I actually noticed results, and felt guilty when I skipped a day because this man is so intense that I think he knows when I skip. Which is weird that I think that...clearly I have weird attachments to my youtube workout buddies. But anyway he posts for each day and a food challenge. It's great. You also do a weekly baseline assessment so you can actually see your progress which is really motivating! So check it out, be sore, and enjoy the No Gym Lifestyle. Mr. Shut Up and Train 30 Day Challenge

Mr. Shut Up and Train

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

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