Tag Archives: interval training

Fitness Challenge Week 8: HIIT, Tabata, and Semantics

Posted on by
8

Hellooo Blogosphere!

So after a week hiatus due to my obsession with the Olympics, the fitness challenges are back. Which brings me to the question…is it week 8 or week 9? I couldn’t decide, so here we are back at week 8….It’s almost as if we’ve gone back in time. I told you guys I would give you 12 weeks of these, and 12 weeks I shall give you, damn it.

Even if no one is doing them.

As you can see by the title of today’s post, this weeks challenge is a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout. It was originally going to be called a Tabata workout, but then I did some extremely scientific research, and had to slow my roll a little bit.

See, I’ve used the term Tabata on here before, and honestly this type of workout has became even trendier than leggings with crop-tops (seriously…can we leave that trend far, far behind?), but what I learned through my research is that most of what the fitness world calls “Tabata” workouts, are not exactly that.

What is Tabata?

Tabata is an exercise protocol that was developed by Dr. Izumi Tabata in 1996, after he and his cronies published a study in which they  found HIIT to be more effective than steady state cardio at improving aerobic fitness.  The specifics of the study were that the intervals were 20 seconds of high intensity (170% of VO2 Max) to 10 seconds of rest, repeated for 4 minutes.

Nowadays, the fitness world is a-buzz with “Tabata” workouts, where people perform sets of squat jumps, lunge jumps, push-ups, bicep curls, barbell presses…etc. And if they’re doing it with a 20s work to 10s rest time interval, they’re calling it the T word.

This is all swell, but after reading a few articles including this one, it’s abundantly clear that the widespread use of the term Tabata is not exactly correct. Yes, people are doing 8 rounds of 20 seconds of high intensity work coupled with 10 seconds of rest, but this does not a Tabata make. A true Tabata includes that crucial component — 170% of your VO2 Max. This is a level of exertion that is near impossible to create with push-ups, burpees, squat jumps, or whatever other exercises are being used for the so-called “Tabata”.  Not to mention that this level of exertion is ridiculously difficult for the average-joe to work at, even for just 20 second intervals.

Semantics, I know, but after reading up on it I just couldn’t bring myself to call this a Tabata workout. Maybe Tabata-style? Tabata-ish? Baby Tabata?

Who’s a cute little Baby Tabata!

Hmm…Maybe we better just stick with HIIT.

So regardless of what you call it (I’ll be honest here…Baby Tabata is starting to grow on me), here is your workout for this week! You will perform each group with the 20s work/10s rest interval, and you will take 1 min of rest in between each group. The entire thing will only take 20 minutes, but if you’re working hard enough, 20 minutes will be plenty.

For those of you who are beginners, or who have not done HIIT before, I recommend starting out with just 2 groups instead of all four. Trust me, if you’re working as hard as you can, 10 minutes of this will leave you in a puddle of sweat on the floor.

Another bonus — this is a circuit that you can do with very little equipment, so if you don’t have much time, or can’t make it to the gym… No excuses!

Ready?

Burpees: Begin in a standing position. Squat down, placing hands on floor. Kick legs back to high plank position, quickly bring them back to your hands, and jump straight up. That is one.

Squat Jumps: Do a bodyweight squat, immediately  jump out of squat position and straight up. Continue without pauses between squats, keeping good form in mind.

Lunge Jumps: Lunge forward with R leg. Quickly jump up, switching legs in the air, and landing in jump position with L leg forward.

Lateral Ski Jumps: Starting on R leg, jump laterally to your left and land on L leg, with knee bent. Immediately jump off of L leg to land on R leg. Focus on height and distance of each jump, with proper landing mechanics.

Soup Stirrers: Begin in plank position with forearms on physio/stability ball and feet on floor. Keeping core tight (think of a straight line from head to heels), move arms in a steering-wheel sized circle. Move clockwise for the first set, counterclockwise for the second set, and so on.

A few notes:

If you don’t have a kettlebell, or have not been trained in proper KB swing technique, substitute Frog Jumps for this. (Begin in a squat position. Jump as high and far forward as you can, landing again in squat position. Repeat this.)

If you don’t have a physio-ball for the soup stirrers, substitute side-planks, alternating sides each time you perform that exercise. 

What exercises do you like to include in circuits? Do you do “Tabata-style” workouts? What Olympic sport have you enjoyed the most so far?

Easter Insulin Spike and 2 Workouts

Posted on by
8

Hello, and Happy Monday! How was everybody’s Easter/Passover weekend? Mine was wonderful, although after making the rounds to a few different (delicious) family dinners, my blood sugar paid the price.

After 3 amazing holiday meals in 24 hours, I had a full appreciation for all of the great company I had enjoyed, as well as all of the wonderful food, but BOY oh boy was I feeling it. By about 11 am Sunday morning, after consuming only 1 holiday meal so far, I was already feeling groggy and slow. Add in 2 more Easter/Passover meals on Sunday alone, and I felt like a sloth with about 3 brain cells when I got home that evening.

This guy may have been able to carry better conversation than me by Sunday evening. 

Throughout these meals, I was able to eat plenty of greens, kale, and salmon, but I also ended up eating far more refined carbs than I ever eat, in the form of home-made Mac ‘n Cheese (So ridiculously good), various desserts, banana bread, and other holiday goodies.  Now, I’m not one to deny myself indulgences on holidays. For example, home-made macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite things in the world, but I only eat it maybe once or twice a year. So when faced with a delicious dish of it at a family gathering? You bet your ass I’m going to let myself indulge a little.

Source

However, when said indulgences left me with an insulin spike and the resulting near-coma,  it got me thinking. Is this what your average American feels like all the time? Since we’re all so gung-ho on processed foods and refined carbs, do normal people walk around feeling this sluggish and slow (physically and mentally) all the time?!?

I’ll tell you one thing: it was a swift reminder of how quickly our bodies react to this type of food. Every once in a while, fine, but I can’t imagine feeling this way all the time. If I can choose between feeling like a slug after eating refined carbs and processed foods, or feeling energized after eating vegetables, lean-meats, and other whole foods, why would I ever choose the former?

Just a little food for thought to start the week.

Now on to a couple of workouts I did 2 weeks ago when I lost my weight room. If any of you went a little overboard on the Cadbury Eggs this weekend and are looking for something new at the gym, why not try one of these? If your gym doesn’t have all the equipment listed here (or you don’t quite feel comfortable using it), you can substitute just about anything that works similar muscle groups.

Now get going!

The first is a workout that will take about 45-50 min with the recommended rest. It’s broken up into two small circuits with a little bit of interval cardio at the end. Each circuit was done for the reps listed, with no rest in between exercises. 1 min rest was taken after each round of each circuit, completing both circuits 4 times total.

 Circuit 1

Battling Ropes x30 sec (Alternating arms)

Box Jumps x10

KB Swings x20

Step-Ups x24

Push-Ups x10

Circuit 2:

Battling Ropes (arms together)

Dumbbell Walking Lunges x24 (12 each leg)

Plank DB Rows x 20

Lateral Bounding with medicine ball x20

Interval Cardio: Stationary Bike x25 min (Intervals of 30s hard/30s recovery for the duration)Pinned Image

Workout #2: This one is a cardio interval circuit that I do usually once per week (although the interval times vary depending on how I’m feeling). I do this on the treadmill, but you can also do it on any cardio-machine of your choice:

Jog steady state 10 min (Moderate pace)

Incline Level 9 (30s run/30s walk) x10 (The run speed here should be as close to a sprint as possible, while still able to complete all reps)

2 Minute Recovery Walk

Incline Level 10,  Speed 8 mph 15 sec Run/30 Sec Rest x5 (8mph is fast for me..if it’s not for you, kick it up a notch!)

5 min recovery jog

TOTAL 30 min

Writing For Your Weight Loss Success

So there you have it. Since I know not everyone reading this blog is into heavy lifting (although I’m trying to slowly convince you all), now you have a couple of workouts that I do sometimes when I don’t have heavy lifting available to me, or when I simply need some time away from the weight room.

Did anyone else eat too much for Easter/Passover? Did you all get to visit with family and friends? How often do you do circuit training at the gym?

Cardio Woes

Posted on by
9

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

 

 

I hate running.

Didn't mean to shock you.

I hate it. I HATE RUNNING. There, I said it. I have spent a good portion of my adult years really trying to become “a runner”. There was actually even a point in time when I did love it, although that only lasted about a year or two. There is something lovely about a good run along the Charles River on a perfectly crisp spring day, but other than that, I think it’s the pits.  And you know what? That’s OK with me.  I have had a love-hate roller coaster with running for about 10 years now, but I believe that I’ve finally come to terms that I fall heavily on the hate side, rather than the love.

And it’s not really the running that I hate, it’s the steady repetition of it all; that feeling of working so hard but moving so. slow.

(Because let’s face it, I’ve never been fast).

Put me on a hill and tell me to do 10 repeats, and I’m all yours. Set the treadmill up to a 10% incline and tell me to do sprint intervals, Heck Yea! Bring me to Harvard Stadium and ask me to run stadium sprints, and I’m on cloud 9.  I’ll run those stadiums until I can hardly stand on my shaking-like-jelly legs. Hill training and HIIT (high intensity interval training) make me happy, which is the  opposite effect of slow, steady-state jogging. Why does this matter?

Most fitness blogs and websites will show a lot of love to HIIT training, including me. The gains that you will get from HIIT are potentially more than you will get from steady state cardio, depending on the intensity, duration, and frequency. However, I think that as in all other things in life, there is a need for balance. Steady state cardio will definitely help you with your  endurance if you do, say, decide to haphazardly sign up for an impromptu road race. Steady state cardio is also a great way to have a recovery day for tired, overworked muscles.

This is my biggest problem. Because I know that I need balance, I do try to do some steady-state cardio at least once per week, although that has proven to be extremely hard for me over the past few months. Take yesterday, for example. I needed some recovery time for my legs after a tough squat day on Monday, so I hopped on the treadmill and was going to do a steady-state recovery jog. After 20 minutes, however, I got so bored that I almost couldn’t take it anymore. Now, I do realize that cardio is NOT meant to entertain me, but I don’t generally enjoy doing things that are pure mental torture.

So, on I went, cranking up that incline after 20 minutes and spending the last 10 minutes doing hill intervals.  Was this bad for me? Ultimately, no, (especially after my ridiculous food intake during the Pats game this weekend) but I do think that I need to just suck it up and keep it slow sometimes, for balance, and to keep my endurance in check.

After all, there is ONE type of running that I love and I do need to train for, if I expect to totally Dominate come June:

Yep, that’s me! New England Warrior Dash 2011

As long as my runs are broken up by fire, cargo nets, mud pits and other obstacles, I’m game. Maybe if I could get someone to plant dangerous obstacles in my path I could get through a run on my own without extreme boredom.

What about you? Does anyone Love Cardio? Does anyone love steady-state but hate HIIT?? How much cardio do you do per week?