(to my musical theater nerds out there who get my Merrily We Roll Along reference, thank you…)
It’s been a hot second since I’ve taken Uplift’s infamously tough HIIT class. That’s not to say their strength class and sculpt fusion classes aren’t challenging– they most definitely are.. Cardio, though, is not my strongest suit. I can do squats for days and win plank contests, but will avoid a handful of jumping jacks at all costs.
Part of participating in the Uplift fall challenge means literally challenging myself take cardio heavy classes I wouldn’t necessarily flock to on my own. Going into class this morning I was sleepy and thinking “What did I get myself into at 7:30AM”. By the middle of class, though, I was loving it and wondering why I was so scared of this class.
So what is HIIT?
HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. High intensity meaning literally that– going “balls to the wall” so to speak, and interval meaning for a controlled, short period of time. I feel like HIIT has become a huge fitness buzzword in the past year or so and it makes sense, the idea is to get a bigger burn both during and post workout in less time. Bigger burn? Less time? Yes please.
If you’ve ever experienced a tabata workout– 20 seconds of high intensity activity followed by 10 seconds of recovery for 4 minutes total, you know how intense working out like this can be.
The first half of this morning’s class was all cardio and alternating between low intensity recover (think jumping rope at a light, easy pace) and intervals of intense activity (think burpees, plank jacks, jump squats). Usually our movement followed the music, much like a perfectly orchestrated spin class- during the verse it’s lower intensity and during the chorus you amp it up. The dancer in me liked this.
The second half of the class was a little less intense, but still pretty sweaty. We took it down a notch and did body weight or rubber band strength training moves for high repetitions.
Needless to say I was a sweaty sweaty puddle after this class, and patting myself on the back for rolling out of bed on a dreary morning and getting myself to Uplift.
Want to amp up your workout with some HIIT? Below are two of my favorite killer workouts, guaranteed to get that heart pounding
From more info on the benefits of HIIT check out this super helpful info graphic from Greatist.
Question of the day: Are you a fan of HIIT workouts?
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