Getting Out Of That Gym Funk

I think I recently told you about the funk I was in regarding the gym. Well, I’ve finally pulled myself out of it and have gone full force into working out again. I went back to see my trainer, Jamie, yesterday. She offered me a spot that opened up and at first I said thanks, but no thanks (I’m trying to cut back on extra spending so I can focus on saving as much as possible). But as it neared 5pm and I kept thinking about how I had to go to the gym to workout, I slowly started talking myself out of it. I immediately text Jamie and asked her if she had it open still. Actually, what I really said was: “Fuck it… You still have 6:15 open?”

I got to the gym at 6 and did 15 minutes of HIIT cardio on the Arc Trainer. Normally, I would save the cardio for after I workout, but I was a few minutes early and I wasn’t about to just stand there and wait for her. I might as well utilize my time and get to burning some calories! In 15 minutes, I burned more than 150 calories. Not too bad! Beats doing regular cardio for 30 minutes and burning about the same amount.

I told Jamie I wanted to work on my hamstrings – and boy, did we ever! I performed a glute-ham raise (first time I’ve ever done this exercise). She held my feet/ankles down while I fell forward on my hands and picked myself back up using only my hamstrings. I loved that exercise because I really felt my hamstrings working. Next, she had me superset the glute-ham raise with single-legged prone leg curls (aka lying leg curls). Eventually, we moved on to a wide-stance single dumbbell deadlift, two-part lying leg abduction superset with phsyio ball hamstring curls, straight legged deadlifts with my feet on a plate, and good mornings.

It was definitely a great hamstring workout! My hammies are tight today and starting to get sore. I bet tomorrow they will be the sorest. Usually the second day is.

This morning my alarm went off at 5 and I contemplated sleeping and going to the gym after work. I started looking at motivational workout pictures and reading motivational workout quotes. That was enough to get me out of bed. I was at the gym by 6 and completed a full hour of heavy lifting for back and biceps. After, I performed another 15 minutes of HIIT cardio.

For back, I did wide-grip lat pull downs, reverse grip lat pull downs, one-arm row, seated low row, pullovers, and straight-arm pulldowns. For biceps, I did alternating dumbbell curls, preacher curls, hammer curls, and 21s with the E-Z bar. I wanted to get to abs, but I had no time. I drove over to the other gym I train at and showered and headed into work.

It’s such a wonderful feeling working out first thing in the morning for a few reasons: great start to my day, I feel energized throughout the entire day (no 2pm crashing), and when I get out of work at 5pm I don’t have to worry about working out! (Although I wouldn’t mind doing another bout of cardio!) I will definitely stick to the morning gym routine from now on until I get bored with that and need to switch it up and start going at night again.

Already I feel much better having worked out with my trainer and performing HIIT cardio. My diet has been on point, too. On my way to my best body! I can’t wait until I’m there. My goal is to be there within the next eight weeks. We shall see!

Want To Burn More Fat But Do Less Cardio? You Can!

With high intensity interval training (otherwise known as HIIT), you can burn more fat in half the time of regular cardio! So get ready to kiss your long, boring 45- to 60-minute cardio sessions on the elliptical machine goodbye and say hello to 15- to 20-minute HIIT sessions! 

Now, this might not be for everyone and there are some people out there who do enjoy their longer cardio sessions, but if you're like me, you want to get your cardio over and done with. Let's face it, I hate cardio! I know it's good for me, my body, and my goals so I do it, but I'd rather spend less time doing it. Thank God for HIIT! 

Instead of doing Insanity this morning, I opted to switch it up and do my own HIIT session after my lift at the gym tonight. I hopped on the arc trainer, which is pictured to the left, and set the time for 20 minutes. Since I was already warmed up from my lift, I only allowed myself 1 minute to "warm up". I jacked the resistance up to the highest point, which is 100, and did the same for the incline, which is 10. Once the clock hit 19:00 I "sprinted" as hard as I could for the next 15 seconds. I returned back to a low intensity "jog" for 60 seconds. The next set, I brought the resistance down 5 to 95. I repeated this for a total of 11 times, which brought me to 5 minutes. The lowest I brought my resistance down was 50 and on the last set I jacked it back up to 100 and instead of 15 seconds, sprinted for 30 seconds. In 14 minutes I burned 200 calories! With 5 minutes left I brought the resistance down to 30 and the incline down to 7 and "jogged" at low intensity. I only burned 55 calories in those 5 minutes. 


If how I just explained it is hard for you to wrap your head around, this might be easier: 


15 seconds of high intensity
60 seconds of low intensity
Repeat another 10 times, followed by a final 15-second low-intensity blast (this is where I just did the very last one for a total of 30 seconds)

In just 20 minutes, I burned a total of 255 calories! The amount of calories you burn depends on the machine you are on, which levels you have it set at, and your weight. So it will vary for everyone. For me, that was pretty good. Had I stayed where I was in the last 5 minutes of my training session, I probably would have burned half the calories and fat that I did. Amazing, right? 

I challenge you to a HIIT cardio session! If you've never done it before, try what I did tonight. I definitely left the gym sweating like crazy, and I felt GREAT! 

A study at Laval University in Quebec, Canada found that HIIT cardio helped trainees lose NINE times more fat than those who trained the traditional way (moderate speed for 20-60 minutes)! If you combine HIIT with your weight training program you will boost your metabolism that much more!