I was carrying more weight than I wanted and had to do something about it. As my best friend says when he must lose weight, “I was pushing maximum density.”

Moe

I like running and I’ve run on and off for decades. But regular running was off the menu. I used to run with Moe and his arthritis makes any sustained run impossible.  Bros before hos and all that.

Lucky for me AthleanX has the answer.  But you already knew that.  Welcome to the land of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I don’t know if this is a common misconception, but before I knew better, I thought interval training was a bunch of bullshit used by soccer moms to avoid the mundane monotony and increased effort of a sustained consistent training pace. (h/t Trshmnstr) I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The concept behind HIIT is simple.  You do an exercise at high intensity for a relatively short amount of time, have a short rest or short interval of low intensity work, and repeat.  How many times you repeat depends on your condition and what you want to achieve.

One of the great things about HIIT is you don’t necessarily need any equipment.  Here’s a 10-minute HIIT workout that doesn’t require any equipment. (You’re welcome cisgender Glibbroads.) Okay, you literal bastards. You need a floor.  Tough crowd.

Here’s another one that’s 20 minutes. (You’re welcome cisgender Glibdudes.) Really with what’s being demonstrated it could be any length you want. No more slacking of NoDak glibs (I’m looking at you MikeS). Cold weather is no longer an excuse.

But Chafed I only have 5 minutes to work out!  FFS there’s always a way. Get moving.

If you are willing to spend a modest amount of coin you can get a jump rope and some plyo boxes. Part of my program is doing Bumps and Jumps.  The bumps are burpee pushups. The jumps are jumps on to a plyo box around knee high. I use an 18” box. In a minute do 10 burpee pushups. Whatever part of the minute you don’t use you get to rest. In the next minute do 12 box jumps.  Whatever part of the minute you don’t use you can rest. The first time I did it I was gassed after six minutes.

If you want to get out, then put on a pair of running shoes.  You aren’t going for a distance run.  You are going to sprint.  You can mix this up however you want.  If you are on a track, then spring the straight part and jog or walk the curves. Run 20 seconds, jog 20 seconds, and walk 20 seconds. You get the idea. You can mix it up how you like in whatever way your conditioning allows. The important part is to go all out for part of it, reduce the intensity for a bit, and repeat.

I don’t know why improving my HIIT training is so strangely satisfying. When I ran for distance, I was proud when I increased the length of run. For some reason I can’t explain, I’m fist pumping psyched when I’m able to add another interval or two.

A reminder that next week we all report in on what we achieved during the past four weeks.

Have a great Thanksgiving!