My Little Experiment with HIIT

So I have seen all the hype on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). This comes primarily from the Crossfit community, I am sure. The people that love to go to warehouses disguised as gyms and throw giant medicine balls around! Just joking. I don’t want any CrossFit junkies that read this blog to find me and kick my butt for saying something bad about their religion. Anyway, HIIT is basically just keeping your heart rate up while doing really muscle intensive exercises.

So I was reading this article on the airplane about Chris Hemsworth’s workout plan, which is really focused on HIIT training. I thought, my wife things Thor is hot, so that seems like a good reason to me! Anyway, Hemsworth is the same height and weight as me and basically the same basic body structure, so seems like a good thing to look into. Well, Let me clarify. He has his weight carefully distributed in carefully constructed large muscle groups, I have mine in a layer of fat with extra emphasis on the mid section! I am doing a good job at reducing that issue, but I am not looking like a Marvel super hero anytime soon!

So I have been trying HIIT training, to see how it goes. I got some great reference material and training material on the subject and I have been giving it my all. Here is the deal. I am in really good cardiovascular shape. I can run 10 miles without breaking a sweat. I probably put in about 50 miles or so a week. I can also do a considerable number of pushups, situps, and squats in a row. I do some minor weight lifting. For all intent and purpose, I am probably in pretty decent shape, minus the excess fat layer that I am still working on! Having said all of that, one session of HIIT training quite literally slayed me.

I did a “warm up”. This included an exercise called Hollow Outs, which is basically a reverse plank where you rock back and forth on your butt with your arms and legs full extended. I was doing this at a gym, so I looked like a complete idiot, but I had to try to do them well so that I did not embarrass myself too bad. My warm up continued with Plank to Pike Pulses, 3-Point V-sits, Bent over row to curl presses with a dumbbell and finishing it off with a series of diamond and wide grip push ups. This was the 10 minute warm up!! The key here was very little breaks. I moved on to the main core exercises. These were comprise of scary new terms like, Renegade Rockers, Kettlebell Crushers, Dumbell Dominators and Barbell Boosters. This was 30 minutes of full body lifts, pushes, crunches and everything in between. Very little rest, heart rate at maximum.

I then went into the 10 minute, “cool down.” Yeah Right. Planks, Crunches, and Walkouts. The last few walkouts (you start a standing position and then walk your hands down into a plank, do a push up and then walk yourself back to a standing position) I collapsed a few times completely done. The next day, btw, I could barely move btw. I was crawling around the house. Not just from muscle soreness, but just from being really tired. That is my HIIT experience. Here I thought I was in shape, not!

So I have decided that I am a complete whimp. Time to go full blown HIIT, in addition to my running. Here goes!

Guy Reams

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