How to Ensure Your HIIT Routine is Effective

You drank (some chugged) the green flavored Kool-Aid and now love everything about our functional high intensity mix – from the feel good hormones that flood your system to the increased strength you have as you go about your daily routine. It’s almost as if this trending workout regime is too good to be true.

We commend you for nixing the mindless treading of a treadmill, and instead getting FHIT with us, but we must ask, “are you maximizing your fat burning potential?” Yes, HIT will yield fat loss, muscle growth and a faster metabolism, but ONLY IF you step out of your comfort zone.

Heed the advice of our trainers and soon you’ll be toning up and shredding fat faster than ever before.

FHIT Tips from our Instructors:

Ben Wegman:
→ This tip should be a no-brainer, but it’s something you may need to remind yourself of time and time again. In order to maximize your results you have to go all out during the high intensity intervals. There’s a reason why they’re called high intensity.  You have to attack the workout as if you were a sprinter – leave nothing behind and save nothing for later.

→ It’s also important to remember that a burpee is NOT a pushup. You need to DROP your chest to ground, not lower slowly. Don’t cheat your workout by losing form. A sloppy burpee won’t help you achieve a rock hard body.

Amanda Butler:
→ My mantra is: Welcome the challenge to see the change.

→ You may not realize it, but fitness roadblocks can be mental. Your body is so much stronger than you know.  The only thing stopping your progress is your own self doubt. My advice is to get those negative thoughts out of your head and JUST DO IT!

Daury Dross:
→ One way to overcome plateaus is to get competitive- with YOURSELF!

→ A great way to consistently push yourself is to track progress. Hold yourself accountable by making your efforts goal oriented, whether it’s a body weight or a strength goal, working towards something you can envision will help you stay on track and motivate you to achieve new limits.

Eric Salvador:
An important tip is to know your fitness level and work up from there. High intensity training depends on one’s current aerobic capacity. If doing burpees for 1 minute feels like death, then you need to scale back and do burpees for 30 secs. A great work to rest ratio would be 1:1 meaning do burpees for 30 sec and rest for 30 sec. As your conditioning improves you’ll be able to rest less. In other words, you can do burpees for 30 sec and resting for 15 sec.

Example Exercise- Burpee Intervals
Warm up: 5 min jog at a moderate pace
Workout: 30 seconds of burpees followed by 30 seconds of rest
Repeat the burpee interval 10x for a total of 10 mins and finish up with a 3 minute cool down. Once you’ve mastered that, work your way up to 12 or even 16 intervals.

Still on the fence about High Intensity Training? Here’s a few reasons why you should consider getting FHIT with HIT:

→ HIT burns more calories than stationary cardio like the treadmill or elliptical.  In only 10 minutes of HIT you can burn more calories than half an hour on the treadmill- just think of how many calories you could burn in a 50 minute class!

→ Unlike other workouts, HIT leaves you reaping benefits even after your last rep. For 24 hours post-workout, your body is burning more fat (aka the afterburn effect) and your metabolism is also at its fastest (meaning an extra little indulgence won’t do too much damage).

Learn what other beneFHITS you can gain from high intensity training here!