Tag Archives: HIIT

Not everything goes as planned

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While I went off to the gym for some me-time the man of the house was practicing his DJ-ing skills in the middle of our living room (he has his first radio gig next Monday – don’t want him to mess that up, so I gave him some me-time of his own). needless to say that I desperately hoped for our dining table to be cleared for that curry he had promised to cook me later.

I actually planned to do a killer workout today, since I haven’t been very active lately due to a lot of excuses reasons: on Monday the gym was closed because of our national holiday Queen’s Day (follow the link for some education about the Dutch); on Tuesday I had the worst hangover migraine ever, which lasted all day; on Wednesday I had to work all day and afterwards went out for dinner with my colleagues; and yesterday we got a last-minute invite to celebrate my little brother-in-law’s third and-this-time-successfull attempt to get his driver’s license (I guess third time definitely’s a charm for him!).

So because all the above and the inevitable inactive it had caused, I planned my killer workout, as said, only to find out that after a mere 15 minutes there was no way I would be able to do the full 30 minutes. I have to admit that my cardio plan looked more like a 30-minute HIIT – which of course is impossible, since HIIT isn’t meant to last for 30 minutes. So I decided to start my cooling down right there and then, and head over to the free weights department to do some strength training: at the moment I try to follow the schedule as provided by Women’s Health Mag. I’m still in month one of their Total-Body Transformation plan, but can’t let that be an excuse that keeps me from getting fit, can I? Better being a bit behind on schedule than on no schedule at all. To make up for the lost minutes on the treadmill though I  did a few more reps per series than I usually do.

In the end, with warming up, cooling down and stretching, my workout still filled up almost an hour. Not a killer workout, but still a great one! And after coming home I got to enjoy a delicious lamb curry prepared by the DJ – not so bad either!

Tell me: how do you guys handle it when it’s obvious you won’t be able to do what you planned?

Center Of Attention

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Just got back from a great workout session, which started with 20 minutes of Tabata-inspired HIIT on the treadmill:

00:00-05:00 min: warming up – 6 km (=4 m)/h
05:00-09:00 min: 40 sec – 11 km (=6.8 m)/h / 20 sec – 7 km (=4.3 m)/h
09:00-10:00 min: 60 sec – 7 km (=4.3 m)/h
10:00-14:00 min: 40 sec – 11 km (=6.8 m)/h / 20 sec – 7 km (=4.3 m)/h
14:00-15:00 min: 60 sec – 7 km (=4.3 m)/h
15:00-18:00 min: 40 sec – 11 km (=6.8 m)/h / 20 sec – 7 km (=4.3 m)/h
18:00-21:00 min: cooling down - 6 km (=4 m)/h

Try doing the whole workout with a little incline and push yourself!

Then I headed to the gym class room for an hour of BodyBalance. Just the right combination of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates to end a stressful work week and start a relaxing weekend. And the best part of it? I got to join the instructor on stage, when she divided the group in half to do Sun Salutation in canon: one half of the class would start off and the other half would start the same exercise, but after 8 beats. Obviously there had to be someone to instruct the second group, and yes, I temporarily got promoted to instructor!

Even though I was the center of attention for just 5 minutes, I had so much fun being on stage. I could definitely see myself doing it ‘for real’. But before that, I guess I will have to get much stronger. I forgot how intense a BodyBalance class can be. Halfway down I had to sit out one of the exercises, because I got little light headed (could’ve been the fact that I hadn’t eaten before working out, in combination with doing HIIT before class). And I really felt my muscles burning while doing those lunges.

One other thing is that I got terrible cramps during the last exercise. I’m a big fan of asking when you need to know, so after class I approached the instructor. She told me you can get muscle cramps if you don’t eat enough before working out. Usually it’s a sign of magnesium deficiency (I’ve looked up some information for you, see: Livestrong.com). So I guess next time I’ll have a banana or a green leaf salad  before my workout!