Monday: HIIT, Climbing and Yoga!

Salutations!

So I am sitting here at 7:30am wide awake, so I figured it was time for an update. I hope all of you are having an awesome New Year and are staying fit and healthy. Here is what I did yesterday, I'll write about today later... today haha

Yesterday my friend Erika and I were going out for dinner so I went to the gym mid afternoon since I didn't have to work nor did I teach my usual spin class at noon (due to the schedule change). Here's what I did...

Cardio: 25 minutes of HIIT, for those of you that do not know this stands for high intensity interval training, and it's the only way I can stand to be on a treadmill for more that 10 minutes (I get very bored very fast).

Here's the standard format I use
Warm Up: 5 minutes 4.0 mph 4.0% incline
Low: 5.2mph= 1 minute
High: 5.8 mph= 2 minutes
Low: 5.5 mph; 1 minute
High: 6.5 mph: 2 minutes...you get the idea.
This technically isn't "true" HIIT, as that is done on a track usually, where you sprint, walk, sprint, walk... but this is my version and it works for me and my clients. Usually the goal is to push yourself as hard as you can during the two minutes high and "take a break" during the low... usually I have people start out walking during this.
Benefits: Increased metabolism and there is also research out of McMaster University that suggests that this form of the training elicits the same benefits as 45 minutes of steady state running in half the time
However! You don't want to do more than 25 minutes of HIIT... it's not necessary. If my clients insist on doing more cardio after the 25 min I say a) they didn't push themselves hard enough and b) to just do steady state at the 25 min mark.

After my cardio I had half an hour to burn until yoga so I did laps on the climbing wall at our gym until I couldn't feel my hands. Since the wall is pretty much vertical I first did two warm up laps using all holds focusing on my movement mainly then did 6 more laps on the one wall focusing on crimping and the slopers, I then took a short break and did four more laps on the other side for funsies.

Then I finished off with an hour of slow yoga flow, which wasn't really that slow, but I enjoyed it.

So that was Monday! I'm not going to say what I ate because I ate like crap and went to Red Lobster, but was sooooooo goood!

Stay Strong

Robs