Come on down to Week Three of my self-transformation, where you get an all-inclusive package of daily sweat, pain, soreness, and showers; you guessed it folks, I’m talking about working out! Well, to be fair, I’ve always had a workout regimen that I’ve followed, but often it has revolved around groups of people or my swim team from high school.
For this week’s challenge, I took on intuitively working out throughout the week. This challenge meant that I was listening to what my body needs any given day. See, the working out itself is not the problem for me, it’s the consistency of my output.
In other words, I’ve always loved the grit of a hard workout, but for me what is hard one day could be extremely easy the next, and vice versa. My goal is to be generally well-rounded in my fitness, to the point where I can have the same result of my workouts on any given day.
I’ve done so much research throughout high school about training styles and which is most effective that I could go on for hours. I’m just going to cover what my go-to types of workouts are, but I encourage anyone to just try out anything and everything to see what works best!
With that, I’ll introduce HIIT workouts, or High Intensity Interval Training, because personally these are my favorite if I’m working out on my own. These are short, difficult workouts that are usually split into rounds, each round having a number of movements that are done for 45-60 seconds with around 10-15 seconds rest.
Compound movements are the name of the game in HIIT, where each movement activates the whole body (such as burpees, squat jumps, jumping jacks, mixed with some planks and push-ups). My favorite YouTuber Natacha Oceane has some amazing workouts to follow along with!
I always feel so amazing after a HIIT workout because I pushed myself to the max for each exercise, but I feel rejuvenated at the end. Among their many benefits, HIIT sessions help boost your metabolism, so you metabolize at a higher rate for a longer stretch of time after the workout than if you did something low intensity. Possibly what I love most is that my workout can be as short as 30 minutes and still feel as difficult as if I had swam for two hours.
However, you shouldn’t do HIIT workouts every day if you are doing them correctly. The entire goal of the session is to push yourself to an extreme max, so if you did that everyday you would harm your muscles and body more than help them.
That’s why, intuitively, I felt my body needed something low intensity to balance the extremes of HIIT, so I chose to go on runs. Truly running could be substituted with anything- a long walk, a jog, a swim, a hike, or a bike-ride. I always loved running, I grew up with it in my life (my dad as a marathon runner) so that’s what I chose. And if I needed a rest day to stretch, I did it!
What was the result? I feel great. Mentally, I feel like I can tackle anything set in front of me, and my stress levels have decreased because I have that physical outlet. Just listen to your body and everything else will follow!
This is awesome! During quarantine, I really wanted to start working out consistently but then I broke my ankle 🙁 I’m still recovering but I can’t wait to start up again. I use to do HIIT workouts in PE class in high school but I totally forgot about them. Hopefully, once I’m completely healed I can start doing some. I think it’s a great idea to workout every day/a few times a week. It’s good for not only the body but also the mind, after exercising I usually feel really good and ready to take on the day.
I totally understand the struggle of injury, and while I haven’t broken anything I have a nagging hip flexor pain… I’d say my favorite workouts are core workouts because you can add them to any day and make it a little more challenging, and usually you don’t need your limbs for it too much!
This is so cool! I honestly love reading your blog and I think it’s a really great passion blog idea. I really struggle with the motivation to work out so maybe you have some solutions for that haha. The HIIT thing sounds pretty cool so maybe I’ll try that sometime. I haven’t been running recently because I injured my hip but that’s usually something I try to do as well although I hate it unlike you.
Thank you! I totally understand the loss of motivation, I feel myself go through phases sometimes of being super motivated then not at all. I think HIIT actually has helped me because mentally it is way less challenging to look at 45 seconds on the timer for a certain move than it is to look at a 3 mile trail to run on. I also actually have hurt my hip, actually my hip flexor, in the past which slowed down my training, but I found that doing lots and lots of core exercises made it feel a lot better actually. So maybe start with some ab workouts! They can be quick and fun too
This makes me want to get back into working out again! I got really into it during quarantine but then I sprained my ankle and haven’t gotten back to it since. I’ve gone running a few times, but the rink opened up so I’m going to get back to skating (because I’m a figure skater). But yes, the feeling after working out is amazing! You’re tired but you feel like you’ve accomplished something and you can tackle the day. I always work out in the morning because it puts me in such a good mood! I hope you keep it up! Have you tried Barre or Pilates? You get pretty sore after but if you ever wanted to switch it up, I highly recommend it!
I’ve done pilates in gym class before, and it was so hard despite how simple the moves seem!! I really like to mix that in for when I still want to be active one day but don’t need a super cardio-intensive workout. And I haven’t ever tried Barre but I want to try it so bad! Right now I’m actually thinking about starting Muay Thai which is a kind of boxing, but I think it will really push me physically and mentally!
I always struggle with a lack of motivation when it comes to working out, but I feel like since HIIT workouts take less time than a long run, I’d definitely prefer that. I never really enjoyed running that much, mostly because I don’t like doing the same thing for too long, so mixing in some variety throughout the week would definitely help with that. I really love how your blog is including ways to improve your lifestyle both mentally and physically!