Why I Love HIIT

Good evening everyone!

I'm doing pretty well. It's really late now and I should get to bed but before that  I wanted to share with you all a shocking (at least for me) but nice thing that happened to me a couple of days ago.

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HIIT & Running

On Monday morning I decided to go running after a loooong time (I think the last time I went was back in August). Now, my running background is almost non existent.

[Extremely long intro ALLERT!]

I started running back in July and I followed the C25K (Couch to 5K) program (which I highly recomend for anyone who wants to start running). It basically is a running training plan that "gets you from your couch to being able to run 30min straight". You start really slow alternating jogging and walking (60sec jogging/90sec walking) and through the course of 9 weeks you build up to running 30min straight.

So as I was saying I started the program back in July. Within 2 months I was able to run for 30min straight. That was so incredible for me! Unfortunately around the end of August I sprained my ankle (of course I did) and I had to stop running. It wasn't anything major but I didn't want to make the injury any worse by running. That also ment I stopped exercising all together and became pretty much sedentary. I didn't ended up gaining a whole lot of weight because I was still eating fairly well, but I really didn't like how things were turning up.

It was around Christmas when it really hit me. I could not go on like that. I had to take care of myself like I was before. Exercising (when I happened to do it consistently) has always made me feel so good about myself, inside and out and I couldn't deny myself a chance of being truly happy only because I wanted to choose the easier way.

It was so cold out that I really didn't feel like running. The gym wasn't an option either as I didn't and still don't have a lot of money. So I decided to give home workouts a go. I tend to get really bored with workouts dvds, I should probably own way too many not to get bored. So that wasn't the way to go. What then? I had been following Bodyrock.tv for a long time (if you are not familiar with it, I talked about it in more details in this post... I even posted a really embarassing post workout face, I clearly didn't know what I was thinking lol) but I actully did try very few of their workouts as they were pretty much intimidating.

This time though I said to myself: "Elisa, you really have to give it your all, you can't say that you can't do the workouts if you don't give them a real chance!" And so I did. And guess what? I hated it the first time and felt like I was going to pass out; by the second time I still kind of hated it but I started to like they way it made me feel afterwards; by the third time I didn't want to admit it to myself but I actually enjoyed it; by the forth time I was basically hooked! And now I look forward to working out every single day or almost, you need to give your muscle proper rest when you feel like they need it. It was a little more complicated than this but you get the hang of it. Of course I had bad days but like a little soldier I kept getting back up and this last week I felt better than ever, worked out 5 day out of 7 and on Mondays I even decided to try to go running again.

I was pretty much ready for failure, I thought that after such a long break it would take me ages to go back to running like I was back in August. I had heard many times the great effects of bodyweight HIIT on cardiovascular endurance so I thought I might be even able to run 5min intervals vs the 60sec intervals I started with on my first run ever.

So, how did it go?

Not only did I not stopped after 5min but I kept going for 25min STRAIGHT! Can you freaking believe it?? I still can't! I am so happy and excited about it that I've been in my little happy bubble ever since, smiling to myself every now and again for no apparent reason. Never in my wildest dreams I thought something like this was possible. Of course my run was more of a jog than a run but still, I think this is amazing!

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Wow, that was some long story! I really need to work on my rambling.

I better go to bed now, I am just happy I shared this with you all and I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Have a good night/day wherever you are.

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Have you ever tried HIIT? If so, what do you think of it? Have you experienced any unexpected results so far? If you haven't tried it, are you curious to try it out? Are you intimidated by it? What are your expectations?

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Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.

- Anne Frank

Love,

Elisa