How are you enjoying Fall? I love it. I love walking to school and seeing the fall colors and the leaves blowing around on the sidewalk. Also, the other day when fog filled the Butte valley was AWESOME! So gorgeous. I hope you got to see it too. For my followers back in Bremerton, and in other parts of the country... you missed out! By the way, while I am thinking of Bremerton...
**Happy Birthday!!**
To my friend Keven from the shipyard. You may remember him from when we went flying together in one of my first posts.
He's on the right in the picture above, sorry about the terrible quality of the pictures ... as you may remember I was feeling a bit sick at this point so you can imagine why :x
Keven, sooo how old are ya now :) ? I was just going to say "way old" and leave it at that. Kidding. You know I kid because I love!
This what I would get you if I could get it past the shipyard security:
I missed writing this last weekend. For my self esteem's sake, I will just go ahead and assume you missed me too :). If you haven't already, and are at all interested I encourage you to go to my blog's homepage: http://ruthiemtech.blogspot.com/ and become a "follower" so you you can comment posts and we can all chat. Wouldn't that be nice? I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, questions.... anything :)
I won't be writing long this evening, but I just wanted to share a new concept that had been rocking my world lately. Going to the gym LESS. If you know me personally then you know this is not something that would generally pass my lips... but I have decided that my class load, work schedule, church, club activities, and friends and family, are much more important than spending countless hours weightlifting or running on the treadmill. Fitness is very important to me! Sound like a contradiction? It's not, and let me explain. or better yet.. let me have Mark Lauren tell you why short, intense home workouts, with minimal equipment and your own bodyweight are highly effective.
Not only is HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) great for your cardiovascular endurance, you'll build muscle because you'll be using all those muscles you didn't even know you had ;). You'll also lean out if you stick with it because muscle burns much more calories at reast than fat. No one wants to be fat, and no one wants to waste time.
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| ^ THIS = YOUR BODY!! |
HIIT= Win. Win. Here's Mark Lauren's take, you gotta AT LEAST love the title :)
Some of the key points are: ...He defines fitness as "The degree to which a person possesses muscular endurance, strength, power, balance, flexibility, coordination, speed, and cardiovascular endurance." and that having an attractive body is occur if you strive to have these key components to "fitness."..... The best way to gain that "sexy beast" physique he mentions is to focus on developing these skills, not on "losing weight" or trying to spot reduce certain areas of your body, ie: get a six-pack, or slim your thighs. Many fitness magazines have workout routines that promise these changes but the reality is that just doesn't work; reducing overall body fat composition and training your whole body to gain lean muscle will accomplish an overall beautiful physique.
"When you train properly, your body composition changes because there is a greater need for cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, strength, and power. It also changes because your body is burning far more calories than normal."
I encourage you to read the article for yourself, but the main reasons HIIT is effective are: They build muscle, therefore causing you to burn extra calories even while you sit in the couch or sleep. All the time! Awesome eh :) ?
Short intense interval type workouts also are the most time efficient way to workout. As Mark says, aren't we lucky the most effective method of developing all of these skills takes the least amount of time!? Yes... but keep in mind, the whole point of intervals is HIGH INTENSITY remember... therefore, these workouts are far from easy.
Muscle plays an important role in your metabolism. It is a "metabolically expensive tissue," meaning it burns much more calories than fat or other tissues do. Mark cites several examples and case studies to back up this point, for example: by even just adding a meger 2lbs of muscle and maintaining it, we can negate the negative effects of a slowing metabolism as we age.
Having muscle is also important not only in the time we aren't working out, but also when you're huffing and puffing your way through your HIIT workout... adding muscle to your frame means you basically have a "bigger engine" than you used to.. thefore you burn "more fuel." And you may have guessed it, fuel = calories! Remember this principle if you're trying to lose weight. This is just a bad concept all together! Never get into a fitness schedule/routine to "lose weight." The point should be to gain muscle (which actually weighs MORE than fat, therefore.. you're actually trying to "gain weight"... weird concept I know!) Gaining this muscle weight will reduce your body fat and lean you out... leading to that attractive body I keep mentioning.
The second reason that HIIT is so effective is that these workouts cause you to burn extra calories long after the completion of the workout. After completely stopping working out, your metabolism stays lifted for up to 36 hours!! (If you're HITTing it hard)
HIIT is also very effective at developing strength and cardiovascular performance... Mark talks more about this in the article, but the main pouint here is to think INTENSITY not DURATION.
A final thought: These workouts can be done anywhere with less time, and better results than you'll get from driving to the gym... spending a couple hours there at low intensity... and driving home. Oh you missed "Big Bang Theory" or the big game? Coulda had your workout done in the time it took you to GET TO THE GYM and been at home to watch your show and burning even more calories just sitting there. Like i said: WIN. WIN.
"HIITing it hard" I like it, Ruthie!
ReplyDeleteMany Cheers,
Mark