My newfound fitness regime stepped up a gear this week with my first ever HIIT circuit training session at Unique Personal Training.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, and it is certainly intense! A HIIT session alternates short periods of intense cardiovascular exercise with less intense exercises and weights - the idea is to keep the heart rate consistently high, while working lots of different muscle groups.
Darin designed a programme of exercises for my first session this week. This involved a set of 12 exercises, each of which I was to do for 30 seconds, followed by 20 seconds rest. Sounds easy, right? My programme included, in the following order: TRX Row, mountain climbers, tricep push, burpees, bicep curls, lunges, bench press, jumping jacks, crunches, squat and press, high knees, and tyre flip. While some of these were by now familiar to me from previous sessions, others were a bit of a challenge. The tyre flip, for example, was a new one for me - it involves lifting and flipping a heavy tyre on the floor. The first few were fine but by the last round I was definitely struggling.
Bizarrely, I found the jumping jacks (using 3kg weights ) one of the most difficult parts, as it is a cardio exercise combined with weights and my arms really felt the strain.
And while I thought 30 seconds of each exercise would be a doddle, it’s amazing how long 30 seconds can feel when you haven’t fully recovered from the previous exercise and your arms or legs are threatening to pack it in!
I got through two rounds of the set of exercises but really struggled on the third - it seems I have a long way to go! Darin explained that I could try this programme again, and once I have mastered it he would up the ante, for example by increasing the exercise time from 30 to 40 seconds, and reducing the length of the rest time to 15 seconds.
The idea with HIIT is to keep the heart rate up throughout the session, and because it is such an intense workout it speeds up your metabolism and allows your body to keep burning calories even after you’ve finished.
For affordable personal training, call to Unique Personal Training in Monksland Business Park, or call Darin on (087 ) 2159654 or Edel on (087 ) 6100395.
