Low Intensity Interval Training: Is That a Thing?

Yesterday, I wrote about HIIT, or high intensity interval training, and I planned to try it today, but I woke up achy and decided my overweight body isn't ready for that today, so, while I don't think it's an official fitness term, I put together my own 22-minute low intensity interval training session. 

Low Intensity Interval Training image courtesy of Pixabay

My 22-Minute Low Intensity Interval Training Session

Day 4 of my path to fitness.

I didn't start this workout with a ton of enthusiasm. Like I said, I was achy, and in the past the fourth day of a fitness routine has often been when I gave up. 

So, the fact that I'm sitting here writing about my workout is a good sign, and if you're ready to give up, maybe you could lessen your intensity for today, like I did, and when you get through it, even if you just decide to workout at low intensity for five minutes, you'll have a taste of success and you can feel great about not giving up. 

Here is the summary of this workout, and why it will be effective based on what I know about exercise physiology: 

• Warm up: To warm up, I danced and took a few deep breaths for 1 minute. I would have done more, but my heart wasn't in it and I was just going to do a light workout.
• Low intensity intervals: For this part, I alternated a 3-pound dumbbell workout with yoga stretching for about 5 minutes, switched the yoga with dancing intervals and started tightening my core muscles more during the dumbbell portion, then around 15 minutes my muscles started to shake, so I switched to isometric moves and walking in place until I hit 20 minutes. 
• Cool down: I was so glad to get to the cool down part of this workout, and I stretched my arms and waist, and then I spent extra time stretching my legs and inner thighs, because they were the most sore. 

Properly warming up and cooling down can reduce the muscle soreness you would otherwise feel later, and if you stretch gently so you don't strain your muscles, stretching is also an extremely pleasant part of a workout session. 

If you're joining me in starting a workout plan, be my workout buddy and motivate me or compete with me by telling me about your workout today, whether it was 5-minutes or much longer.Laure J

Can You Trust Your Bathroom Scale?

So, here you are, trying to lose some weight so you can feel and look better, and if you're like me, you're jumping on that scale once, twice, or several times a day - but you (and I) shouldn't do that.

Bathroom scale image courtesy of Pixabay

Why You Should Not Compulsively Check Your Weight on a Bathroom Scale

1. Accuracy: Most bathroom scales aren't really all that accurate. 
1. The scale at your doctors's office or gym will typically be more accurate than a bathroom scale, but as long as you use the same scale each time you weigh-in, you can sometimes get an idea of whether you are gaining or losing - you should just try to limit your weigh-ins to once or twice a week. 
2. Variability: Your weight can change several times per day.
1. Every time you eat, drink, go to the bathroom, cut your hair, or change your clothes, your weight is going to change, so frequent check-ins only let you measure how much weight you took in when you ate or drank, or how much weight you eliminated when you went to the loo. 
3. Discouragement: When you start working out, you are building muscle.
1. Muscle weighs more than fat, so compulsively checking your weight, especially when you first start working out, can leave you feeling discouraged. 

What You Can Check Other Than Your Weight

I know, I just admitted I do exactly this, compulsively checking my weight, but there are other, more effective metrics you can use to measure the success of a new health and fitness lifestyle plan.

1. How you feel: This is the one thing I consider the most important, because the others are more for record-keeping while the way you FEEL and how much you are ABLE to do compared to your starting point impacts every second of your day. 
1. When I got on my scale this morning, it told me I had gained 4.2 pounds - talk about disheartening for someone well into the first week of a new fitness routine - but I don't consider that permission to give up, because I knew it would happen - I just don't LIKE it.
2. Measurements: In addition to tracking your weight, get some measurements, because a lot of the time you will see changes in your physical size long before your scale shows you results.
1. The great thing about tracking your measurements is, if you measure several different areas, like your waist, hips, chest, neck, biceps, forearms, upper thighs, lower thighs, and calves, there are SO many places you might notice progress - like if your waistline doesn't change but your hips get smaller - or vice versa - you know you're heading the right direction.
3. How your clothes fit: When you notice you have a little extra breathing room in the waistband of your jeans or your favorite shirt buttons without gaping open, you know you are headed in the right direction, and these changes can become noticeable even before you see it in your measurements or weight, because as your fat becomes less dense, even if it still LOOKS the same, you start to feel it in the way your clothes fit.
1. I've noticed this in the waistband of my jeans already, just four days into this, so even though my scale gave me a kick in the ego this morning, I see success in another metric that is actually even more important, and that's what inspired this message. 

Don't give up if you don't see the results you want right off, and give yourself more than one way to measure the success of your fitness plan, that way, even if you compulsively check your scale (which you shouldn't but - who am I to judge - as a compulsive scale checker, I get why you want to) and it gives you bad news, you KNOW you are still on the path to where you want to end up physically. 

A bathroom scale can provide you with valuable information to help you know if you are on the right track, but checking your weight once a week or even just once a month is likely to be a more positive experience because it lets you see your results in a more long-term manner.

I picked up my bathroom scale at Walmart (and Walmart is also my affiliate sponsor for this post, so if you want to shop for scales or any fitness gear you need, feel free to click through the Walmart icon below to visit the company website.) My scale is just a basic digital Health Meter model. I like that it shows weight to the ounce, and it does seem to be more accurate than my old bathroom scale ever was.

Feel free to share your thoughts on how often to check a bathroom scale in the comments section, and thanks for visiting Fat and Cranky.Laure J

What on Earth Is HIIT Training?

I've been reading a lot about HIIT training and how it's the ultimate thing for blasting belly fat in my fitness magazines, but I haven't seen one specific definition for what it is, so I'm closing my mags and starting an online search so I can A) try it and B) share the info here on Fat and Cranky.

What Is HIIT Training image courtesy of Pixabay

What on Earth Is HIIT Training?

Okay, the letters HIIT stand for High-Intensity Interval Training, and it's also called HIIE for High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise, and SIT for Sprint Interval Training.

It is basically what I did in my Effective 20-Minute Beginner Workout, though at a slightly higher intensity level.

A HIIT session alternates cardio and anaerobic activity, like a dumbbell workout or isometrics, and, this part is great, a session usually lasts from a mere four minutes up to 30-minutes, which is also pretty short and doable, especially if you crank out your favorite music.

If you really get out of breath, you can even completely stop the activity during the anaerobic portions of a HIIT workout, or do some yoga stretches, which is a great way to avoid muscle soreness.

Should I try a HIIT workout?

As a perimenopausal woman who carries a lot of body fat, I find this fascinating, and I love that it is so close to what I have already started doing, and to the way I was trained to teach interval training back when I took the classes to become a certified personal trainer.

Because of my weight, though, I have my doubts about taking my workout intensity higher until I've talked to my doctor, though, so I'm going to keep my HIIT sessions customized to my fitness level.

HIIT burns off excess body weight without causing muscle loss and it ramps up your metabolism.

I've found it improves my mood.

It can be done in a small space - I am starting this fitness program i a very small space, behind closed doors because I want privacy as exercise.

How Often Should You Do HIIT Sessions?

Since this particular workout mode is new to me, even though what I am doing is similar, I'm going to refer to the suggestion of another site that shares info on HIIT workouts.

Starting out, Greatist recommends only doing HIIT sessions once per week for newbies, and then adding low-intensity cardio the other days for heart health. Advanced exercisers can enjoy HIIT sessions up to seven times per week according to the site.

Thanks for reading this article about HIIT workouts. If you have experience with them, please feel free to share in the comments section below.Laure J

An Effective 20-Minute Workout for Beginners

Here it is Day 3 of my quest for better health and fitness, and I hate to say it, but my motivation is not great today, but I'm determined and I know if I don't give up, I'll achieve my goals, and you will, too.

An Effective 20-Minute Workout for Beginners image courtesy of Pixabay

I'm still not ready to leap into an intense workout, plus before I started this, I committed to slide into it easy so I wouldn't burn out - so I decided what I need - for today - is an effective 20-minute workout for beginners.

I combined the short routines I did the first two days to create a fitness blast that delivered a mix of stretching, cardio, and dumbbell exercises.

Below is a little more detail on my 20-minute beginner's fitness blast, plus here is a link to another site called HealthLine in case you want to check out some routines that are 20-minutes and shorter.

An Effective Beginner 20-Minute Workout

I started by picking some music I wanted to listen to as my inspiration, then I started the stopwatch function in my phone.

• Warm up: I started with a slow 4-minute song for my warm up stretches. This was actually enough that my muscles were kind of burning, but breathing was still fairly easy. 
• Intervals: I moved into the next 12 minutes of the workout by picking up my dumbbells and doing a set of ten standing presses before moving into about a minute of freestyle dancing. 
• I kept alternating between dancing and sets of ten reps on my basic dumbbell routine, which includes bicep curls, shoulder shrugs, toe raises, squats, and tricep extensions. 
• During this part of the workout, I was a little more out of breath, but based on the Borg perceived exertion scale, I was about at a level 13, so still in the safe zone.
• And, my muscles burned even more, but not actually to the point of pain. 
• Cool down: I broke out another slow song for my cool down stretches for the last four minutes of my 20-minute workout, and now I'm here telling you that I feel better for making myself power through this workout even though I was feeling kind of blah and ambivalent when I started. 

So, when you feel feel blah and ambivalent, what do you do? Do you have a trick for powering through your lack of enthusiasm? If you hit 'the wall' and quit in the past - just shake it off and give it another try, because life is an ongoing project, and you'll feel better if you do this for yourself. I would love to hear what you think, so feel free to share your thoughts below.
Laure J