Weight Loss by HIIT!

If you've Googled anything about losing weight and exercise, you probably found that High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT is the rage!

What is HIIT?

HIIT is when there are alternating periods of intense exercise with periods of recovery.  For example, you go as hard as possible on an exercise for let’s say 1 or 2 minutes have a recovery period of say 4 minutes, and then repeat the cycle maybe 4 times.

Another thing about HIIT is that your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the butt-kicking you gave it from a HIIT workout!   This means you’re burning calories/fat while sitting!  And it also speeds up speeds up your metabolism!

4 Benefits of HIIT

#1:  Less time to exercise.  You can do a hardcore HIIT workouts in 30 minutes or even less.  And the workouts are so intense, many experts recommend no more than 3X per week!

#2:  Burn more fat!  As I stated earlier, your body will burn fat/calories recovering after your workout!

#3:  You don’t need equipment or to join a gym!  These workouts can be as simple as running as fast as you can for 100 Meters, then taking a 2 -4 minute recovery period, then doing it again 4X.

#4:  It’s challenging!  I remember a time when going to the gym to workout was boring.  With HIIT workouts, there is never a dull moment!  You can do a HIIT workout with dumbbells, or you can do a series of plyometric (jumping type) exercises.  Or you can do different sprint workouts on a track.  Or you can purchase a program like INSANITY that incorporates HIIT concepts.

An Example HIIT Workout

All HIIT workouts typically consist of 3 things:  Warm-up, the HIIT, and cool-down.  It’s that simple.

I train and compete in Master’s Track which is part of USA Track & Field.  What’s fun to me about it is that it’s really just structured HIIT workouts with goals and camaraderie all wrapped up into one.

For example, I train for the 200 meters & 400 meters.  After warm-up (jogging, stretching & mobility drills), a typical workout in March would be 3 sets of 3X 200 Meters.  We would take 2 minutes recovery between each 200, and 6 minutes recovery in between sets.  We would set a goal of what to run each 200 Meters in…for example below 32 seconds (most of us are between 50 – 58 years old - LOL!).

We workout 2 – 3 times per week.  And believe me, not only do you feel the workout all day, but you welcome the typical 2 day recovery period!

If you want to find out more, I encourage you to Google HIIT.  But I also want to encourage you to get involved in some type of club or organization that does HIIT workouts on a routine basis.  Who knows, it may be so enjoyable, you'll completely forget about losing weight just from enjoying the camaraderie, goals, and accountability.  Then you'll realize that you’ve lost more weight in a shorter time than you could have imagined!

Still Losing Weight: Now Down to a 34!

I've had a lot of people remark that I've lost weight.  I'm thinking - of course, I've lost weight and kept it off for almost 6 years! 

I've been noticing over the past 6 months or so that my clothes were getting too big.  I finally got around to hopping on a scale and I weighed 189 pounds!  The last time I was below 190 was about 30 years ago!  I've come a long way from when I weighed about 270 pounds!

I've also dropped another size!  This is amazing, considering now I'm not trying to lose weight!  I'm just doing the Master's Track thing, training hard, setting goals, and trying to achieve them!

Fun Workouts!

Master's Track is fun!  The camaraderie is great, the workouts are fun, and it's very inspirational!  I think the best ways to lose weight is to do something fun that also involves exercise & goals!  You don't even have to pay attention to weight!  That's what my "Phase 3" of weight loss is about!


Check out the video below!

Master's Track Meet Results: 100 Meters

Here's the video of the 100 meters that I ran on May 19th.  

My time was a 14.1 seconds.

I ran this event 30 minutes after the 200 Meters, and decided to do it at the last minute.  I did it mainly because my family had arrived a little late & missed me running the 200.

Technically, I should be able to run faster than a 14.1 seconds.  Since I ran the 200 in 28.61 seconds, it should translate to a 100 Meter time of in the low 13 second range!

Masters' Track Meet Results - 200 Meters

This is the event that I've been training for & focusing on for the last 2 weeks.  I'm also excited that I got to wear my Waterloo Track Club gear for the 1st time!  Check out the video below.

The next video shows the race.

Here's my analysis of my race:

Masters' Track Meet Results - 60 Meters

I just ran in my 2nd track meet of the 2012 season - the Lions Championships in Austin, TX!

It was a fun meet!  My intention was to run the 200 Meters.  But based on my arrival time and the order of events, I decided to run the 60 Meters to warm-up for the 200.  I'm in Lane 1 & next to Lamar, who is one of my training partners.

I've never ran this race before.  My time was an 8.8 something.

Catching Up

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  I've been super-busy over the last month.  Here's a brief update!

As you know, in Phase 3 of my weight-loss, I don't focus on losing weight - imagine that!  I'm a Master's Track athlete.  So I just focus on my workouts and getting faster!  The weight loss or weight maintenance takes care of itself.

Last month, my brother Q came in town.  He came to one of my track workouts.  He crushed it by running the 150's with us (at his own pace).  After the track portion of the workout, we did the medicine ball workout, then ran the stadium steps!

Q lives in CA, takes daily hikes, and plus runs some 3K's and 5K's.  While he was here, we ran a 5K for cancer research!  We hope to do some more of that when we get together!