Exercise with HIIT Workouts for a Week

Inspiration

Well if it's not obvious, I aspire to be just like the wonderfully fit, wonderfully cartoon woman above.

But also I've wanted to "be fit" for the longest time now. When you enter college, you'll find that a significantly higher percentage of people around you talk about working out or how they're going to a gym. And it's very great for them of course because they're healthy!... but it also made me realize I wasn't very healthy. I always wish I worked out consistently, but in college, I never found a habit that worked well for me. So through my first three years I probably averaged going out to the gym once a month. And through those three years, I definitely felt bad about it.

I'll also let you know that I'm a hip hop dancer at school, so while people interpret that as "oh no, even if you go to the gym only once a month, you must be so fit!" I see it as "wow you're a dancer AND you're still not that fit?"

So yeah, it's been a long time coming to find a conscious exercise habit that worked for me consistently.

Since I've started my internship this summer, one of my teammates has worked out every single day by going to HIIT classes. (HIIT = high intensity interval training, by the way!) I was so proud of him for pushing himself to do that, especially after long days of work.

I just had to piece the puzzle together: the inspiration from seeing a peer of mine consistently exercise + my long-rooted desire to workout + something I've never tried. And I couldn't have been happier with the masterpiece that was put together in the end.

So the challenge of working out every day for a week began with the goal to find a workout regimen that could stay with me for the future.

Day 1: 20min Beginner HIIT

I waited about an hour and a half to search "HIIT workout for beginners" into Youtube. And I should preface that when my teammate had mentioned HIIT, my brain interpreted it as "hit" and I imagined that it was a new twist on boxing. So you can see why I needed to try out the beginner version.

As any novice would do, I chose my first workout video based on the actions of others. I picked the video with the most views, specifically ~5 million views. Also, it didn't hurt that the man in the thumbnail looked properly fit and like someone who could actually walk me through a HIIT workout.

We walked through the same 4 exercises and did the whole sequence 4 times. I was pleasantly surprised going through the first 2 times because I could feel the sweat beads forming, but I definitely could keep going. I'm also a big fan of high knees and squats so I didn't feel phased. But then again, burpees and mountain climbers are definitely high up there on my list of least preferred exercises. So that's what really did me in as I continued into my third and fourth repetition. Specifically, going into my fourth round, I honestly felt a mini puke sensation coming on. The movement from standing up to quickly going back down to the floor done over and over again definitely feels like the most amount of effort compared to any other move, so having to do that over and over made me pant like an overweight bulldog in the desert.

I am proud to say I made it through the whole 20 minutes, but given that this was my first venture into HIIT, I was thinking "oh boy." Afterwards, I felt a bit lightheaded and extremely sweaty, both in ways I hadn't felt in months.

And the next day you bet that my legs were sore. I had a bit of a hard time even walking normally because my thighs felt like jello. Despite feeling sore, I was definitely excited because I knew that I had found a workout that actually worked.

Day 2: 15min Standing HIIT

For the second day, my legs were still a bit sore so I wanted to continue my exercise streak with something less intense. For years now, I've learned that I strongly try to steer away from workouts where I need to engage with the floor. I told this to my best friend once and she mildly laughed at me and asked why. She had a very valid question. Why do I not like touching the floor when I work out? It's not because the floor is dirty or anything, but as I found out on day 1, it takes a lot more effort to go from standing to the floor quickly. And it's not that I didn't want to put effort into this challenge; if I was aiming to find a workout that would work for me in the future, I had to tailor it to what I would actually want to do.

So standing it was! And luckily there are people like me out there who don't like the floor when they workout. Emi Wong's video didn't have nearly as many views as day 1's video but she really got me with the shorter amount of time and the "fat burning" tagline in her thumbnail.

Compared to day 1, this was extremely less intense. But I didn't mind because I could still feel my body working hard. To help motivate myself, when I did ab-specific moves, I would do them in front of the mirror so I could see how my ab muscles were being used. As someone very visual, I knew that if I could see a difference in the mirror, I would have no excuse to keep going.

I also preferred that this video incorporated 15 different exercises as opposed to day 1 where the video just repeated 4 exercises. Because of the variety, I didn't feel the blah of having to redo a move that I didn't enjoy. Also, many moves in this video like some of the kicks and lunges, you could take your time if you needed it. So to me, this video was way more "beginner" than the first.

I even felt like I had extra gas in the tank at the end of my workout, so I picked and chose elements from the workout video below.

I actually really like the move that they're doing in the thumbnail. When you do it in front of the mirror, you can really see your fat rolls scrunch together on the side of your body. And I'm not sure if it's just me, but I had never really taken notice of them beforehand. Just more visual notes for why I had to keep pushing through HIIT.

Day 3: 10min Standing Abs Workout

Of course, I'm standing again. I wanted to try out more of Emi Wong's content because I felt it didn't tire me out too much while also still having an effect. This was Friday and I had went home for the weekend. So to minimize the time I spent away from family, I looked for a shorter video.

This was definitely one of the more chill workouts throughout this challenge, but because of that, I've been able to take some of the exercises and do them randomly throughout my day at other times. For example, I do the "side drop" move all the time when I got home because it doesn't require much movement yet I can clearly feel a stretch on my side.

So while this workout doesn't stand out amongst the seven days, it still kept me moving - aka, no cheating!

Day 4: 30min Total Body Workout

Quite the opposite mentality from day 3, I had more time at home Saturday night and wanted to walk my younger sister through my challenge. Also mainly because I finally had space (you don't even want to know how small my NYC apartment is - it's like an elf's apartment), I wanted to take advantage by having a workout that moved around.

Now this was the perfect workout I was looking for, but it also wrecked me in a similar way to day 1 but just a little more manageable. There was a lot of side to side, front to back jogging movements which I didn't see as much in the other days. But what really made it more difficult was the lack of breaks - most videos will have you do ~30 seconds of an exercise then 10 seconds of rest. But this video powered through and even though while I was doing this video, I sweat like a whole pig roasted on a skewer in a Hawaiian BBQ, I appreciate it looking back. Because (as you'll read on) real workout classes are most similar to this video.

Also, if you're looking for a high-energy, motivational video host (is that the term?), then this video series is great. Working out is significantly more enjoyable when the person guiding you can actually do the workout, sweat alongside you, and not look like they're about to fall over when the video's done.

Day 5: Standing HIIT Workout

Well...don't judge me when you see the thumbnail of this video. Yes, there's an animated person doing the workout... and yes, they look comically robotic exercising. BUT the video is still HIIT and that's all that matters.

What you expected would happen with a video like this happened. The workout still made me exercise with moves like squats and jumping jacks, but the video was pretty short. For reference, a typical HIIT workout allows me to burn ~350-400 calories whereas this only burns 150. I ended up doing half of day 3's workout video afterwards to feel sufficiently "workout tired" (a self-proclaimed version of tired I've defined as when you've lost energy because of exercise).

But I wouldn't discount these Lumowell videos because they're very convenient if you're short on time.

Day 6: 15min Beginners Standing HIIT

After having a low intensity day 5, I went back to my trusty friend from day 4. As I mentioned, his workout had been my favorite thus far so I was curious to take a standing workout from him. If you haven't already noticed, a wonderful theme of this challenge has been my love for avoiding the floor.

Interestingly, this workout felt quite easy. Maybe it was that I had gone almost a week getting my body used to HIIT or it truly was properly a beginner video. I liked the workout as something different to throw in the mix because it was solely cardio, nothing ab-specific for example. Therefore, when I turned on some upbeat music ("I Like It" by Cardi B anyone?) and threw on this video, it felt like a mini dance workout. Also, it had a different structure where you would do 2 exercises then repeat them - I didn't strongly like or dislike this format, but just something to keep in mind if you're looking for 100% variety in your workout routine.

Day 7: Cardio Arms at 305 Fitness

The ULTIMATE of the HIIT workout days...so good it will end up getting its own blog post in the future. This is hip hop cardio, aka me in a workout style.

I'll leave the details to my future post, but I essentially had heard about this class from my best friend/roommate and instantly knew I had to give it a try. Of all the days, this workout was the most intense but also the most fun. I sweat and smelled like a big ol' sumo wrestler while feeling immensely comfortable in the class from high knees to even booty twerking. It was interesting taking a class in-person after doing HIIT online for so many days. Although, there's definitely something unique about the journey of a workout class with other people you don't know and end up sharing a bond with. So while I wouldn't go to an in-person workout class daily because of their high intensity, it's a necessity to go at least once a week within your routine so you can't say you've slacked off at all.

Takeaways & Tips

1. Try a variety of workout styles

If you've made it here, you know that I went through 6 different videos and an additional in-person hip hop cardio class to figure out that what I enjoyed most was a routine that had an upbeat dance feel, was mostly standing and focused time on a specific body area (abs, legs, arms etc).

But I only could have confirmed this because I tried such a range of videos and HIIT styles.

2. Don't feel bad about the workout pace or style that fits you

When I first realized that I preferred standing workouts above all, I initially felt bad because I worried that they weren't as effective or difficult. But then it hit me - the purpose of working out is to find what works for you so there isn't a too easy or too hard routine that should be judged by others.

3. Cater the intensity of your workout choices

What made this week possible was having low intensity HIIT days to balance the high intensity ones. In short-term challenges like this one, I can imagine that many people feel the need to go all out each and every day in order to do it justice. But keeping in mind my initial goal of aiming to discover a workout routine that fit me, I knew I had to be realistic in my choices.

Like many things in life, what you do one day strongly influences what you can do the next day. Haven't you heard that life's a marathon, not a sprint? And within life, exercising is surely there.

I'm genuinely proud that I can even write an article like this because I've never been good at keeping up workout routines through multiple days. Also, it's the following week that I'm writing this post and I just finished up my HIIT routine earlier. So here's to the post "exercise with HIIT workouts for a thousand days," because I have no doubt that it'll happen now that I've found a routine that I can actually smile through.

#HIIT #fitness #workingout #workout #exercise #youtube #challenge #lifestyle #cardio #strength