Interval Training- even with Weights!

HIIT- Good for Weights, Too!

I really didn’t feel like being in the gym last night.  It was a long day at work, I was late picking up the kids, and my body was still a little sore from playing basketball the day before.  So on the way to the gym I decided I’d just do a quick workout.  Now I preface that with the fact that my quick workouts have been known to last an hour or so.

But I was determined to keep my promise to myself.  Luckily, I’d just installed this cool app on my Android phone.  Called HIIT for “High Intensity Interval Training,” it allows me to feed it variables like prep time; rest/recover period; work/training period; and how many sets or rounds for each cycle-through.  The cool thing is it beeps or buzzes when it’s time to switch exercises or downshift from work to recover.  

Now this type of training was initially built around cariovascular activities.  Sprinting, then jogging, for example.  Burpees and Jumps, to light abs is also one I like a lot.  Few people incorporate weight training into HIIT, though.  But, like I’ll write about in a later post, I’ve been doing a similar version of it that I call “volume training” ever since my wife and my first child was born.  I just didn’t have time to spend in the gym Billy-Sam’in (or BS-ing for the more mature readers).

So last night was the perfect chance for me to try out this new phone gadget.  It was my arms day, so I decided to combine:

1. Standing Dumbbell Curls
2. Tricep (cable) Pressdowns
3. Bicycle Abdominals

I did each exercise for 30 seconds with a 15 second rest in between.  At the end of each Cycle/Big Set, I rested 45 seconds before running through the gamut again.  That’s about 3 minutes for each set.  After 30 minutes, I’d done 10 Big Sets and was really tired.  I obviously couldn’t go as heavy as I normally would, but the burn was just as intense.  And my heart rate got up pretty high (I don’t monitor it, but I might begin to), so I got a decent cardiovascular workout, as well.  I’m going to try to do this training with other body parts and exercises.  I’ll check back in with you to let you know how it goes.  You let me (all of us) know if you have any cool combinations or other workouts we can try, too.