Fitness with FitCassie: hiit

Showing posts with label hiit. Show all posts

Monday, May 11, 2015

Monday Post

Good Morning!!!

So today I wanted to share my workout schedule and some goals for this week. In my last post I talked about being prepared so I hope this will be helpful for you guys, and you can modify to your life!

Goals:
1. Get to work on time every day (seriously I get to work at 8:02 - I need to be here earlier!)
2. Focus on getting appropriate rest.
3. Put 130% into every workout.

Workout Schedule:
Monday - off
Tuesday - Legs (Squats) and HIIT
Wednesday - Upper Body (Back Focus)
Thursday - HIIT and Abs
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Legs
Sunday - Upper Body (Shoulder Focus) and HIIT

So I will try to post as much info about workouts and meals as I can (but let's be real, I probably won't do it as often as I should :-P). So below is my tentative meal plan for the week and my workout from yesterday.

Meal Plan:
- Breakfast - Protein Shake
- Snack 1 - Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffin
- Lunch - Chicken Noodle Soup (under the weather today)
- Snack 2 - Greek Yogurt and carrots
- Dinner - varied?!?!? (today it's kabobs!)

Shoulder Workout: 500 rep WOD
1. Shoulder Press (smith machine/barbell) (10x10)
with bicep curl (3x10)
2. Upright Row (barbell) (5x10)
3. Lateral Raise (5x10)
with triceps extension (3x10)
4. Front Raise (5x10)
5. Arnold Press (10x10)
with dips (3x10)
6. Rear Delt Raise (5x10)
7. Shoulder Circles (10x10)

--I incorporated other upper body exercises to give the delt muscle some rest. I tried to do the whole workout in 1 hour (it took like 10-15 more minutes than that). What you want to go for is minimal rest but effective reps. Remember to do a weight that is appropriate yet challenging.

I hope you all have a great Monday!! :-)

Monday, June 2, 2014

Fasted Cardio: To Do or Not To Do, That is the Question?!

Fasted Cardio

So lately I have been seeing a lot of articles on fasted cardio. I am not one to jump into a program lightly so I have been doing some research. I was surprised to find so many articles contradicting the other. So I want to discuss the reason people do fasted cardio and my opinion on cardio.

First, the definition. Fasted cardio = cardio on an empty stomach. Second, the purpose. The purpose of fasted cardio is so that your body will be at a glycogen (fuel) deficient state that your body will have to pull fat to burn for energy. So is fasted cardio better than "normal" fed cardio? To the best of my knowledge...no it is not. For people looking to put on lean muscle mass, fasted cardio can acutally be detrimental to your progress. During fasted cardio your body is breaking down fat and fatty acid are released into the bloodstream, but there are too many and the body isn't able to process and therefore they are reabsorbed back into fat cells. It has been shown that low intensity fasted cardio does burn fat, but you have to do cardio for longer than 90 minutes...thats 3 episodes of The Big Bang Theory! I don't have that kind of time lying around in the morning! Fasted cardio may burn more calories upfront but you stop burning calories the minutes you stop doing cardio. To burn fat you want your body to go into "excess post-exercise oxygen consumptions" (EPOC) this is called afterburn, these are calories you burn hours after you have stopped exercising...this doesn't happen with fasted cardio.

My suggestion? HIIT cardio. It has been proved over and over that high intensity interval training is the best cardio for your body. First, it is quick (average 15-45 minute sessions). Second, it can be done anywhere (outside, home, gym). Third, intervals keep the person guessing so time goes faster. I LOVE HIIT. This is the only way I do cardio anymore. Usually I do cardio right after weight lifting so 15-45 minutes is the perfect amount of time. I also like it because it's not boring...I am not one of those people that can run on a treadmill or ride a bike for hours...I would DIE. My suggestion is to get a heart rate monitor, doing this you will be able to monitor your heart rate and adjust intervals to your necessity. I have posted a couple of HIIT workouts...some of my favorites are on the treadmill but I have recently started going outside to do cardio. Cardio outside is also great because I can do it with the dog...two birds with one stone anyone?!?!

HIIT is also super awesome because it help your hormones. When you have a good diet, sleep 7-8 hours a night, lift weights, your hormones will be super helpful in building lean muscle. Always remember...

lean muscle = more fat burning = awesome sauce

Cassie's Tips for Cardio: (kinda sorta stolen from Men's Health)

1. Always Always Always warm up - at least 5 minutes before cardio AND weight lifting

2. SPRINT - do max for 30 secs and then recovery for 90ish secs

3. Good posture - when on any cardio machine it is easy to have bad posture, you want to make sure that you have good posture in order to decrease possible injury.

4. Recovery - when doing interval you want to go to 90% of your effort, with this being said you need to give your body time to recover. When sprinting you should find it hard to breath at the end of the 30 secs, and then 90 sec recover to normal breathing.

5. Take your cardio outdoors - I mean hello...vitamin D!! :-)

This is one of my treadmill HIIT workouts.

1. Warm up - 5 minutes (spd 3.0, inc 7)

2. Lunges - 1 minute (spd 1.8, inc 1.5)

3. Walking plank - 1 minute (spd 2.0, inc 1.5)

4. Push-ups - 10-15 reps

5. Jump squats - 10-15 reps

6. Walk- 1 minute (spd 2.0, inc 1.5)

Repeat x4

6. Cool down - 5 minutes (spd 3.0, inc 7)

***like what you see?! Check out my Instagram page for workouts, recipes, and motivation!!! @fitcassie_88***

Monday, May 5, 2014

HIIT Workout - Outside Addition :-)

Workout Of The Day -

So yesterday I posted on Instagram that I would be posting an outside workout. I want to do this for a couple of reasons.

1. Sometimes people do not have access to the gym and want things that they can do at home. I have bought a pair of weights that were inexpensive to use at home.

2. The weather is so beautiful it sucks to be stuck inside a stuffy…smelly...dim gym.

3. Vitamin D is AMAZING for you to get regularly! Being outside in the sun has been shown to increase neurotransmitter release, therefore making the correlation in your brain that exercise is fun! :-)

So yesterday I went to the gym for a quick arm sesh and then decided to go outside for some sun and cardio! :-) So here is a little workout. (I used bleachers but they are not a necessity)

Circuit 1 -

Up and down the stairs (or high knees) for 1 min

Lunges up bleachers (or lunges on track) for 1 min

Step up and kickback on bench or elevate surface – 10 each side

Break for 1-2 minutes (If you have a heart rate monitor, wait until your heart rate has returned to a normal level. If you don’t use your breathing as a monitoring tool. You should be able to breathe “normally” with only slight impairment.)

Circuit 2 -

Toe taps on stairs (or fast feet) for 1 min

Moving feet one at a time forwards and backwards as fast as you can go

Up and down the stairs (or high knees) 1 min

Sprint one length of bleacher x 4 (or spring for 15 secs x4)

Circuit 3 -

Run one lap

Sprint for 35-45 secs

Walk one lap

This little workout took me about 20 minutes. Remember to rest and get your heart rate back to normal. This is going to help later on with your hormone level, which at night will help with muscle repair. Hope you like this workout. I am going to be posting more I promise!! Life has been so crazy, but I am getting back to my roots ;-)

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Dreaded "C" Word...Cardio

Let’s talk about the dreaded cardio…dun dun dunnnn. I have said it many times and I will say it many more, I am sure, I AM NOT A CARDIO BUNNY. If I could get away with doing no cardio at all that would be the life! Unfortunately I understand the benefits of cardio and why it is needed in a well rounded fitness routine. Some people will tell you that you don’t need to cardio that strength training is all you need. I don’t believe in “cutting” anything out of my fitness routine. This goes for food, cardio, different workouts, etc.

This week my coach increased my cardio to an hour 6 times a week in order to continue to cut body fat. Once your body gets to a point it starts to retain water, fat, etc. in order to stay “healthy”. I am trying to cut fat in order to get ready for a show which means ill have to get down to 12-14% body fat, which is not an everyday body fat percentage. With that being said I had to increase cardio in order to help my body along with this process.

In an effort to make cardio more fun and interesting I have started to do HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts 2-4 times a week. Personally interval training makes cardio more fun and it goes by faster. So why is cardio important?

1. Cardio helps burn calories which will aid in fat loss.

2. Cardio helps build the most important muscle in your body, your heart.

3. Increase in cardio exercise releases endorphins (serotonin, dopamine, etc.) which improve your mood.

4. Cardio decrease stress, mentally and physically.

5. Cardio increases your endurance which will help in strength training.

6. Cardio will help you sleep better; getting a full night sleep will allow your body to repair after intense strength training sessions.

Sounds great doesn’t it?! Well all these things don’t mean cardio still doesn’t suck! I have recent done research on HIIT workouts and sprints. Take some time and look at pictures of sprinters, they are built! HIIT has become my new form of go to cardio so I will share some of the workouts that I do.

-HIIT can be done in many different ways. The way that I like to do it is by setting up an exercise for each muscle group and doing that exercise for 30 seconds and then a rest period. Some people do exercises that will increase heart rate but not use weighted exercises. This is totally up to you. Look up some HIIT example workouts, try a few and see which ones you like best.

HIIT Workout (Full body workout)

Shoulders

-Squat Press

-Bicycle Crunches

-Jumping Jacks