Boost Your Metabolism Through Evolved HIIT & Hard Work!

Back over the holidays I sent out an email to my StrongFigure readers saying that we were switching our StrongFigure email server and to bear with us — that when we were done with that process I would have a really good article for you with some awesome information on fat burning.

The majority of my StrongFigure readers are people who have all struggled at some point with fat loss. And most of these same readers are pretty big into fitness, so I feel like this audience probably already has a pretty good grasp on topics such as interval cardio and strength training. I mean we are “Strong” Figure.

When I started blogging in 2011-2012, the whole purpose behind Strongfigure was just to recap what I had learned in my journey of successfully dropping about 50 pounds of fat and building a lot of good-looking muscle ;). I have blogged about everything from carb timing to Paleo diets, mushroom coffee, low carb experiments, and many many successes and also failures. I’ve blogged about CrossFit and Powerlifting, written two books with over 100 workouts in each of them, and I have another health and fitness book, also on Amazon, Revamp Your Health. I write about anything and everything I’ve experienced and I always report my findings.

Well in 2018 I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to open a bootcamp gym. It took me a few months to start learning about my avatar – or our “niche” that we market to, but soon it became clear that our market (though not limited to), is mostly made up of women between the ages of 25 and 45 and most of whom who have had children. And the common denominator among almost all of them is the goal of fat loss. Sure, there are goals like getting a first pull up, running a 5K, or jumping a 20 inch box; but even most of these members have the same aspirations of losing fat and gaining muscle.

Now if you know me – you know for almost the entirety of my “fitness life,” I’ve been a huge proponent of interval cardio for fat loss. One of the leanest times of my life was when I did interval sprints on a track. It was a miserable fitness routine – but no one ever said getting abs to show was an easy thing to do. So when my clientele started stepping into the gym one after the other saying, “I want to lose my belly” or “I need to burn off this baby weight” or “I just want to get toned and get smaller and fit into such and such size clothes again” – I knew it was my job to make these goals turn to reality. Because let me be totally selfish for a minute – I had had a baby one year before and was still struggling to drop those last 10 or so pounds of baby weight. And since I’ve always struggled with fat loss (and conquering fat loss is exactly why Strongfigure exists), I knew that I needed a plan that would help me. Helping myself was helping every single client and member I’ve ever had. I knew if I could do it then it would definitely help others too.

So how would I do this? The answer is interval cardio. Hard interval cardio. Now you might be saying, “All right, so what’s the big deal? We’ve known this for years and it’s nothing surprising.” And that’s true: I think most everyone is starting to realize that interval cardio, HIIT, Tabatas – whatever you want to call it – is how we burn fat–especially that stubborn belly fat!! And when combined with strength training, the results come even quicker. But the more shocking thing for me is that I’ve always read and I’ve always been told that “You should keep interval cardio to 20 minutes a day or less.” And that if you can do more than that then you’re not working hard enough when you’re doing it OR you may even be doing steady state cardio and not realizing it. Because if you’re not dead after 20 minutes then you’re clearly wrong and just not doing it right.

But then I started to think — fitness has evolved. And we as strong women have evolved. Look at the way women workout now versus the way they did 20 years ago. Collectively and individually we are so much freaking stronger than we’ve ever been. More women can do pull ups now than you’ve ever seen before. More women are competing in strong(wo)man contests and it’s even harder than ever to compete in CrossFit because women are so stinking fast, strong, and talented that it’s all but impossible to make it to the games. I personally know two amazing women who are headed to Nationals in weightlifting. Two! I never even imagined I would know one person male or female who is that strong with a barbell. But they’re freaking killing it man!

So why can’t we, the average exerciser, step up the game too? Why not instead of 20 minutes of HIIT, we do 30, 35, or 40 minutes? Can we take the strength training that we’re doing and build it into a little bit of a faster paced workout so that we’re resting less, moving more, and moving heavier weight for a longer period of time? I don’t know, maybe some of you will read this and think that it doesn’t sound so genius and others might be nodding your head in agreements. But personally, I think that we, women AND men; are stronger, faster, and more capable than ever of pushing our limits. So honestly – that’s just what I’m doing with our bootcamp. I bring in a group of women and men every day who have the same common goal – get stronger, get leaner, build muscle, and burn fat; and we pick up dumbbells and kettlebells and we haul ass for a minimum of 30 minutes, usually closer to 40.

Here is the key – you can’t perform HIIT (the right way) for 40 minutes without a break. No one should be able to full-on “sprint” for 40 minutes. But any of us can sprint for short intervals. So what if we combine a crap-ton of short intervals to equal roughly 40 minutes of full-blown sprinting? And that’s how I program: several shorter workouts and combine them all into one big workout each day. We may do three 10-minute EMOMs (every minute on the minute workouts) or two 12-minute AMRAPs (as many rounds as possible) with a 10-minute Tabata (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest) core session in the end. There have been days where we’ve done eight 5-minute workouts. Each workout was three minutes long with a two minute break. The movements or exercises aren’t new – it’s the same stuff I’ve been teaching for the past 10 to 12 years. Lots of kettlebell swings, snatches, dumbbell presses, goblet squats, lunges, box jumps, jumping rope–a lot of the basics mixed with a lot of plyometrics, sprints, pulls, pushes, even wall balls and burpees. And it’s good stuff. It actually works. And yes it is hard work but our community is amazing! We all motivate and inspire each other so much that many of us can’t wait for the next incredibly difficult workout.

Ok, so none of this info is really “new” info and to be honest it isn’t even really a big secret. But it has been life-changing for my crew and me. Just by increasing the duration of time spent in the intense interval state (intensity it KEY), we are seeing shifts in our bodies that are making us more and more confident, stronger, and happier. Honestly, we are just working our butts off for as long as we can. It’s taxing and I have to program recovery weeks, strength cycle weeks, and I even have to convince people to take some rest days – more than they want to. But with the proper nutrition guidance and adequate recovery, the end result is something achievable and it’s something a lot of us want: real results.

I was able to knock off the last of my baby weight from exercising in this manner, and then I lost even more! Our members have been dropping clothing sizes, pounds like mad, and have even been gaining muscle. Do you know how hard it is to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? We’ve been doing it — myself included — and I’m not making that up as a selling point either. We use a local facility to test our body fat percentage and several of us have actually been able to gain muscle while losing fat. The rest have maintained muscle and have lost fat.

I’ll give you three workouts that we’ve done at some point over the last few months, and I’m going to warn you – don’t do them alone. Find a partner and push each other because if I had to do these workouts by myself every day, I don’t think I would do them. And if I did, I wouldn’t work near as hard as I would along someone else doing the same thing. If you like these workouts, contact me and I can send you some more. If you’re local to Harrisonburg, VA – come join us so we can help you make sh*t happen.

Not local? We’ve got you covered! We are now offering At Home Bootcamp Programming you can do either at your home (thanks Covid), or in your gym. You’ll need a few pieces of equipment, but nothing major like a rower or treadmill.

Sign up here!! -> SFBC’s At Home Bootcamp Programming!