How HIIT helped my workout and my work

I’ve been working with a physical trainer on and off for several months. Charity helps me focus on the proper form and provides me with a structured exercise plan that I can challenge myself with by increasing weight or repetitions. She was the one that really shook up my routine by introducing me to Tabata training or High-Intensity Interval Training, HIIT.

HIIT training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. They conducted research on two groups of athletes and found that high-intensity interval training has more impact on both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. 

What I saw was less time, better results. I am always looking at how I can spend less time getting better results. I knew immediately HIIT was for me. 

My trainer introduced me to 30 seconds high impact and 30 seconds low impact. It certainly helped me raise my metabolic rate which helps me burn more calories. Yahoo! 

I saw the impact on my strength, stamina and weight loss and thought if this works for my workouts would this concept help in my work?

So I tried it. 

It works. 

What I practice is HIIF, high-intensity interval focus. I find that I work best in chunks of 45-60 minutes maximum of 100% pure focus. During this high-intensity time, I turn all technical distractions to ‘Do Not Disturb’ and close my office door. I’ve made an agreement that the only circumstances people can interrupt me during this time are if someone is injured or something is on fire.  

I set a timer and when the timer rings, I then focus on my interval work that requires less focus, such as the easy stuff on my ‘to do’ list that makes me feel a sense of immediate accomplishment. And I focus only 15-20 minutes on this type of work before I hit my high intensity again. 

So voila! The success of my trainer introducing me to HIIT has helped me to apply it to my work. 

Thanks, Charity!