Hello friends~
Hope you’re staying cool, feeling good, and having a fun, steamy summer!
I love warm weather, and especially longer days, just modifying exercise intensity in the middle of the day, and when it hits 90, as we all should.
Most of the time I feel great, but every so often joint aches and pains of arthritis, or inflammation from sport-related injuries flare up and remind me of the harsh truth – aging is happening every nano second. The other truth is that our bodies are amazing, and movement is medicine.
We don’t have to follow the downward curve of age.
My favorite book on staying strong and fit (informative and even humorous!) is Younger Next Year.
The authors explain how muscle fiber diminishes naturally (sarcopenia), beginning after about age 35, and then declines more rapidly after 60. But If we train the remaining muscle fibers we can stay strong, fit, and sharp much, much longer. We can reduce the risk of injury, and even possibly prevent and correct illness and disease. It’s no secret that exercise is effective in improving cardiovascular, heart health, and can improve hypertension and diabetes.
So what kind of exercise is best? If you’re looking for efficiency and effectiveness, take a look at HIIT.
What’s HIIT and how can you use it to stay strong and fit?
Joe Friel of Training Peaks explains the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training, and that you can continue to improve aerobic capacity even as you age. HIIT is the stuff that’s “uncomfortable” to do, and done in short sessions. Like almost everything else, the meaning of what’s uncomfortable to each of us is, “it depends”. It’s individual, subjective, and it takes honest assessment of our rate of perceived exertion RPE- on a scale of 1-10, considering the length of the interval and how long intensity can be maintained.
Hospital For Special Surgery exercise physiologist explains: “the goal with HIIT is to switch between high and low levels of effort based on which activity level is right for you.”
After training some initial HIIT sessions, you’ll get to know what feels challenging to you, and how to assess the level of discomfort, based upon the weight you’ve chosen, the number of repetitions, seconds or minutes, and the duration of the training session. How does it feel? Try the “Talk Test”.
A “talkable” pace is comfortable, at a level that could be sustained for a long session. “Slightly hard to talk – prefer not to” is getting harder, moderate intensity, and can be sustained for a shorter time. “Hard to talk in more than one syllable” is vigorous, high intensity, and sustainable for the shortest duration intervals.
What happens when you ramp up the intensity of your workouts?
HIIT workouts switch between high effort and recovery, and can be modified to meet your strength and fitness level, which makes it accessible to adults of all ages. The human body is so amazing that you can start exercising, even at your own high intensity at any time and reap the benefits. Of course you should always check with your doctor for clearance.
You can:
- increase muscle strength
- improve cholesterol
- lower blood sugar and improve insulin resistance
- boost metabolism
- increase ability to do exercise that involves pushing your heart rate
- lower blood pressure
- help with weight loss
People say that lack of time is one of the biggest obstacles to training.
We’re all time crunched, so since HIIT workouts are short and deliver results, you can get fewer, harder workouts during the week, and on days when you have more time, do longer, Low Intensity Steady State, “LISS” workouts, which are also important for a balanced program.
Rowing is the BEST High Intensity Low Impact Training!
Remember that HIIT is short duration and efficient training. But what about getting all that benefit with low impact?
Men’s Journal Magazine confirms that rowing is one of the most effective ways to perform HILIT: high intensity, low impact training, and offers solid rowing tips and workouts.
As a certified UCanRow2 Indoor Rowing Instructor, my clients attest to the benefits of rowing – it’s for everyone at every age. See your results training in person or virtually, with or without a rowing machine. Here are ❤️ testimonials
A new testimonial just in, from a dedicated client of many years:
I love working with Polli. I recently relocated out of state and was afraid that my time with Polli would have to end. But thanks to technology (Zoom) my sessions with Polli have actually increased.
Let’s get together.
I’ll create a program for you with HIIT workouts, LISS workouts, including both impact and low impact, in exercises on and off the rowing machine for your individual strength and cardio fitness goals!
Onward!
Polli
