My long term client Kim is in her mid 50’s, and she just had a whole shwack (ha, never used that word in my writing before) of tests done by a private health clinic last week.
It was the full meal deal, including comprehensive fitness testing, which she scored “excellent” in (duh!)…
and the fella testing her said “you should be really proud of yourself.”
Damn right, how many other people that day pumped out 40 pushups?!
The fella gave her one recommendation, to add some HIIT to her program to boost her cardiovascular fitness.
We discussed it and I told her how to do HIIT in her home gym using the treadmill and elliptical.
I also reminded her multiple times to keep it very short, and notice how her body and energy levels felt for 24 hours following the intervals.
She started with 5 hard sprints. She did this on Monday. And she felt low on energy for two days after.
She is a health and fitness rockstar, so she puts in the time and effort to get results. But I could tell on the phone she felt dread about the HIIT.
And I completely understand, because when you do it correctly, it’s HARD.
Really hard.
So I switched her HIIT to a lighter version, which will still boost her cardio fitness….
but also feel more PLEASUREABLE and exhilarating.
When I gave her the new version she said “now THAT sounds do-able!”
Moral of the story. It’s important to listen to the feedback from your BODY, to make sure “fill in the blank” is right for you.
You don’t have to do extreme things to get into great shape. Or in her case excellent shape!
It’s more about strategy, and doing just enough to produce the results you want.
And that’s why my clients, enjoy the shit out of their workouts, and adopt a fit lifestyle….
because I design their workouts to feel good AND get results. Feeling GOOD is sustainable.
Sonja. xo!