Pain-Free, What a Concept

Strangely mostly pain-free. Wow, is this what it feels like to be normal? It’s a short-term prescription, but hopefully it will have long-lasting effects. Might as well enjoy it while I can.

It’s funny to see what people are calling HIIT (high intensity interval training) on youtube, especially since I avoided it for so long. See, I get the idea to push yourself for a bit, and then let up. But back when I was in shape I was already hitting BP 140-180 and I thought what, you’re telling me that’s not enough? And if you’re going to push yourself say, 2 minutes (or whatever), I thought you might as well push yourself as long as possible, right? Get that much more out of it? Why “only” do intervals if you can push yourself and haven’t keeled over yet?

Right now I’m looking at the stuff I’ve been dong and seeing it labeled HIIT and I think you’ve got to be kidding – this is easy. Some of them are doing the activity for 50 seconds, resting for 10 (or various combinations). I’m trying to see if I can push through and not use the 10 second break because that would be even better, right? Let alone the ones that are 45 seconds work and 15 second breaks. Geesh, if I had know it was this easy I would have gotten on board long ago. Of course maybe it’s because some of these are old-people exercises, but not all of them.

Then this bizzare idea that a person can exercise for a smaller time-frame and it still counts. 10 minute cardio? Unheard of when I was younger. I thought one had to do at least 25 minutes in order for it to “count.” I came from the background of ok, how long to we want to exercise? Am I ready to commit to 30+ minutes? Is it worth dragging out the treadmill if not? I wish I had contemplated a less serious approach could still be beneficial instead of a more all-or-nothing approach. Now when I work from home I can do a few minutes on each break. I don’t have to wait until lunch or after work to do a “serious” work-out. What a thought.