Shoes / Capris / Tank

Shoes / Leggings / Long Sleeve

Workout Wednesday is BACK! After great feedback last October {find those posts here, here, here & here}, I have decided to restart Workout Wednesdays on A Midwestern Mix. Fitness is a huge part of my life and I workout a minimum of 6x/week with a focus on my 7th day as an ‘Active Rest’ day where I typically go for a long walk and do lots of stretching & foam rolling. *Posts to come on Active Rest Days AND on foam rolling!* Throughout this series I will share things ranging from my favorite routines to the best fitness attire to interviews with those in the industry and more. Today’s focus is my love/hate relationship with High-Intensity Interval Training!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is HARD. It is also efficient–think quicker workouts–and wildly effective. HIIT workouts basically involve alternating between intense bursts and movement and lower-intensity activity or even complete rest periods. You’ll feel exhausted after a good HIIT session but you can also feel confident in knowing that you torched many more calories than a typical steady-state run or basic exercise session. As someone who gets bored easily with workouts, I’ve turned to various HIIT routines over the last 3 years to keep my workouts varied and as exciting as a workout can ultimately be. When I first started off with these types of workouts I relied heavily on Karena & Katrina from Tone It Up and the Cardio/HIIT tab on their website. As I’ve gained more experience and really narrowed down what I like and what is most effectively for me personally, I began to create my own routines. I have stacks of both hand-written and typed pages of HIIT variations ranging from work on the treadmill only, to treadmill/free weight combos, kettlebells, jump roping, etc. so depending on my mood and energy levels, I will pull a workout from the pile when I don’t have OrangeTheory, a pilates class, or a long training run to do.

Above I posted one of my go-to Treadmill Routines. As a runner, I like {using the word like VERY loosely, HA!} to focus on hills/incline at least once per week because I truly believe that it has helped, and continues to help, my speed and endurance. Running short bursts on an incline or up a hill improves your strength and its honestly made flat-surface running a lot easier to me. This particular HIIT workout is a quick 25-minute session that will skyrocket your heart rate while doing it but also make you feel like a rockstar afterwards. The speeds and inclines I noted are what work well for me, but you can easily increase or decrease speeds/incline by as much as necessary to tailor it to your current fitness level. I love that this workout can be done in such a short amount of time–I swear everyone has 25 ‘extra’ minutes in their day. What if you skipped your daily Instagram scroll when you woke up and did this instead? Just a thought 😉 Of course I am no Doctor and everything I’ve written is simply my opinions from my experience, so be sure to consult your personal Physician to make sure that you’re ready for this, or any, type of exercise regime before going all-out.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on HIIT, your favorite workouts, or suggestions for upcoming Workout Wednesday posts so feel free to share below!