First Posted: 12/19/2014
1. What is your day job?
I am a graphic designer at Longmeier Printing & Advertising.
2. What is HIIT?
It stands for high intensity interval training. It’s a type of workout where you elevate the heart rate and then take a break and bring it back down. You repeat that over a period of 20 to 30 minutes.
3. How did you become the HIIT instructor?
Well, I was instructor and teaching classes prior to that at the YMCA, and it was thought this type of training would be beneficial. They asked if I’d be interested in teaching the class, and I said yes.
4. What are the benefits of this type of exercise over, say, running at the same pace?
There are tons of benefits. Some of them include better fat burning. You get better results faster than steady state cardio. It’s shorter, too. You burn more calories in 30 minutes of doing HIIT than if you went out and jogged that same amount of time. You also get a better after burn. You continue to burn calories for a 24 hour period.
5. Can people new to fitness do HIIT or is more for those who are more advanced?
It is absolutely for all levels of fitness. It is all relative to how hard you push yourself. If you are training for a while, you can push harder. If you’ve never really worked out before, you don’t have to push as hard and can work up to it. When I started out on my fitness journey, I weighed 340 pounds. This is the type of workout I did to get to the point I am now. I was completely out of shape but my trainer believed in it. I lost 100 pounds in eight months doing this, and now I’m trying to pay that forward.
6. Is there anyone who should avoid this type of workout?
If you have possibly a heart condition, you should check with your physician first. Maybe someone who is the advanced stages of pregnancy, this might not be the type of workout for them. If you have injuries, like your back or something, you should check with your doctor first. In my class, everything can be modified, so I don’t want to say anyone can’t, but if you have a condition like heart, then check with your doctor first.
7. What’s the biggest challenge in teaching HIIT classes?
Probably getting them motivated. I try to get my people to push themselves outside their comfort zone. That’s my job, especially the elite that have been doing this a while. They need to be exhausted when they leave, and I can usually tell if they accomplish that or not. The thing is, once they do the workout as hard as they can, then they are energized for the rest of their day.
8. What are the rewards?
Just seeing people who just start out. They come in to class and it is really hard. They can hardly do one interval but by the end of the class, they are right up there with those who have been doing it for a while. Just seeing them improve and continue to push themselves and achieve their goals.
