4 Minutes of Continuous Hi-Intensity Exercise
The benefits of hi-intensity exercise, High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT have been long understood and unfortunately highly underutilized. When you look at the benefits you think, wow, I should do this more often, but the sad part is, our second thought is one of resistance. That’s too hard, besides I’ll go for a run later we tell ourselves. Or we stick to the old routine of our favorite exercises I.E bench and curls, doing 5 to 10 reps of a semi challenging weight and then spend the proceeding 5 minutes looking at Facebook or checking your texts and wondering why you’re not getting the results you want.
We get it. Pushing yourself to a new limit is hard and daunting. That is why we created our 4 Minutes of Madness. We understand the benefits of HIIT, but we also understand the fear of going balls to the wall for a whole session. We decided to meet you in the middle. You take 4 minutes out of your morning (Yes just 4 minutes) to do these, no equipment needed, exercises and still receive all the benefits. Benefits like increased metabolism due to excess post oxygen consumption whereby the excess amount of oxygen consumed during the session helps increase your rate of metabolism from about 90 minutes to 144 minutes after a session of interval training. Other positives that come along with our 4 Minutes of Madness is getting a cardio effect with the potential muscle loss seen in longer bouts of traditional cardio. Benefits decreased blood sugar and increased production of HGH (Human Growth Hormone) for the rest of the day helping your body use more energy for repair and growth hence increased metabolism.
5. Mobility (Foam Rolling, Stretching, Yoga etc.)
We are constantly beating our bodies up through work, exercise, shitty posture, sports, lack of sleep and the list goes on, but we rarely take the opportunity to do things that will help repair and restore us to homeostasis or normality. There are loads of unaddressed issues that we create for ourselves. Issues that can create restrictions in movement and restrictions in energy flow that can sap us of energy as the issues are left to their own devices leaving us in pain and hindering us from being our best.
Mobility is the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. For many people this means simply foam rolling or self-myofascial release. While foam rolling is extremely beneficial you can increase its benefits by adding in stretching and yoga movements. Combining these three forms of mobility will help you gain flexibility, increase your range of motion, decrease the risk of injury, increase muscle activation, decrease muscle and joint pain, increase movement of fluid in the body assisting in more efficient excretion of toxins. It’s a no brainer. Add Mobility work to your training and in 6 months you’ll be a new person.
That is our 5 Simple Steps to Longevity. These are all things that are within your control. If you are willing to give yourself the gift of health, wellness and longevity, begin by adding in one of these techniques daily and build on them as they become part of your daily rituals to help you become the best version of yourself.