Happy Sunday! I hope your weekend has been absolutely marvelous! Today, the hubs and I are going out with my Dad ans step-Mom for her birthday. We will also be having my favorite meal ever at our new mall- brunch! Eep, I am so excited!! It is the one the I looked forward to being able to do at this mall more than anything else- although the shopping is pretty darn great too.
This week has included two hot yoga classes, one of which we did 108 Sun Salutations in. The picture above is me post class :) So sleepy! Also, it is super hard to move my arms day after. The second incredible workout I did this week was my first ever Les Mills class, GRIT. I recently met the trainer at a fashion luncheon that we were both modeling for. We hit it off right away and I got to pick her brain for quite a long time about GRIT, workouts, and how she instructs people to loose weight. After that I had to take her class.
For those of you who do not know (which included me a few days ago), GRIT is a form of high intensity interval training that has three different workout types. These workout types include a plyo class, cardio class, and weight class. I was able to take the weight class. Each class is only 30-minutes long but promises an intense interval workout that will either increase athletic performance (plyo), increase calorie burn (cardio), or increase lean muscle growth (weights).
This is an intense workout. For my 30-minute session alone i was able to burn about 300 calories. Considering it was a 30-minute weight class, I was flabbergasted. The class was comprised of multiple 1-2 minute sequences that were done in order with 1-minute breaks in between every few. This allowed your heart rate to come back down off it's high instead of keeping it up the whole time; in the end, burning more calories.
Our class used a barbell, weight plates, and a step. If you are planning on trying this kind of workout, I would highly recommend wearing a HRM. Like Orange Theory, the goal of this workout is to burn as many calories after you leave as when you are in the class. I was constantly looking down at my HRM to make sure my body was in the right zone for the right amount of time. Doing a workout that keeps you at the top of your heart rate would, actually be counterproductive to burning fat and begin burning muscle.
If you are not able to talk to your trainer about the right heart rate before the class begins, try following this rule- The heart should not be between 84%-94% about 20% of the time. The rest of the time it should be between 69%-83%. That is about the same breakdown you will see at Orange Theory and should produce the calorie burn you want in the workout and after.
I cannot wait to try the cardio class and see how many calories are burnt there!