Admittedly, I’m a bit of a sucker for Instagram’s targeted ads. As soon as a signed up for Asana Rebel, my feed kind of exploded with all sorts of fitness apps and programs, and gym or classes in places I had recently googled (there are some pretty interesting fitness programs available in NYC, however, I just travel there, I don’t live there)
I’ve looked at quite a few of them, specifically the programs, because while I absolutely adore Asana Rebel, it’s nice to break up the routine with something a little harder. Asana Rebel is consider a ‘YIF’, or ‘yoga inspired fitness’. Around the house we’ve been referring to it as ‘LIIT’, or ‘light intensity interval training’, so essentially, Anna and I have been look for some HIIT, to go with out LIIT so we can get FIT. (sorry).
Cue the well made, and well placed ads by BodyBoss. The program is designed as a twelve week, three day per, HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout regiment. The workouts take 24 minutes, and it’s all you need to get a BOSS BODY. You can do the workouts anywhere you book (or your phone) goes, and it works with your body, rather than complicated weights! If you buy the bundle, it comes with a nutrition guide, that is scheduled to go with the program, and includes a two day a week grocery list, and meal prep guide to make it easy, for busy boss woman looking to get fit and healthy. Awesome, right?
At $89.90 for the online, instant access bundle, it was a financial commitment. While I’m happy to jump on things like this (I didn’t even bat at eye at my Asana Rebel subscription cost), I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dedicate to HIIT the way I had to YIF. Thankfully, BossBody Method has a one week trial that you can download, so I hopped to it, and found a way to convince Anna that this would be the best thing for us to get fabulous beach bodies for our annual California Escape.
The first thing I’d like to mention, is that the workouts are NOT 24 minutes. Even the ‘shorter’ day in the trial, Friday, is 26 minutes, and from the format, I can’t understand where that magical number came from, but we were already prepared for the trial week, so we pushed ahead. The format is a ten minute warm up(four minutes of moderate cardio, and six minutes of stretching), then the HIIT intervals, then a ten minute cool down, the same as the warm up. The HIIT sets provided are meant to be done within seven minutes and if finished early, the last exercise is to be repeated until the seven minutes are up. You then get a three minute ‘rest’, before doing the interval two more times, three times altogether (Which, if you’re keeping count, that’s 50 minutes).
The first week we did the trial (yes, you read that correctly, the first week), our goal was just to make it through the HIIT set once, no matter how much time it took us. I did a little more research, discovered that there’s a four week prep program to the actual BossBody program when you purchase, and felt a little better about myself, but not much. We learned a lot about our individual strengths and weaknesses in that first week, and that counting out sets in German seemed to make it easier.
Week two, our goal was to get through two interval sets, still with no time line attached to it, just two sets. I helped(tricked) Anna into getting over her mental block while doing side jacks and plank jacks, and she was a a constant source of motivation and encouragement while I suffered through squats and lunges. We drank too much wine, and ate mint thins to survive.
Week three, we did not complete. The ‘Monday’ intervals of the trial were exhausting and defeating. Categorized as a ‘leg day’, it was physical torture for both of us, and we were both experiencing severe burn out from it. We just weren’t recovering from the intervals fast enough to feel ready for a workout on Wednesday, despite Wednesday having a core and upper body target. My hips ached, and my old knee injury was threatening a flare up. We both knew we needed to just step back, think about it, and regroup.
I had a lot of challenges with HIIT. I mentally really wanted to love it, but physically couldn’t. It did alert me to the fact that my hips might be tighter than I expected, and I’m awaiting a physio consultation regarding it. The exercises are hard, and HIIT seems to promote fast strength build, when I naturally prefer to build over time, like I’m doing with Asana Rebel.
Anna on the other hand, LOVED it. It was challenging, and tough, and we sweat and we cried, and we didn’t finish intervals in the right amount of time, but we did make significant progress with our interval completion speed between the weeks, and a home workout is such a low maintenance option for people as busy as her and I. She loved how much she learned about her body, and her mental fortitude, and relished in both the strengths and weaknesses that BossBody revealed.
That is how the above image came to be. She built me up all week with the idea of treating the house to sushi Friday, before she left for California. Then as I’m gratefully working from home on a particularly stressful afternoon, she dropped the bomb on me. We’re going to start the full version, next Sunday, after we’re both home from our respective work trips. Login, take a look! Read then nutrition guide! It’s got grocery lists, and just trust me. It’ll be fine, just think about sushi tonight while you look it over.
I hope there’s a lot more sushi on my horizon for the 12 week torture that she’s going to put me through.
tanksinheels.com 