Ditch your hour-long gym workouts – you can
get better results in just half the time, according to the latest fitness trend
GRIT
Work
Out In Half The Time!
It sounds too good to be true, but you can
get amazing results in the gym with a couple of high-intensity sessions a week,
it seems. Long, moderate-intensity workouts are now out the window, thanks to a
new breed of short, sharp, highintensity bouts of exercise
The latest arrival is GRIT, 30-minute
high-intensity interval training (HIIT) classes. ‘HIIT has been scientifically
proven to provide better results than any other type of training, in much less
time,’ says Tom Eastham, Fitness First’s Personal Trainer of the Year and GRIT
trainer.
‘You alternate between bursts of fast and
slow exercise, or high and low intensity, taking your heart rate up to more
than 75 per cent (your anaerobic zone), before having a short rest period and
letting your body recover.’
Proven Results
And it works. A recent Canadian study found
that doing 10, one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with a
one-minute rest in between, three times a week, worked just as well in
improving fitness as hours of conventional long-term moderate biking did, while
also reducing risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes
But HIIT is a challenge – you need
willpower – which is where group classes such as GRIT come in. ‘It’s very hard
to push yourself to those limits on your own,’ says Eastham. Sessions are just
30 minutes long and, because you’re in a small group, you get lots of
encouragement and attention from the instructor, helping you to safely push
your body out of its comfort zone. ‘You may feel sick and your muscles may burn
like crazy, but that’s because you’re pushing your body’s cardiovascular and
metabolic systems to the limit,’ he says. The ‘no pain, no gain’ principle is
back!
The Grit Factor
GRIT workouts are from the creators of
BodyPump and BodyCombat. There are three GRIT classes that work your body in
different ways, and they’re designed for you to do once or twice a week as part
of your training regime.
GRIT Strength uses barbells, plates and a
bench to help build and tone muscle and boost your metabolism. GRIT Plyo uses
the principles of plyometrics (explosive jumping exercises) to build power,
increase speed, leg strength and agility. It also increases muscular endurance,
helping your stamina. GRIT Cardio uses your own bodyweight and high-impact
exercises for maximum calorie burn.
Not only will these 30-minute sessions
boost your fitness levels, they’ll also strip fat, even after your workout has
finished, because they increase your lean muscle mass and rev up your
metabolism. Research shows that HIIT allows you to continue burning calories
for up to 72 hours postworkout. Research on GRIT participants found their
levels of triglycerides (a type of blood fat) fell by 15 per cent in six weeks
of training with just two classes per week – indicating that they pushed their
metabolism into overdrive. They also increased their strength and reduced their
overall body fat by eight per cent.
GRIT may be intense, but the classes are
designed to suit all levels. ‘If you’re starting from a more basic level of
fitness, don’t worry,’ says Eastham. ‘There are options to adapt each move, and
you’re there to push yourself to your own level of fitness. Although you should
be working as hard as you can, the key is to listen to your body and do what
pushes you personally to the edge. It’s the only way you can get results, plus
if you’re expecting to cut your exercise down to 30 minutes and still get
results, you need to give it your all!’
Give
it a go!
To get an idea of what a GRIT workout feels
like, here’s one exercise from each of the three classes
Strength
Squat with forward raise
Benefits: A compound exercise for your
upper and lower body that builds muscle and raises your heart rate.
Time: 45 seconds, followed by a 45-second
rest
Sets: 3
How to do it: Stand with your arms at your
sides, feet shoulderwidth apart, weight on your heels and a dumbbell in each
hand (a). Sit back and down (as if a chair is behind you) while raising the
weights out in front of you. Keep your palms facing down and your back extended
and straight (b). Finally, return to standing and lower the weights.
(a)
(b)
Plyo
Sumo Plyo squat
Benefits: Boosts metabolism.
Time: 45 seconds, followed by a 60-second
rest
Sets: 3
How to do it: Stand with your feet
shoulder-width apart and hands by your sides (a). Lower into a squat, keeping
your knees behind your toes (b). Explode up off the ground, jumping as high as
you can (c), then land on the step in a sumo squat, feet wide and turned out
45o (d). Jump back to standing.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Cardio
Squat with overhead press and jump
Benefits: A whole-body move to blast heart
rate and metabolism.
Reps: 45 seconds, followed by a 60-second
rest
Sets: 3
How to do it: Stand in front of a step,
with your feet shoulder-width apart, weight in your heels and holding a weight
plate at chest level (a). Keeping good form and maintaining control, lower into
a squat, bringing your elbows close to your thighs (b). From here, extend back
up to standing, as you press the weight overhead (c). Lower the weight back to
chest level, as you bend your knees and lower into a half-squat position (d),
then jump up (e) and onto the bench, landing softly on the balls of both feet
(f).
(a)
– (b) – (c)
(d)
– (e) – (f)
