Why Quickness Fitness?

 

Well it sound quite catchy (If I don’t say so myself).

 

But more importantly, it represents my ethos when it comes to working out.

 

Quick home workouts and quick results.

 

I’ve been that guy who 3 times a week would spent 2 hours in the gym lifting the heaviest thing I could get my callus filled hands on.

Then another half hour sitting around drinking my protein shake trying my hardest to hit that magic number of 200 grams of protein to get them gainz.

But ultimately, I was wasting my energy and time because looking at my bloated stomach, you would never think I was a gym rat.

As I experimented more with short intense workouts at home , I started to realise that actually, less is more when it comes to working out. It is definitely quality over quantity.

I am going to cover why shorter more intense workouts are more effective than the traditional long steady state cardio methods we have always been taught or spending hours in the gym

But first I’m gonna let you in on why I believe shorter High Intensity Interval training (HIIT) workouts will ultimately lead you too smashing your fitness goals and it’s nothing technical or scientific.                    

 

Take a look at any gyms signup rates in january after thousands of people convinced themselves and anyone that would listen that their new year’s resolution was to go to the gym and get fit and healthy.     

Then look at how many people, after a couple of months cancelled their membership ( that’s if they hadn’t then found themselves stuck in a 12 month contract with no way out) and you’ll see that keeping that motivation going is that hardest exercise of them all.

Luckily for me, i’ve never needed motivation to workout. It’s just what I do and I enjoy it, but for most, lack of motivation ends up killing any results that were coming their way.

With these types of workouts there are no barriers meaning there will never be anything stopping you from performing these exercise. Anybody can do it at anytime and anywhere. (Ok, that’s not completely true. You have to have a general level of fitness) but you get my point.

The reason most people never stick to a plan or routine is because there are too many ways out. Too many reasons to convince and justify to yourself why you can’t workout that day.

 

‘The gym is closed’

 

‘I haven’t got enough time’

 

My gym buddy can’t make it’….and the list goes on.

 

Working out really needs to become a habit and to make it a habit you have to stick to the process.

You have to set up the process in a way that will give you the best chance of succeeding and that will come from having the least barriers possible in your way.

Having no excuses and making your workouts non negotiable will keep you on the path of your goal, whether it’s to lose weight or gain muscle.

It is very easy to convince yourself out of a one hour jog when you have limited time and a list of chores to do.

A quick and effective 10-20 minute workout without having to leave the comfort of your own home is definitely much more appealing.

Keeping your workouts short and diverse gives you the best possible chance to stay on the path to success.

 

Now if you’re one of those people that is still spending multiple hours a week in the gym let me ask you this…

 

Don’t you ever get tired of performing the same movements, in front of the same gym mirror, listening to the same cheesy music, over and over again?

 

I know I did!

 

HIIT workouts are very versatile and can be performed in your living room on a cold night or outside in your garden on a bright sunny day and no two workouts need to be the same.

 

Physical exercise no longer has to be monotonous and boring.

You can have quick and effective full body workouts or just concentrate on one set of muscles in multiple ways.

As much as I love watching the Game of Thrones there is only so much swords and dragons I can watch before I get fed up.

It’s the same with you workouts.

I find long runs extremely boring and going to the gym takes up too much time. In fact,  just the travel time to the gym and back is more than enough time to have a great workout at home.

HIIT allows you to mix it up making it easier to keep interested which is key because the best workout ultimately is the one you stick too.

When you decide to commit to working out at home you’ll probably make the same mistake I did.

 

Because I didnt really know what to do and never had a programme to follow I started buying every single piece of exercise equipment I could get my hands on. Each one with the promise  of turning me into the hulk.

 

 

In a similar fashion to the supplement industry, exercise equipment companies are experts at convincing the gullible that their product will solve your problem. In both cases I ended up being the perfect customer.

Rubber bands with handles to work the triceps, spinning plates you hold onto for pushups, fancy abb isolators, and the list goes on.

If truth be told, nearly every single one of them are sitting in my garage covered in dust and cobwebs.

After the initial fun of playing with your ‘new toy,’ you find yourself reverting back to a couple of tried and tested pieces of equipment and to the best one of all.

Ready for it?………Your own bodyweight!

Keep it simple and don’t waste your time and money on the latest fitness gadgets. Starting out with bodyweight exercises is more than enough of a challenge to keep you busy, and if you’re not even doing that, then no piece of equipment is suddenly going to give you all this motivation to train hard.

When I was first starting out, a programme like the ‘Bodyweight Burn’ would have been a perfect start and to be honest, even now, I find it super challenging.

Read my review here, for the full breakdown.

When you are ready to start adding more resistance there are only a few pieces of basic equipment that are worth using (which I discuss in more depth here).

 

And now for the science on high intensity interval training.

 

I can easily sit here and tell you how effective these workout are, based on my own experience and the positive results of the people I’ve trained. But now days in the information age that we live in, anecdotal evidence just won’t cut it.

Luckily though, there has been an increased amount of research on the effects of HIIT training, and all with interesting results.

One of the earliest studies and most commonly referenced carried out in 1994 at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, compared a group using only HIIT over a 15 week period against a group performing only steady-state cardio over a 20 week period. Unsurprisingly, the Steady state cardio group who trained for 5 weeks longer lost 15000 more calories that the HIIT group. The interesting point here though is that the HIIT group lost significantly more body fat.

A 2001 study from East Tennessee University showed similar findings where subjects over an 8 week period dropped 2% body fat and those utilising steady state cardio lost none.

Multiple studies have also reported that subjects burned up to 10% more calories  for up to 24 hours following a bout of intense exercise. This is sometimes referred to as EPOC (Excess Post- Exercise Oxygen Consumption) or the ‘Afterburn’ effect.

Now I can go on and reference multiple more studies but I don’t think there is any need.

Am I saying that going for a 1hr run is a waste of time and spending 2 hours in the gym is pointless?

No. of course i’m not.

Anyone who is doing any form of physical exercise is winning in my eyes. But if you’re looking to maximise your workouts in the shortest amount of time and get the most ‘Bang For Your Buck’ then HIIT is scientifically proven to be the best way to go.

 

I have talked about the body of evidence that is out there on HIIT and how it is scientifically proven to improve your cardiovascular health and an extremely effective way to burn fat even for even up to 24 hours after the workout.

 

Now I’m going to surprise you with another interesting fact!

 

Another way HIIT trumps steady state cardio is that fact that it can increase Human Growth Hormone(HGH)  by anything from 500% onwards, depending on what study you want to go by.

Why is this important u ask?

Well Ive delved deeper into the subject here, but in short, HGH has many rejuvenating qualities especially important as we get older.

If you are smart with your workouts you can drastically increase your HGH production which will have a very positive impact not just how you look but also how you feel.

I really hope that at least some of what I said has resonated with you and made you realise that there is much better alternative to the gym.

If you’re happy with what you’re doing and your goal is to look like 6x times Mr Olympia, Dorian Yates in his hay day, or you want to run marathons like Mo Farah then by all means carry on. But if you’re a bit disillusioned and frustrated with you progress, or lack off, then I’m here to help.

I’ve personally seen how effective these condensed workouts are from my own results and from people I’ve introduced them to. Through all my experience and many years of  implementing these strategies I’ve amassed a lot of knowledge that I want to now share with you.