But what exactly is HIIT you ask?

For those of you that don’t already know, HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Instead of, for example, jogging at a steady pace for 30 minutes, HIIT workouts are composed of short intervals of highly intensive training in between intervals of moderate intensity training. HIIT has been receiving a lot of attention in the fitness world in recent years due to new findings in research which show that HIIT workouts cause less muscle deterioration than LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio. Studies also found that LISS workouts are ineffective for weight lost when paired with a low calorie diet. Though any exercise is better than none, we’re sure no one likes to jog for an hour only to learn it was largely ineffective at cutting weight!

There are a lot of research articles on HIIT training on the internet so we encourage you to read more about it if you’re interested in the science behind it all. However, let’s move on to the good stuff. Here are some crazy intense HIIT workouts that are sure to have you wishing you didn’t eat that slice of pizza earlier today. Let’s see if you have the courage to try them all!

1.   The Runner’s High – Sprint Routine

(for workout wed)

If you thought running a couple miles was a good cardio workout, wait until you’ve tried this. It’ll leave your legs pounding afterwards. As always, it’s a good idea to warm up a little bit before going full on.

1.   Warm-up (walk quickly) for 2-3 min.

2.   Walk at moderate speed for 1 min.

3.   Sprint at 90% intensity for 1 min.

4.   Repeat steps 2 and 3 until 28 min. have passed.

5.   Cool down (walk briskly) for 5 min.

2.   Sled Pulls

This routine may be a little harder for most to try since it requires a weighted sled and a harness. For those of you that do have access to one, be sure to try this routine out. Sled drags are a great and effective way to improve athletic capabilities such as sprinting and power. Here’s what to do:

1.   Warm-up : Jog at a slow pace for 10 minutes

2.   Drag the weighted sled with the harness all out for 20-30 seconds

3.   Walk briskly for 2-3 minutes.

4.   Repeat steps 2 and 3 for a total of 5 times.

5.   Cool down with a 10 min. brisk walk.

3.   Over and Under – Kettle Bell Swings

Kettle bell swings are a great HIIT workout to strengthen your core muscles, hips, knees, glutes and back. Though they can be awkward for some at first, kettle bell swings are an effective way to help promote muscle growth.

1.   Warm-up : Jog in place for 10 minutes

2.   Do swings all out for 20-30 seconds

3.   Rest for 45-60 seconds

4.   Repeat steps 2 and 3 for 5 times.

5.   Cool down : Jog in place for 10 minutes

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwazenegger

We too often forget the power of our subconscious mind and its importance in our journey to success. Waking up, going to the gym, and pushing out those last sets of your workout isn’t going to cut it if your head isn’t in the game. Your mind is more important than your body. From your mind you either create the passion and strength to push forward, past whatever obstacles may face you, or you can create a mental state of weakness and failure. What will you choose to do with your mind? Who will you choose to become? To truly be successful you must train your subconscious mind to think successfully!

Everyone who has trained knows and understands how easy it is to slip off track. Once your subconscious allows you to fall off track, it is much easier for you to act in ways that will not lead to success. Here are some important ways to help train your mind and keep you on that path to greatness.

1.            Feeling negative? Make note of it and pinpoint why you feel that way. Instead of ignoring the feeling, acknowledge it and accept it for what it is. Understand it is something you need to change and remind yourself that you can overcome it. Always maintain a positive mindset, no matter the circumstance. As long as you think positive, even your failures will be nothing more than life lessons.

2.            Love to fail. Once you start maintaining a positive mindset, embrace the fact that you’re going to fail. It’s important to understand that failing, even often, is a perfectly normal part of life. Realize that it only makes you stronger. Pick yourself back up, and laugh at your mistakes!

3.            Believe in yourself and your capabilities. Stop thinking about your limitations and start thinking about the possibilities. Tell yourself you’re awesome daily and open your eyes to the world of possibilities. You must put all self-doubts behind and realize your full potential. You have everything to gain from a strong confident mentality.

“Good things don’t happen by coincidence. Every dream carries with it certain risks, especially the risk of failure. But I am not stopped by risks. Supposed a great person takes the risk and fails. Then the person must try again. You cannot fail forever. If you try ten times, you have a better chance of making it on the eleventh try than if you didn’t try at all.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

The enemy of gut-conscious girlfriends everywhere, the epitome of what “fat” is to what appears to be all of humankind, the enemy of the state, of the people, and what makes the people. Everywhere you go, it seems that the one thing everybody seems to agree on is that carbs are a big No-No when it comes to dieting; well almost everyone. Besides the no-carb diets, there are the low carb diets and the high carb diets (well there’s also the SCD or Specific Carbohydrate Diet but we’ll get into that a little later, stay tuned!). In the eyes of the health-conscious and internet-mongers, the amount of information on carbohydrates is oversaturated and sadly mostly nonsensical. Most people believe that carbs are just unwanted, sugars that just magically turn into fat. That seems to be the typical concept, the quintessential prototype everybody seems to have in their head. But what they don’t realize is how carbohydrates are a necessary component of everyday functioning. You need carbohydrates to get by, to keep your metabolic state up.

Carb cycling is a diet that implements a rotational system in which you alternate the days in which you eat low, moderate, and high amounts of carbohydrates. Low carb diets are nothing more than just short, quick fixes. They take away your energy and are not sensical – you need carbs to function daily. High carb diets that speed up your metabolism but are not ideal for weight loss because there is not a big enough deficit for your body to cut down pounds. Carb cycling gives the body the fuel (carbs) to increase the metabolism and at the same time add a calorie deficit to beef up fat loss. Days are essentially split up in three: high carb day, low/moderate carb day, and no/low carb day. Basically the rule of thumb for most users is that they eat high carbs on tough training days and lower carbs on relaxing, slow days. This plan is coupled with six meals a day or five to seven meals a day. Try out this carb rotation diet and let  us know how it goes for you! Good luck and remember, stay positive!

And remember folks, we are not doctors nor registered dieticians, so please, consult with your doctor or primary care before taking our advice into action

Let’s face it. Who doesn’t want a massively ripped chest? Here are some major tips to help develop this beautiful muscle.

1.      Alternate chest and back exercises. Doing so will allow you to handle heavier weights during your workout. Chest exercises are pushing motions while back exercises are pulling motions. These two workouts complement each other perfectly in a way so that while the chest muscles are resting, the back muscles can work and vice versa.

2.      Try eccentric training. Eccentric training is when you overload the eccentric portion of the lift, in which you lower the weight. The heavier the weight you lower, the stronger you will be in your lifting phase of the exercise. An easy exercise to try eccentric training with is decline bench press. On the third of rep of each set, have a spotter push softly down on the bar as you slowly lower it to your chest. You’ll find that you have more strength coming back up.

3.      One often overlooked trick for increasing chest development is maxing out your reps initially. Max out a chest exercise and then go for reps instead of weight. Start with a weight with which you can perform only 2-3 reps and only do one rep of it. Then, switch to a lighter weight and perform more reps.

4.      Do Partial Presses: Your triceps often fail before your chest does. By doing partial reps, you can continue to work out your chest muscles. Perform reps in the lower half of your bench press range of motion to keep pushing your chest muscles and working them out!

A great man once told me that the secret to life was not to stay safe, but to escape safety. To live life, he said, was to break out from the soft walls of your inflated bouncy house and jump into the threshold of “what if?”; to embrace danger and the cosmic unknown.

Who was this great man? He’s everyone. This is a story not of one man, but of all mankind. We are on this planet for a few years and by golly we need to live it up. This “great man” is nothing more than a plug-in for all those positive and self-experienced individuals I have encountered in my life. This “great man” could be you, could be me, and could be anyone.

To change, to progress we must push ourselves, we must take risks. We must become the “great man” (or great woman). To struggle is to live. This is something we must accept. Everyone has a life, and everyone is guaranteed a death, but not everyone lives their life. In the world of fitness and health, this is transparently true. Life is movement; to cease moving is to cease existing.

Here at Jungle Fitness we understand the great strides that need to be taken to allow ourselves to reach our inner, truest potential. We strive for mental and physical awareness and strength. We understand that exercise, staying fit, being proactive about your health: is hard. It’s downright maddening. We know we want to look good and be fit but it’s the mental block, the fear of change, which holds us back. We get it. We really do.

At times the mental thought of exercise can be more strenuous than the exercise itself. But hey, you got to start somewhere; nobody ever got anywhere without taking that first frightening step towards the right direction. It’s always easier to play the same cards you’ve been playing your whole life, and taking a hit few times will ensure you make more gains. So, in short, keep it moving and don’t give up because it’s too hard. Life is a struggle, and to stop struggling, well, is quite assuredly the opposite.