Phat Camp Lesson Four: Intensity

Phat Camp weekend began on Friday afternoon where we did a full shoulder workout, ab workout and followed it with a four mile walk. The girls who had arrived for Day One felt good but a little tired. Two of them actually began their day with a 6 mile run so they were really feeling it!

Saturday everyone had arrived and we moved into a full day of workouts. It was NOT EASY. We all agreed to ram and jam Saturday because some people had to leave before legs on Sunday.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed the girls and guy headed out to the backyard for a little leg workout. After the first Superset was done people were commenting how their heartrates had never beat so fast! I thought that was awesome for them to admit and a great wake up call that everyone can workout a little harder.

We had the leg workout from heck. After lunging and squatting our way back and forth across my backyard, we moved to a cul-de-sac and did suicide sprints, ali twists, and side shuffles. Every last person made it. Some burned over 500 calories in about 40 minutes. The rest of the day they only had to do a full arms and chest workout plus back. They survived because the next morning they woke up to a 30 min. run with a 40 min. walk.

The lesson for all of us is to really ask yourself after every workout did you do what you were supposed to? High intensity should be HIGH intensity. Too often we leave a hard workout without really pushing our limits.

I find that before you start a workout you need to define the goal (high intensity, endurance, recovery, power strength) and then make sure you hit it. When you are supposed to bust it, make sure you leave nothing in the tank. If you are doing an endurance run, make sure you leave feeling like you could’ve run more.

The best way to see yourself improve physically, either fat loss of strength, is to have a plan, work the plan, and make changes to the plan as needed.