My HIIT Studio 6-Week Challenge Health & Fitness Results

Hello, hello!

Last weekend marked the end of a 6-week challenge that I participated in with my favorite HIIT studio, The Fit Mill. I collaborated with the studio as the health coach for the challenge, and was a participant as well. We’re all a work in progress, and I had goals that I was striving to reach at the same time that I was supporting the participants in reaching their own.

The premise? A 6-week “Transformation” challenge to kick off 2016 in high gear. The rules were that participants had to workout at The Fit Mill 4 days each week, and then the studio and I provided goals, recommendations, tips, recipes, and support throughout the challenge. Pre-challenge and post-challenge evaluations were held to take measurements and gage fitness levels on a variety of exercises. The goals were totally up to the participant, and mine were to reduce my body fat, increase my strength, and shed a couple of pounds.

My Strategy 

Since I already usually workout 6 days a week and eat a healthy plant-based diet full of whole foods, the only way for me to change my body is kick up my workouts into high gear and tighten up my diet. I was pretty strict in making sure that my macros and calories were consistently right where I wanted them to be – particularly with balancing out carbs and fat and making sure I ate enough protein.

I also reduced the amount of treats I had, so there was less wine and dessert in my life. I definitely still had them (no way I would totally give up either!), but they were more calculated and planned into my diet.

Besides doing 4 HIIT workouts a week, I also did some kickboxing, hiking, yoga, and cycling with my new bike trainer. I was a workout maniac – even more than usual! – and I did a lot of 2-a-days. I usually do short yoga sessions most mornings, so I kicked my morning movement up a notch. I added in high-intensity moves, lengthened my AM sessions a bit, and made sure to get a good burn in first thing in my day, along with my nighttime sweat sessions.

I’ll further elaborate on this in another post soon, but last year I decided to drop some weight. At the time, I was within a healthy weight range and lead a very active life, but I decided that aesthetically, I didn’t like where I was at. So, I worked to get to the lower end of my healthy weight range. Over a substantial period of time, maybe 6 months, I dropped about 8 pounds. Going into the challenge, I wanted to shed another 3-5 pounds, build muscle mass and reduce body fat. Having a Beets BLU Smart Scale helped me gage where I was at throughout the challenge and served as a great tool.

The Results

First, I got all of my measurements taken. I knew that I felt leaner and had worked hard, but I was a bit surprised at how much my measurements reflected that.

Measurements. The biggest changes were both my body fat, which I reduced 4%, and my hips, where I lost 4 inches. The body fat analyzer at the gym measures me a bit higher than my Smart Scale. My body fat is currently in the high 19% range on my at-home scale, and at the gym, my body fat measurements went from 25% to 21%, which is a huge change!

I also lost a bit everywhere else, including 2 inches in my thigh, 1 1/2 inches in my waist, 3/4 inch in my chest, and 1/2 inch in my arm. I measured my muscle mass at home with my scale throughout the challenge, and increased it from 35.7% to 36.1%. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but increasing muscle mass takes time and I was satisfied with any increase. I mentioned in my recent Smart Scale review that I had a goal to push into the 36% range, so I’ll take that progress!

I’ve never done a fitness challenge where every area gets measured, and it was pretty awesome to see my hard work pay off with the results of lost inches all around.

Weight. I lost 3 1/2 pounds during the challenge. I wound up weighing in .1 pound higher than the goal I had set for myself the morning of the ending eval, but I’ll consider it a victory! THIS is a good example of how the scale is only one piece of the puzzle.

Fitness. I was excited for the fitness evaluation. I had a goal to beat every single one of my pre-challenge numbers, and I was feeling confident that I could do that. I should also note that when I did the eval at the beginning, I was coming off of being sick for 3 weeks and was definitely not my best. So, I knew that improving my numbers when I was my usual healthy self was well in reach, and I was anxious to see what I could put up.

Pull-ups: The first part of the fitness test was doing as many reps as you can in 90 seconds of pull-ups on the gravity machine. This is not my strong suite, as I don’t feel like I don’t work my lats that much, and I think I had practiced pull-ups on the machine maybe during just 1 workout at The Fit Mill… but, I still managed to beat my previous number by 9.

Pre-challenge number: 26; Post-challenge number: 35

Cycling: Next up was cycling, where we biked at level 18 as fast as we could pedal. Average RPMs were measured every 30 seconds. I’ve been increasing my strength on the bike at The Fit Mill 4 days/week, plus using my bike trainer at home, so I knew I could do better than before.

Pre-challenge numbers: 78, 74, 65; Post-challenge numbers: 105, 90, 75

Plank Hold: Next up was holding an elbow plank for as long as I could. We had to hold the plank with our palms and forearms facing up, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but after a few minutes, all I wanted to do was clasp my hands and rotate my forearms down.

Pre-challenge number: 3:03; Post-challenge number: 3:43

I kind of wish that I had held it for 4 solid minutes. I had practiced a 4-minute plank a few times during the course of the challenge, so I know that it’s doable for me. At least I held it 40 seconds longer than before!

Box Jumps: I’m not going to lie, box jumps kind of freak me out. I always go kind of slow with doing them, because I feel like if I go all-out, my legs might get too tired and then I’ll trip and smack my face on the box. I think it’s a pretty rational fear, so I went for a steady pace and the goal of beating my number before. We had 90 seconds to do as many reps as possible.

Pre-challenge number: 32; Post-challenge number: 38

TRX Knee Tucks: For anyone whose never done this exercise, it fatigues your whole body. You place your feet in TRX straps while in a plank position, then bring your knees into your abs, then move them back out into a plank to complete 1 rep. My arms, wrists, abs, and thighs were all tired after this one… especially because I went all out and did as many as I possibly could in 90 seconds!

Pre-challenge number: 32; Post-challenge number: 70

I was pretty happy with doubling the number of knee tucks I could bust out!

Push-Ups: The one downside to giving my all in the knee tucks was having to do push-ups immediately following. My arms felt kind of dead, so my only idea was to beat my number from before – which I just eked out.

Pre-challenge numbers: 31 toe push-ups, 14 knee push-ups;

Post-challenge numbers: 34 toe push-ups; 15 knee push-ups

Wall Sit: The final exercise of the challenge was my strongest one – holding a wall sit for as long as you can. To me, this one is mostly mental. Once I zone out my quad muscles burning and my feet going numb, I can hang in there for a couple of minutes. One challenge in the wall sit is being required to hold your hands out at shoulder level, palms facing in. After fatiguing my arms with pull-ups, push-ups, planks, and TRX knee tucks, holding my arms up in a wall sit was a challenge!

Pre-challenge time: 3:02; Post-challenge time: 6:00

Not too shabby right?!

All in all, I absolutely loved doing the challenge, and I felt pretty strong and proud of myself!

Since last summer I’ve dropped about 11 pounds. Those pounds lost were hard earned, and I’m feeling great! However, I would 100% recommend doing a health challenge where measurements besides weight are taken, so that you can see the whole picture and how your hard work may have paid off in areas other than your weight. For instance, I’m seeing ab definition that wasn’t there at the start of the challenge, and I think that that’s more reflected in the inches I’ve lost in my hips and waist versus weight lost. 

I’m feeling happy with my progress, while at the same time I’m looking to progress more moving forward. Further increasing muscle mass and reducing body fat are goals, along with possibly dropping a few additional pounds. That last part really depends on how I feel if I lose a few more pounds. I’ll need to see what’s sustainable and feels good to me. If I leaned out fat and increased muscle mass without dropping more weight I’d be good with that… so we shall see. Stay tuned!

Tell me… Have you ever done a health/fitness challenge?