Before starting High Intensity Training, I took for granted the discipline that’s needed to make it through the typical HIT workout. It’s more than your average person can bear. You need to constantly fight through pain. Every time you do a set, your body begs you to stop and your mind has to resist its pleas. No crying. No giving up. Just pushing yourself. Either you push yourself all the way to complete failure or you don’t get the results. It really is that simple.
The workout is only around 10 minutes, but this does not mean you’ve found a magic pill. If you think you have, the intense pain you endure during HIT workouts quickly puts things in perspective for you. It’s that intensity that gets you to your destination. And the ride isn’t pleasant. Not at all.
While anticipating today’s workout, I actually started to get nervous. After 5 workouts, my body knows what’s coming. It wants to avoid the pain. I want to avoid the pain. But my mind just won’t let me do it. I signed up for 9 grueling workouts over 30 days. I can’t skip out on them so I decided to cut off the negative thoughts and just go to the gym.
I increased the weight on my exercises by 5 lbs today. I did the seated calf raises first and completed 5 reps total. I had tried for 6, but my calves gave out and I had to use my hands to secure the weight back into place.
After finishing the calf raises, I went and did 5 reps of barbell wrist curls. It’s amazing how much of a difference a 5 lbs increase in weight makes. I felt like my forearms were about to explode by the time I reached the 5th rep. Shortly after completing my set, I let the weight fall back to the ground. I was already breaking out in a sweat with beads forming around my forehead.
I paused for 15 seconds, removed some of the weight and continued using the barbell to do close grip bench presses. I got through a complete set of 6 before my triceps gave out on me.
Moved on to the ab workout and completed one set of 10 reps. I didn’t feel like I gave it my best though. I feel I slacked a little bit on these.
My total workout time today was 6 minutes and 19 seconds. I am amazed by how fast I completed it. I know some of you might be skeptical and I don’t blame you. If you have any doubts, please just try one set of any exercise and do the reps with a slow speed (5 seconds on the positive and 5 seconds on the negative) and see the difference it makes in your workout. Just make sure to check with your physician before doing them. I don’t want you to have a heart attack. 
