Chances are that if you’re like me, you get bored of doing the same workout every day. Maybe it’s swimming, weight-lifting, dancing – for me, it’s running. After a while, getting up in the morning and running a couple miles seems more like a hassle than an enjoyable way to start your day.
If you’ve heard of High Intensity Interval Training workouts, or HIIT workouts before, you know the drill. You write down your circuit of squats, lunges, burpees, jumps, and other traditional (yet boring) exercises and you do that circuit three or four times.
If you haven’t heard of HIIT workouts before, let me explain it to you. Disclaimer – I’m no health coach or fitness expert. But what I do know is that the ultimate goal of HIIT is to increase your overall calorie expenditure as compared to regular, one pace workouts. HIIT workouts operate on an on and off circuit – you do one exercise for twenty to forty seconds or so and take a ten to twenty second break in between each one. This on and off workout cycle is designed to keep you burning calories for up to twenty four hours after your workout. I may not know the precise science behind it, but if you’re interested in that, check out this article.
But what if I told you there was a HIIT workout that varied from week to week, a workout that included your favorite songs, a workout that’s catered to different people every video, a workout that’s actually fun?
Well, let me introduce you to EMK-HIIT.
A style of workout created by Emily Thorne, EMK-HIIT combines HIIT workouts (boring) with hip-hop style dance moves (fun!). Instead of your normal burpees or squats, you’re doing challenging yet fun dance moves that push you to grow. In a tabata style HIIT (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off), Emily teaches two new dance moves per song, and does around four to six songs per video. Each video is between twenty and thirty minutes long, perfect for a quick morning workout.
If you have no dance experience at all, don’t worry. Emily has two core values that she repeats at the beginning of each of her HIIT videos: “fake it till you make it”, and “wrong and strong”. It’s even in her instagram bio. So don’t worry if you’re not a dancer – as long as you’re moving, you’re doing the workout correctly.
What makes EMK-HIIT so fun?
Every single one of Emily’s videos has a different theme. My personal favorites are Broadway Workouts One and Two, the Mamma Mia workout, and the One Direction Workout.
If none of those themes speak to you, don’t worry. She has tons, and there’s sure to be something that appeals to your music tastes. Emily crafts the dance moves specifically to each song, making them even more fun and engaging.
If you’re interested in EMK-HIIT, try out a workout here. They’re free!
*While I was writing this article, Emily released her own video on the science of HIIT workouts. Check it out here.*
Neha Magesh
Neha Magesh is originally from Washington State, and she now studies journalism at NYU. She is the founder and Editor in Chief of The Spearhead Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, baking, and writing.
