Focus On: HIGHX

Hi friends! Thank you so much for all of your awesome nap/sleep advice over on the Family page. I always appreciate your expertise!

For today’s Focus On, I’m going to feature a workout I recently had the opportunity to experience. The best part: it was led by the creator herself, Gabby Reece. 

Gabbyreece

During Blogfest, we were able to try out one of her HIGHX workouts, which had us cheering, sweating like crazy, and working HARD.

Here’s the workout breakdown: 

What to expect:

HIGHX is a 50-minute workout, which combines strength, cardio drills, flexibility/mobility and core work. The workout is performed circuit-style, and participants are split into groups. In each circuit, you’ll work for 3 minutes total. During the 3 minutes, you will likely have 2-3 exercises that you’re rotating between for 30-second blocks. For example, you may be doing ladder drills for 30 seconds following by Russian twists for 30 seconds, and complete 3 rounds of each for 3 minutes total. After you finish your 3 minutes, you continue onto the next station. Before beginning the workout, all of the stations are demonstrated so you have an idea of what to expect and how to modify or progress as needed. 

From their YouTube video:

HIGHX is revolutionary 50 minute high-intensity explosive training and conditioning program designed to maximize the body’s ability to incinerate fat, sculpt lean muscle, optimize the body’s hormonal and physiological response to exercise while improving overall daily and athletic performance.

A little taste of what the workout looks like:

 

Pros:

-You work at your own level. I love workouts that don’t prescribe a set amount of reps within the time block, which makes it truly attainable for all fitness levels. You complete as many quality reps as you can, and work at your own pace. The only person you’re competing against is yourself, and over time, you’ll be able to see how much stronger/more fit/faster you’ve become.

-THE MUSIC. I’m not sure if this is across the board, but the music she chose was so, so good with some crazy old-school rap and hip hop. It had been way too long since I’d heard T.I., and Katy and I had to take a little break to booty shake with our baby bellies hahah. 

-Safe, functional exercises. Sometimes when I take a new class, I’m surprised to see exercises/techniques that are either unsafe or don’t make any sense. I felt like anyone could complete these movements safely, and they provided lots of options to make things easier or more challenging as needed. 

Plank w heather

(Friends that plank together, stay together)

-Focus on flexibility and mobility. The goal of flexibility training is to maintain full range of motion in your joints, and many of the exercises she chose were counter-exercises to our natural habits that can cause altered movement patterns and possibly injury. For example, we spend a lot of time hunched over technological devices and typing. There was an awesome chest opener to stretch these tight chest muscles, and we worked on building strength in our back to target these weaker muscles and improve posture. Some of the exercises included balance challenges, like slow leg kicks and single-leg work. Proprioception is SO important, especially as we age. If we continue to challenge our balance as we get older, it can help to prevent falls later on. 

-Circuit workouts burn fat, and go by quickly. Metabolic training is an extremely efficient way to train, especially fi you don’t have a lot of time to work out. Since the heart rate in continuously elevated, you will likely burn more calories by moving quickly from one exercise to the next with minimal rest. Also, you can’t get bored if you’re moving quickly!

-It was hard, but not unmanageable. I didn’t feel like the entire workout was set out to kill us. I feel like sometimes with group ex, it can be challenging to find that middle ground where class makes you work to your limit, but doesn’t leave you feeling totally drained. It really felt like a *perfect* workout.

Highx

Cons:

-It’s not available everywhere.. yet. Prior to Blogfest, I hadn’t heard of HIGHX, and from Googling around, I found out it just launched in 2015. I hope it gains popularity and continues to spread!

Have you heard of HIGHX before? How often do you circuit train in your own routine?? Is there a professional athlete that you truly admire?

Hope you have a wonderful night!

xoxo

Gina

More Focus On posts:

Zumba

Sparkcycle

BodyPump

Orangetheory

CORE40

Barre workouts

Turbofire

Flywheel

Shockwave

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13 Comments

  1. Britt@MyOwnBalance on July 22, 2015 at 5:27 am

    I thought HighX was a lot of fun! I agree that it went quickly and was hard but definitely not unmanageable. I hope it takes off too!

  2. Alex @ True Femme on July 22, 2015 at 5:34 am

    After watching the video I feel like that’s something I could do! I’m usually pretty timid/shy in group exercises that aren’t Pure Barre or yoga classes, because I do my own circuit training/HIIT workouts alone, but that feels like something I could try without being too anxious! Thanks for sharing this! It looks like fun!

  3. Kelly @ Laughter, Strength, and Food on July 22, 2015 at 7:21 am

    I have never heard of HighX but it sounds like something I would love. I really like circuit-type workouts!

  4. Amanda on July 22, 2015 at 7:38 am

    I would love to try this! I love that it also focuses on flexibility. I feel like that’s so important for injury prevention (and just feeling good in general) but so often, it gets ignored.

  5. Erin @ Her Heartland Soul on July 22, 2015 at 7:43 am

    I have never heard of Highx before but it sounds like a really fun and challenging workout!

  6. Megan @ Skinny Fitalicious on July 22, 2015 at 8:13 am

    Class I took in Scottsdale for Women’s Health Mag was a lot like this one. I loved it! Although I do think sometimes these classes are problematic for people like me who need modifications and can’t do particular exercises.

  7. Liz on July 22, 2015 at 10:01 am

    One of the co-creators of HIGHX teaches at my gym so we’ve been the guinea pigs over the past year… I love it! Another pro is all the friends I’ve made at the gym through it, other fitness classes don’t really provide many opportunities to meet the people around you so traveling through the stations at HIGHX with your group really allows you to get to know them!

    • Fitnessista on July 22, 2015 at 2:08 pm

      no way- that is awesome!!

  8. Erin @ Erin's Inside Job on July 22, 2015 at 10:06 am

    It was great! I teach HIIT classes that are different every day and very similar to that one we took. I liked the figure 4 squats…they are ones that I haven’t seen before! I also loved the KB swings and deadlifts bc those are some of my favorites. Bring on the weight!

    • Fitnessista on July 22, 2015 at 2:07 pm

      yes, it was so good!

  9. Erin on July 23, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    Love that you mentioned proprioception and balance training to minimize falls! I work with the elderly and this is HUGE! So many injuries can be prevented with a simple exercise/balance program…it’s so important to stay active as we age!

  10. Mila on July 27, 2015 at 1:08 am

    That has got to be the cutest pic of people planking, like, ever!

    When I plank, my face looks like the KoolAid man.

    • Fitnessista on July 27, 2015 at 2:51 pm

      that made me laugh so hard

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