Metafit

This week I took the week off work and went back to my home county, the glorious Yorkshire.
I have spoken before about the temptations that present themselves at home. The dreaded "goody cupboard" as expected has not been avoided and I haven't been able to resist my mums delicious home baking (lemon and coconut cakes) my hips worst enemy.
So this means I have to make sure I keep my exercise regime tip top. Luckily the beautiful Yorkshire countryside makes this easy. I love running the old rail tracks at the back of my house and the weather at the moment is perfect for running, sun shining with a slight breeze and not too hot. Ohh how I enjoy myself.
However, I can't run every day and shouldn't really be running at all right now as I have hurt my ankle. I don't know what I have done but after a run it swells up and I am in agony. I have limped and squealed all day today.
So to break it up I tagged along with my step mum to her metafit class. For those who don't know, metafit is a new type of interval training that uses body weight and short bursts of intense activity to target the largest muscle groups. The classes vary from 16 minutes to 30 minutes and participants are expected to put in maximum effort but for shorter periods of time.
It is proven to raise your heart rate much faster then a standard cardio workout, raises the metabolism and keeps you burning calories for much longer.
Now don't be mistaken, 16 minutes does not sound like much, and trust me I am quite fit so I thought, yeah I can do this. I did do it and it didn't kill me but my god I could really feel it working. It felt like I was getting more toned and fit as I was doing it.
In the class I went to, we did four exercises for 30 seconds with a 10 second rest between each one. Then did all four one after another, no rest. We then moved on to four different exercises and followed the same pattern. And finally the third round, we did the same again with four new exercises. Then to finish just for good measure, we did all 12 exercises one after another, no rest.
Needless to say my step mum and I stood up at the end, looked at each other, no words were needed, we just gasped.
Red faced and sweaty we walked out feeling like we had done a good hour in the gym. That was last night, today I have felt a little tender and stiff. I have a funny feeling tomorrow I am really going to feel it and my long walk is going to be torture.
But whatever the weather, I could not recommend trying this class enough. It takes no time out of your day at all and really works. What more do you want?