Both my grandfathers were men of the soil. One was a sugar cane farmer of repute in the village of Mican in Gulu town. The other was a household name in Koc Goma. They were men who lived true to the dictate that man will live off his sweat.

One of them spoke to me words that will forever echo over me. "Oloya, he said, do not permit your body to overwhelm you,"

O.K he never said it in English. The Acoli version is too rich to be poured out on this blog post.

Spoken from the vantage point of over 90 years on earth, those words carry weight. The kind of weight that percolated through every sinew of my body and keeps triggering me to be as fit as fit can be. It kept me on the search for the fastest means to be fit.

Well, I chanced on the ultimate solution. The penultimate fat incinerating answer.

HIIT; High Intense Interval Training.

From my search on the web, HIIT involves alternating high-intensity intervals with recovery intervals. After a five- to 10-minute warmup consisting of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise, you begin your intervals. You start with a high-intensity interval that lasts 30 seconds to one minute. You work so hard that by the end of your interval, you feel you cannot go any longer.

Next, you do a recovery interval that lasts as long as your high-intensity interval. If needed, your recovery interval can last up to three times the length of your high-intensity interval.You finish the workout with a five- to 10-minute cool-down period where you gradually bring your heart rate back down to its pre-workout level.

Well, I engaged a group of fitness junkies over the weekend. It was exciting. It was blood pumping and heart racing. We sprinted on the track. We performed jumping jacks, push ups,squats and mountain climbing. All at sizzling paces.

Then we worked the stairs. That is when the definition of high intensity hit home. Our hearts palpitated to a rhythm that was alien to our bodies. Suddenly, long silent muscles were called to action. Like molten lava, blood coursed through our veins. lactic acid burned through. The body sought all ways to rebel, but the heart did its thing.

At the end of the one hour session, we were a giddy lot of people. We all looked back at what we had done. Our innocence had been raptured. We had tasted orgasmic pleasure. Our endorphin level had reached fever pitch.

I have since discovered that HIIT results in dramatic fitness improvements. Exercisers who chose HIIT doubled their cardiovascular endurance in just two weeks, while exercisers who did not do HIIT did not improve their endurance at all. HIIT also greatly increases the rate at which you lose weight, especially the rate at which you burn fat. Finally, by interspersing the recovery intervals, you are able to do more high-intensity activity than you could if you tried to maintain a high-intensity level consecutively.

Thank God for wisdom.
Thank God for HIIT
Go. Engage in HIIT.
Witness a pure transformation.


Your life is in your hands