Bursting to Blast Fat

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world. And I give you tips that you can put into fast action and up level your health so you can go out there and live the big life you're meant to live. Now, today's show is all about bursting to blast fat about hiit training. And I have got the inventor of hiitmax on with me, Michael Morelli. I'm super excited to share him with you. We got introduced to each other and I'm like, all right, we have not covered this topic with an expert yet and I gotta have you on the show. So let me tell you a little bit about Michael. I am super exc to have him on. This is a topic that is so important because it takes the excuses out of exercise because the number one reason people don't exercise is because they say they don't have time. And he is going to walk you through how to do a workout literally in even six minutes. Okay, do I have your attention now? So let me tell you a little bit about Michael Morelli, founder of Mirelli Fit. He has always been involved in fitness and he's also was a magician. I just have to throw it out there, one of those random things. Anyway, he used to have this retail business, super successful retail business, but he was working like a fiend. And all of a sudden he looks in the mirror and his super athletic fit lean body is gone completely. And he had become just an overweight stress ball. And then his marriage broke up and just everything just blew up. So what he decided to do at that point was get out of that business, go back and really dial into the fitness business. He got five fitness certifications under six months and became obsessed with it and got involved with high intensity interval training and created the product that he is known for, HIITMax. So he has now done HIIT training with over 125,000 people and then he's got another 75,000 in his other programs, including his nutrition programs. And he's got coaches and nutritionists Involved with him now as well. And he will have a book coming out next year, the Sweet Potato Diet. Gotta love that. All about carb cycling. Lives out in Arizona. That's where I got to meet him recently. We hung out, shared ideas and realized we were so in sync, which you're going to hear about now. So I am super excited to have Michael Morelli as today's guest on the show. So let's do it. Michael Morelli, welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you here with me today.

Thanks, jj. Pleasure to be here talking about one.

Of my favorite subjects because cardio, long steady state cardio makes me crazy and I know you're going to blow through some my. So let's dive right in and talk about the difference between. First, first tell everybody what HIIT training high intensity interval training is before we answer the next question. I call it burst training. So what is it?

Yeah, so HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. And what it is, is it's, you know, you know, all out periods of, you know, high intensity training, whatever the exercise is followed by short periods of rest or less intensity, you know. So for example, you're doing burpees for 30 and then all of a sudden you're doing a bird dog or you're simply resting for 30 seconds.

Whatever you do, whatever a bird dog is, I have no idea what a bird dog is. I'm sure we'll find out. So that's high intensity interval training. And a lot of my listeners know I always say burst to blast fat, that I kind of nicknamed it burst training because it's easy to understand now, difference between interval training or high intensity training and the steady state endurance. Like the more what we think of when we of cardio, what's the difference and what should we be doing there?

Yeah, so a couple of differences. The difference between steady state and high intensity urinal training. Right. The first difference is, you know, steady state is usually, you know, 45 minutes to 60 minutes. So you're boring and boring and boring and boring and boring. Yes, that's very boring. Right. So you're doing that for 45 to 60 minutes and you're sort of mindlessly doing it. Whereas you can get the same results or even better results, I should say, you know, 15, 20 minutes all out hit. Now the other thing, right is let's talk about calories, right? Everybody wants to burn, you know, wants to be efficient and burn as many calories as they can. Well, when you're on a treadmill, you set that bad boy for four. And you're on there for 45 to 60 minutes. Once you get off, you in reality stop burning calories. The difference with hint is what's called excess post oxygen consumption or epoch, which is also referred to as the afterburn effect. And what happens is, because you go into O2 debt, right? Because you're all out intensity, your body after the workout has to pay back that O2 debt, kind of like maxing out a credit card, if you will. And so what happens is, as your body works overtime over the next 24 to 36 hours to repay back that O2, and that creates better metabolism, Right? Metabolism spikes and burns more calories.

See, this is so important because when you look at what most people do, and honestly, I've seen this Michael at the gym, and I haven't gotten a picture of it yet because I keep thinking, could I get in trouble for taking a picture of this? But I literally saw a woman at the gym on, gosh, I think it was a Stairmaster or elliptical, doing a crossword puzzle.

I was so excited, right?

I was like, if you could do a crossword puzzle when you're. You're at the. You're not. That's not working out. So if you've got something that you're doing that your body doesn't have to work to recover from, it really isn't exercise. In order for it to be. Exercise has to be hot. You got to get hot and sweaty, and it's got to hurt a. So that's one thing I want people to really think of here, is, hey, it's great to move more. We should be walking all over the place. But that's not exercise. That's just moving, which is what we should be doing.

Yes. It's so funny you say that because I'm thinking like, you know, the cross proposal. I'm thinking like, popcorn is next. Like, when are we going to start? When are the trainers going to start bringing up popcorn?

You know, gosh, wouldn't that be great? But I'm burning calories. Yeah. So it's super important to start to think of. It's not about just the calories you burn during exercise. In fact, it's really not that at all. It's what. What does it do for you over time? So let's look at what a workout, and one of the things you already mentioned here, because, let's face it, one of the big reasons people don't work out is they don't have time. And so time is such a biggie. Let's go through what a workout, a hiit workout looks like because they're super time efficient, which is awesome.

Yeah, absolutely. So a typical 15 minute workout, right? So for example, you're doing jump squats for 15 seconds. You go into a bird dog for one minute. Now that's a bird dog.

Oh my gosh.

Down on all four. You know, you probably call it something else.

Oh, I call it superwoman. I know what you mean.

Yeah.

See, I knew you had a knee.

And so bird dog is like, you know, I call bird dog active rest, right? Because it's lower intensity and you know, you're just basically kicking back. It's a glute, you know, glute hammy. And then you're raising one arm, the opposite arm out in front of you, like kind of like superwoman or like what you called it. And so you go from bird dog for one minute back into something that's more high intensity for 15 seconds, which is like a jump knee touch, for example. Then you rest for a minute, and then you repeat for 15 total minutes. Now the idea on those 15 second intervals is what we call a no toxone. So you go all out for 15 seconds, and when you go all out for 15 seconds, you really shouldn't be able to talk like we're talking. Once that 15 seconds is over, you.

Said something important here. I love the no toxin. That's awesome. Is active recovery.

Yes.

So you do something all out and then you go into active recovery. So explain why you want to do active recovery as opposed to just like lying on the couch.

So you keep your metabolism revved up, you keep your heart rate up through active recovery. Now sometimes, right, we mix in rest periods just because they make sense or because the level of difficulty of the workout, right. You increase it, decrease it based on rest and active rest. But the reality or the real reason, right. Is to keep the heart rate up.

Yeah. And the nice thing is too, when you do active recovery, you can actually buffer some of that. The lactic acid can be used as a fuel source. So you can actually buffer it back so you can work out, continue to keep pushing out hard, which I just love. Now let's talk benefits of. I was an old exercise physiologist. I actually got my. Did all my graduate work in exercise science. So I'm an old science geek here. I love this stuff.

Now that's how we get along. I know. That's how we get along. So good.

That's why when I saw this topic, I'm like, yay. I haven't had anyone talk about this. I'm so excited. Benefits of high intensity interval training. Like, let's go through them.

Okay, so the first one I mentioned, which is the excess post oxygen consumption, you're burning calories up to 48 hours post workout. That's number one. Number two is it's a fat incinerating hormone release, which means the workouts actually increase the body's release of fat incinerating hormones, including growth hormone and epinephrine. Right? So that's a really good one. The other thing, as you mentioned, jj, is the fact that they're so time efficient, right? No equipment, no nothing. You can do it in your living room 12 to 15 minutes. And you're like, it's like the equivalent of 60 minutes on a treadmill. You can do it anywhere. And then something that I really, I think is really undervalued and I think you'll agree is the improved VO2 max, right? I mean, it's really important to increase our level of fitness as we exercise. And something that 60 minutes at a 4 on a treadmill doesn't do is put you in a better level of fitness. And I think it's really important to reiterate the, you know, the VO2 Max.

So for people who are going, okay, Michael, what's a VO2 max?

Yeah, so VO2 max is maximal oxygen consumption, right? It's the bottom.

So what does it mean? So someone improves their VO2 max. What's that going to do for them? How are they going to feel? What's that going to do?

So in theory, right, instead of running on a. Instead of walking on a treadmill at 4, they're gonna. It's gonna be easier to transition to a 5, 6, and 7, right? Their level of fitness is going to increase because their body's ability to process and use oxygen.

And I'm gonna share with you what I've seen from HIIT training, because I don't do a whole lot of, like, I pretty much do HIIT training, resistance training. That's it. I'd love to say I also do yoga. I don't. I want to, but I don't.

So I think we all need to do yoga. Yeah, we all need to do yoga, But I've been doing this.

Because I'd rather go throw stuff around, but every once in a while, I go and hike up these massive hills when I'm out in the desert at my other house. And what's super cool about that is I'll go with friends who do it all the time. And kick their butts. Just kick their butts. And it's not even hard. So when you do this type of training, it actually transfers into your everyday life. And one of the other things that it does is another big marker of how fit you are is how fast you recover. And HIIT trains you on how to go hard, recover fast, go hard, recover fast, which is so key. And also when you think about it really relates to how your body learns how to handle stress. So it really trains your sympathetic nervous system on how to handle stress better, which I think is super cool. Because who isn't stressed out, right?

You were so spot on. Let me tell you just a quick story. So I did. I had a meet up here in Santa Monica yesterday and a guy from the military came out to see me and he said, I've been teaching and showing people Hit Max. There's people that are failing their tests to get into the. To get into the army. He gives them hit Max and then a month later they pass their test. So what does that show and what does that tell you?

The army should be using it.

Yes.

Right. Now, this is the question that I love the most. That because it gets brought up all the time, when you are going to do a workout, you better going in fasted or not. Does this matter?

Because everybody thinks that they need to go into a workout fasted, and that fasted is going to produce more results.

I decided to already hear your answer because I didn't know what you were going to answer her. And I know, I think we're on the same page yet again.

So fasted cardio only makes sense if you're in a caloric deficit. Right. If you're in an anabolic state and you're in a caloric surplus, you can do fasted training all you want. At the end of the day, it's about consumption, it's about nutrition for that day. Because we know that you can't be in both an anabolic and a catabolic state on the same day. It's either one or the other. And so the only time you should be doing fasted, if in fact you even want to, is on those deficit days.

You know, this is one that I hear all the time from people. And there's just. There's such crazy ideas about. About fat burning that just urban legends that need to get put away. Because I know that if I don't eat and I try to go in and do a real intense workout, I can't do it, you know, so it's like you don't want to go eat a big meal and work out because you only have so much blood. You know, you don't want the blood going to your digestive tract. You want it going out your muscles. But then again, if you don't have enough energy to go hit it hard, you know, then you're not going to get the workout you really want.

So, no, I think that the misconception these young teenagers and young women and men are misled to think that you should be training fasted every single day. And, you know, I think first of all, our body's going to adapt to that. So if you train fasted every single day, you know it's going to stop working if it is even if it is even working. So I think use it as a tool on your deficit days, you know, one time a week to sort of switch things up.

Super, super information there. Now, one last thing, because I know we're up against the clock here a little bit. You know, how long of a workout? Because one of the things I hear people with burst training too, is they'll go, jj, you'll be so proud of me. I did it for 45 minutes. I go, that's not a hiit workout. No, no. If you could go 45 minutes, you weren't going hard enough. Go hard, go short, go home. So how long does your hit nat workout need to be in order to be effective? And how do you know if you're not pushing hard enough?

So, right, it's the no talk zone. Right? You're going all out for those crazy bursts, and then you're doing that active rest to recover. So 12 to 15 minutes is a really good place. I mean, I've done hiit workouts six, eight minutes that have completely taxed me. So I think, you know, quality over quantity all the time.

Always awesome. And like, that reduces that little thing that people. I don't have time. Well, you really. You don't have. You don't have 10 minutes. Come on, Everybody does. I throw it. Like when I'm traveling, I go and run the stairs. That's the easiest hiit workout there is. And what hotel doesn't have stairs? So simple. Simple. Now, I know you have a new app. Tell me about it.

So hiitmax is coming to the app store. We're waiting on apple to approve it. We're looking at two to four weeks. So it's everything we just discussed inside an app. So workouts that change every single day, anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, I basically am in your ear leading you through these workouts step by step. There's music and of course you get me saying push, push, push. Come on, let's go. So really, really excited about that.

Fabulous. And by the time this is out, it's probably out. So you can go grab yours. And then I know next year you've got a big book coming out in April, Sweet Potato Diet. Super excited about that. So I'm gonna have everyone like dial into your website so they can keep up with you and get more info. And that is, what is it? Morellifit.com Spell it out for me.

Spell it out. M O R E L L I f I t.com all right, that's perfect.

Easy enough. So I want to remind everybody that that is morellifit.com to get more from Michael. He's super dialed in and he's got some great information too coming out in his new book. But I'm sure he's got some on his website about carb cycling, which is hugely important. Don't get into ruts and routines. And thank you all so much for joining me today. Now, after, after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.

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Welcome back. And now we're into my most favorite part of the show where I get to answer a listener's question. And today's question is from Jen Schultz. And it just fits in perfectly with what we've been talking about. So I'll let her ask it herself.

I guess there's a two part question here for you is, you know, how do I really get myself to continue after, let's say, two weeks? That two week, three week period for me, it starts to get really rough. I start to feel like I'm flipping out and I want to eat the things that I can't really eat. And in general, I eat pretty healthy. But unfortunately, my digestive system, what can be Healthy for you is not necessarily healthy for me. And my digestive system won't process it properly. You know, I can't eat beef, I can't eat pork. I'm pretty sure, I mean, I pretty much know at this point that I can't do dairy and I will cheat with, you know, ice cream and stuff like that. And it's not even about the weight loss. It's more about how I feel and what happens to my body when I cheat and I have dairy and stuff like that. The second question is that I noticed that when I was following, I wasn't really losing much weight. I lost maybe two to three pounds and I sort of flat line. And I think for me it's actually, I'd like to know what sort of exercises I can do. Thanks so much.

All right, so it's a two part question. I'm going to answer the second part first, which is do some high intensity interval training. Burst training is the single best. And I've actually created the, what I call the 4x4 workout, which is some easy resistance training with burst training. And we'll make sure that there is a link to that. But you can also go to jjvirgin.com to get more information on my 4x4 training and my burst and resistance training put all together. I've got a couple different varieties of that and that's the the easiest thing to do and it'll make it fun. Now, as far as how to keep going, there's a couple things I would tell you about this. The biggest thing is in order to, when you look at this, it really has to do with having a great support system, an accountability partner, and then a great why. So the first thing is why, why is this important to you? Why does this matter? Because if your why is big enough, then you'll make the thing happen. I think back to when my son was in the hospital and was launching a book that became a New York Times bestseller, the Virgin Diet, and was on the list for 26 weeks. There was no choice. I had to be there. I had to help save my son and I had to make the book work so that I could pay for all of that. And I think that we just don't make things that level of importance. And when it's that level of importance, then all of a sudden you will do what you need to do. You've already connected the dots. You know, these foods make you feel bad. Obviously. Do not bring them into the house because if they're there, you'll eat them. I do not bring any of my trigger foods ever into the house because I know. But then let's look at how to take you to that next level. Look at who you spend your time with. Surround yourself with people who are healthy and fit and live the lifestyle that you want to live right? Get yourself an accountability partner or a coach who can help you as as well. And then write down what you're eating. Make sure you're weighing every single day, even though weight loss you said there wasn't as important. Weigh yourself every day and write it down because that will help keep you on track. But you know, for so many of us, if you just make sure that you are spending time around people who are where you want to be, that helps a bunch. And you have someone that you're accountable to. Even if it's a quick check in every single morning for five minutes and you guys send each other your journals every single day. It keeps you on track and have a plan in place for if you do slip up how you're immediately going to get back on track. And then again, don't bring trigger foods into the house and look at what simple swaps you can do where you're getting in trouble. I mean, so delicious. Dairy free 1 gram of sweetener sweetened with monk fruit coconut ice cream. That is amazing. I mean amazing. You will not miss regular ice cream. All right, so if you'd like to submit a question, just go to jjvirgin.com ask and you can leave a voicemail for me. I can't wait to hear from you. And one more away, I'd love to hear from you. I would so appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. You know it helps a bunch. And be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. Alrighty. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worthy dare to live a life that matters.

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