Another HIT Advantage

A few months ago I started doing a High-Intensity weight lifting protocol. Slow movement, machine-based, and one-set to failure. I’m guessing it will be another month or two before I know if it is right for me. So far I am impressed with HIT and I continue to learn more about it every week. I suspect that HIT holds promise, especially for us ectomorphs. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Today I discovered a wonderful side benefit that High Intensity has over all other exercise plans.

When 24 Hour Fitness built their new Northgate monstrosity, they were only able to allocate a small number of parking spaces in the garage below. In fact, there are probably two or three times as many pieces of equipment in the gym as there are parking spaces in the garage. The solution they came up with was to have the members park at the shopping mall and then play Frogger running across 5th Ave. Not a fun game to play in the winter or when it rains. And it does rain in Seattle.

In the past, I’ve posted on dumb things Glitter Gyms do, but I’m ready to give props to 24 Hour Fitness Northgate for doing something brilliant. They put 30-minute limits on about 30% of the parking spots in the gym parking garage. In other words, they just provided me with guaranteed parking. All you cardio zombies doing Zumba, spin, or other highly oxidative low intensity “exercise” can park at the mall. The same goes for you marathon meat-heads that spend so much time in the free weight room that you ought to have your mail forwarded there.

30 Minute Parking by CC Chapman

Today I was able to complete an entire workout and be back in my car in 24 minutes. That included signing in and doing 10 minutes of mobility work. And unlike the staff at 24 Hour Fitness and other patrons, I actually rack my weights. For more information on the High-Intensity protocol, I highly recommend reading Body by Science by Dr. Doug McGuff and John Little.