If you’re looking to rev up your metabolism, Ryan Pang, owner of Fitness HI, has the workout for you.His high-intensity interval training, known as the Metabolic Class, has you burning fat long after the session ends.

The exercises are meant to spike your heart rate and a longer rest period between drills is used to bring the heart rate back down. Such workouts are known to create an "afterburn effect" in which the metabolism increases for hours afterward to meet the body’s energy needs.

"People may feel more energetic or wired after the workouts," Pang said. "Other people may feel warmer or hungrier the next day."

The workout was only about 30 minutes, with an additional 15 minutes for stretching before and after.

The Fitness HI studio, in a warehouse adjacent to the Ward Entertainment Center, doesn’t have lots of frills. There’s a restroom and changing area, but no showers. It’s stocked with kettlebells, TRX suspension trainers, sandbags, a push sled and some other contraptions that don’t take up a lot of space. And no windows or mirrors means fewer distractions in the warehouse setting.

The class I attended was predominantly women and a few men of varying fitness levels. We used foam rollers and small rubber balls to work out knots and muscle tension before and after the workout.

The 12 participants, including myself, worked through six circuit stations, spending 25 seconds at high intensity and then resting for a little more than a minute before proceeding to the next station.

The first activity: mountain climbers on sliders — similar to those patches you might throw under furniture to move it around. You start in a plank position and move your legs alternately as if climbing, but with the sliders under your feet, which don’t leave the floor. The 25-second interval seemed like an eternity.

Next, we dead-lifted sandbags to our shoulders, dropped them to the ground in front of us and repeated the move. A plank with a sandbag slide followed. Maintaining a plank position, we used alternating hands to push the sandbag from side to side.

We grasped "battling" ropes, slamming them to the ground and moving them to create undulating waves. This exercise is always so much harder than it looks, leaving most folks winded.

The TRX suspension trainer was used to do some rows where you lean back while holding the handles, lifting your own body weight. That was followed by ball slams — throwing lighter-weight medicine balls against the wall, pivoting on the back foot to work the core, catching the ball each time and repeating the movement.

Pang advises skipping an exercise if you feel more rest is needed. To make the workout harder, more weight can be added or the intensity increased, but the length of the rest period remains constant.

Participant Mark Fukeda of Aiea said his workouts have helped improve his golf game. "It’s really helped me loosen things up," he said.

Felicia Durant, a Kapolei resident, likes that the workouts aren’t time-consuming. "We get a good workout and squeeze a lot in," she said. "My job keeps me pretty busy, so I really benefit from having workouts like this that burn a ton of calories in a short amount of time."

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“Tryouts” features exercise and wellness classes and other fitness activities. Reach Nancy Arcayna
at narcayna@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4808.