Olga Kochak is one of the most experienced HIIT trainers we have on the Trainnr marketplace. She is excited to work out with you and put you through customized HIIT workout programs; we sat down with her recently and she told us all about her experience. We are excited to tell you why she is one of the best trainers in our community and will help you achieve your fitness goals and become the person you want to be. Check out Olga’s Trainnr page here.
Keep reading to learn more about Olga, her experience with HIIT fitness training, the science behind her HIIT routines, and how her fitness journey has impacted her life story.
Experience
Olga is a professional sprinter and basketball player with a master’s degree, boasting an incredible time of 10.5 seconds for the 100 meter sprint. The average speed is between 13-14 seconds. She played basketball for the Russian national team for more than six years until she suffered a knee injury. Growing up, she was encouraged by her coach to play basketball because of her height. As soon as she started, she knew she loved it, along with anything fitness related.
Ever since she could walk, she ran. Olga really enjoys going on long runs, which she says helps clear her head and lets her think through her daily troubles. Olga runs for at least an hour every day or practices in the gym. Running long distances is a great way to increase your stamina, and it helps the body in numerous ways; not just physically, but also mentally.
As Olga said, it helps clear her head. Many runners experience the same effect. It is often referred to as the runner’s high. This happens because as you work out, your body releases endorphins- chemicals that affect your mood. The endorphins released by running can help relieve anxiety and pain and help you work through hard thoughts and situations.
Olga has a number of favorite exercises, though she thinks it is most important to workout your core, since it is the foundation of strength. The core controls balance and helps your body perform other exercises. Core exercises are something she makes sure to do every day. Olga strengthens her core by doing mountain climbers, planks, burpees, and situps.
She doesn’t neglect the rest of her body, of course! On leg days, she likes to do squats and lunges, and on upper body days, she does push ups and chest presses. She makes note that all of these are considered cardio; getting your heart pumping is very important for your health as your heart affects all aspects of your health.
Olga is very adamant that all of her trainees do a warm up and stretch before working out and always do a cool down after working out. This not only helps prevent injury, but also helps get you into the mindset of working out. Stretching also calms the mind and helps prepare you for the hard work ahead.
Programs and Fitness Routines
The Trainnr programs (fitness routines) that Olga will be teaching are HIIT, which stands for high intensity interval training. This means you will push hard during the high intensity portions in order to raise your heart rate, and continue working but slow down during the recovery portions. The goal of HIIT programs is to get your heart rate 80% higher than your resting rate during the intense portions and never stop during the slow parts.
Even though Olga’s HIIT workouts include weight training, you don’t need any equipment to participate! Olga focuses on using your own body weight to increase your strength and endurance. This means you can do the routine from anywhere- including your own home. This is style of working out without using weights is often referred to as calisthenics.
But how do you know that Olga’s HIIT routines will work for you? Interval training has been used for over a hundred years by athletes and hobbyists alike. Hannes Kolehmainen, the Finnish gold medalist, used HIIT to train for the Olympics. No matter how much or little you exercise or why you exercise, HIIT can help. Check out Olga’s Trainnr page here.
What is HIIT and How Can It Help Me?
One of the most common HIIT exercises, which Olga loves is running. You sprint as hard as you can for as long as you can, but instead of stopping when you can’t run anymore, you jog. This allows you to rest but you aren’t completely stopping, keeping your heart rate up and improving your stamina.
HIIT doesn’t just help with weight loss and strength, but it is also great for your heart. Pushing your heart to pump 80% harder is integral to consider a workout HITT, and HIIT exercise is much better at increasing heart health than standard workouts.
HIIT Increases Heart Health
Heart health is one of the defining factors of good health, and HIIT makes your heart stronger and better able to pump oxygen all around your body, keeping you energized and feeling good. The healthier your heart is and better at pumping oxygen, the longer it takes to get out of breath and the more stamina you have. This means you can do longer workouts and get less tired from the workouts you normally do.
HIIT is also one of the best type of exercises for weight loss. Constantly shifting from intense to resting makes your body expend more energy and consume more calories trying to keep your body in homeostasis- or balanced. Changing your body temperature, heart rate, pH, or hydration causes your body to react and attempt to get it back to normal. These things change when you workout, and also change depending on how intense your workout is.
Rapidly changing intensity changes the factors that control your body, and your body uses energy to maintain the correct balance. Keeping up with your workout is hard for your body, which is good! It means your body burns a lot of calories keeping you healthy and balanced.
HIIT Increases Metabolism
There is also an afterburn effect from HIIT workouts; your metabolism increases even after you are done working out. After a long HIIT session, calorie burning is increased for anywhere between half an hour and twenty four hours; determined by a lot of things, but mainly muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the longer HIIT increases the speed of your metabolism.
Calisthenics; A Good Fitness and Health Option
What about calisthenics? How does using your own body weight as resistance help you? One great benefit is that it is easy and cheap. You don’t need a special place or equipment, just some open space. Calisthenics are usually simple exercises that can be done in small spaces like apartments.
Another great benefit of calisthenics is flexibility and joint health. The specific exercises used in calisthenics increase your mobility. Pull Ups and jumping exercises are common calisthenic exercises that train mobility. These exercises are based around how we move every day, so moving, lifting, and working become easier every day. It can also help decrease daily aches and pains, as well as preventing accidental injury, like rolled ankles or hurting your back when turning or lifting.
Using your own weight also triggers large muscle groups, which helps with fat and calorie burning. Depending on the routine, it can also trigger more than one muscle group at a time- making sure you are burning as many calories as possible and getting fit as fast as possible.
Most people already include some calisthenics in their routine, such as push ups, pull ups, squats, planks, and jumping exercises like burpees or jumping rope. Most people don’t think about calisthenics when doing these, but they use your own body weight as resistance! Check out Olga’s Trainnr program here.
Personal Life
As for Olga’s personal life, she was born in Russia and now lives in the Netherlands. She has lived there happily for three and a half years. After the knee injury that ended her professional basketball career, at age twenty eight she decided to have children. During her first pregnancy, she found it hard to deny her cravings. After eating tons of ice cream for weeks straight and gaining twenty five kilograms, she realized that pregnancy is not an excuse to put your health in jeopardy.
She was depressed for two months after the birth until she made a plan. Olga became a vegetarian and started working out again. Even though it took her a long time to fight her mind and fear and step back into the gym, she eventually began working out again and lost the weight. She trained every day, even when her body protested or she didn’t want to. She persisted because she knew she needed to for her own health.
When she became pregnant with her second child, she was scared. She didn’t want the weight gain and feeling of helplessness to come back. Olga made a plan and stuck to it; this pregnancy went much smoother and her weight was more stable. She continued working at the gym every day until the day the baby was born. It was really hard to ignore her cravings, but she didn’t ignore her body’s messages.
When she was hungry, she ate. Olga just reached for healthier alternatives. This made sure her body had enough energy for her and her growing baby, and enough nutrients as well. When the baby was born, she was at nearly the same weight as when she had started. She was so proud of herself and happy that her plan had worked. Luckily, this stuck with her, and healthy foods are something Olga always reaches towards. She doesn’t get cravings for sweets anymore.
Even though Olga is now thirty five, she looks much younger due to her fitness regimen. It is impossible to tell she struggled with her weight when she was younger. She looks and feels healthier than ever, and intends to stay in shape for the rest of her life, even after retirement.
Career
Though Olga has a passion for fitness, it was not always her career. She started as a banker and stayed in that career for more than fourteen years. This experience has allowed her to learn how to manage other people and how to be sure of herself. She applies this to her training every day in how she manages her trainees and how she holds herself when interacting with people. Even now, she finds comfort in counting and numbers; she uses this to propel her fitness by meticulously tracking weights, reps, and calories.
Eventually, she realized her passion was to help other people achieve their dreams. After she changed her life through fitness, Olga knew she could help other people improve their lives as well. She decided to become a personal trainer. Now, fitness wasn’t just something she loved- it was her livelihood as well, and she couldn’t be happier.
Olga loves cooking, even though she has a strict vegetarian diet with no sugar. She noted that the best way to eat healthy is to have fun cooking and make healthy food tasty. Cooking with her family is one of the ways she stays connected and spends quality time with them. Having meals with your friends and family is a great way to communicate and keep in touch with people you don’t always have time to talk to.
She eats a lot of vegetables, fruits, soy, and beans. One of her quotes is that you look like what you eat. Eating a lot of healthy foods makes you look healthy. Eating a wide variety of foods that provide different nutrients is a great way to make sure you are healthy and ready to take on any fitness challenge.
Even though fitness is her passion, Olga loves doing other things as well. She says that a day where you don’t learn something is a day wasted. Moving to the Netherlands was a great opportunity for her, as language learning is one of the things she enjoys most. Though it is hard, being thrown into a new environment that only speaks that language was a huge push for her. Olga speaks Russian, Dutch, and English, though she wouldn’t mind learning more.
The thing that always gets her up in the morning is having a positive attitude. With a positive attitude, even hard work brings satisfaction and joy. She knows that if she stays positive, she can make anything happen. On days where she doesn’t want to work, Olga makes sure she looks at all of the benefits she would get from continuing the hard work she has already put in. This motivates her to get up and get going, even when she is sore or tired.
Olga loves what she does and that translates into a happy life and a happy trainer who is ready to help you. Start your free trial and work out with Olga today!
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