The Case for High-Intensity Living
Dispatch #8 from the Human Aliveness Lab
This is Dispatch #8 in a series from the Human Aliveness Lab — raw, personal reflections exploring what it really means to feel alive. You can read the whole series here.
Hi friends,
A while back, a friend and I came up with a phrase that pretty much sums up how I live: high-intensity living.
If you know me, this probably won’t surprise you. I don’t do things halfway. When I got into fitness, I didn’t ease in with long walks or light workouts — I dove straight into high-intensity interval training (HIIT), calisthenics, handstands, boxing, and eventually, jiu-jitsu. The harder it was, the more I wanted to try it.
When I decided to write a book, I didn’t choose something straightforward or familiar. I set out to write creative nonfiction — one of the most difficult genres to do well — without a formal writing background. Because that’s how I do most things: with my whole heart.
This approach isn’t for everyone. But I think a lot of people are stuck living at such a moderate pace that they’ve forgotten what it feels like to truly engage.
High-intensity living doesn’t mean staying busy 24/7 or chasing intensity for its own sake. It means being awake, present, and emotionally invested in the life you’re actually living.
When I first discovered HIIT, I was hooked. Not just because it was hard — but because it was efficient, focused, and powerful. Short bursts of maximum effort, followed by actual rest, made me stronger and more conditioned than slower, steady workouts ever had. It felt like magic.
And that’s how I want to live.
Not at a constant sprint, but in deliberate cycles: push hard, then step back. Go all in, then recover fully. Commit fully to the moments that matter.
Because it’s not just about effort — it’s about intensity, then integration.
Here’s what that cycle might look like in practice:
Care Hard
Let yourself get attached. Let yourself fall in love with ideas, with people, with the work you care about. Be open to obsession, to focus, to caring even when it feels vulnerable, uncool, or too much.
Don’t hold back because you’re afraid of rejection or failure or what other people might think.
Go Hard
Set ambitious goals. Stretch yourself creatively, physically, intellectually, emotionally. Embrace discomfort — even when it’s scary.
Dive deep into a writing session, a training goal, an immersive conversation, or a moment in nature that pulls you into awe. Give something your full attention.
Recover Hard
When you’ve gone all in — step back. Rest fully, not just halfway. Reflect and reconnect inward. Take walks and let yourself daydream.
Recovery isn’t just a reward for intensity; it’s what makes intensity sustainable.
This way of living isn’t easy. I’ll be honest: sometimes I get overwhelmed. Sometimes I crash. There are days I wish I could be content with a more measured pace.
But every time I return to this cycle — intensity followed by intentional rest — I feel more like myself. More alive.
And the benefits go beyond productivity or performance. This isn’t about hustle. It’s about energy, clarity, meaning, emotional depth. The feeling that life isn’t just happening around you — you’re in it. You’re awake. You’re choosing.
High-intensity living isn’t for everyone. But if you’ve been feeling numb, flat, or stuck in neutral — maybe what you need isn’t less.
Maybe it’s more.
With heart,
Krista
I love your most recent article about High-Intensity Interval Training aka HIIT! It’s powerful beyond measure, no question about it! I feel like I am in the midst of doing something important, meaning, and purposeful in the direction I care about; That is, by undergoing my exercise routine outdoors with Sam, my accountability partner and nurse practitioner at Birmingham Green nursing home, or it’s about being indoors when it’s too hot outside and they’re raining through precipitation, I meditate in every action and then I rest on weekends after doing four days a week during the week, itself.
Guess what? I have recently decided to:run as a Moderate Democrat via my candidacy for office to become President of the United States of America, towards the November 2028 presidential election. I have a renewed vision that I hope and aim will resonate through generational input, whether it’s Gen X to Gen Z and everyone in between. I was originally inspired by former President Obama during his 2008 change election. In addition, I ultimately have my mother’s side of my family to thank, because in the past I was told that Inwould do big things one day, as if it was a dream foretold, on purpose.
Much appreciated, much deserved, and much needed, Ms. Stryker! ☺️😊😀
Krista I appreciate your commitment to your mission and your goal of High Intensity Living. I see one major problem. What you are recommending are from my perspective ways of being that I see as best described as ways of being to aim for. Having HIL as a 'how to be' seems like a prescription for failure. What is missing is the ways and processes of moving towards these ways. I would suggest that it takes a lot more that advocating to yourself and others. I think that inner work on discovering the complexity of what is in the ways and discovering the processes to liberate the processes to see the current horizons as places along the way and learning how to work with these processes is crucial. Of course, the search for meaning and authentic self is a great pole star, and of course proceeding in the face of not-knowing and uncertainty and learning increasingly how work with this is a central part of the Way.
Warm wishes,
Avraham