HIIT question

twiggy8459

If i plan on doing HIIT workouts on tuesdays and Thursdays, should I supplement it with steady cardio on the off days?

DragonShoe_GCole

Hard to answer this without knowing your specific fitness goal(s)....Care to elaborate, please?

Lofteren

We would need to know your entire training schedule and what you are training for to answer this question.

AllanMisner

Two considerations: 1) What are your fitness goals? 2) How well do you recover from these intense sessions?

twiggy8459

Thanks for the responses everyone. I want to lose weight and also gain some muscle in the process. Big thing is the weight loss though. Right now I am on this schedule.

monday - chest n triceps
tuesday - cardio (hiit - 30 mins) and abs
wednesday - back n biceps n forearms
thursday - cardio (hiit - 30 mins) and abs
friday - shoulders and legs
saturday - Cardio stationary bike
Sunday - full body stretching and mobility

Just don't know if doing an easy ride on the other off days will hinder anything or if its worth it for the half hour.

Robert

AllanMisner

Building muscle strength and/or mass while losing fat is possible, but difficult. It takes eating at a slight deficit, timing nutrition, and having the patience to get a little of each at the cost of not optimizing either.

I don’t have any major issues with your program, but I’d move to two to three full body workouts per week (5x5). As it stands now, you only hit each body part once per week. I think you’ll get more progress from more focus. And then I’d only do one HIIT session per week. Then one or two slow, easy cardio sessions (stationary bike) should be fine.

MeanderingMammal

I'd agree with the point above that doing full body resistance training is probably better for your pretty generic objective.

I'd add the view that if you're properly doing HIIT then once a week is about as much as you want to do, although if you're just in higher intensity activity then probably not a huge issue.

Weight loss is driven by your calorie deficit, decent quality CV work will help you to generate that deficit and will help optimise your CV conditioning and endurance, so I'd probably go to two steady state moderate intensity bike sessions and only one HIIT session.

rybo

Another vote for a 3x full body routine. You have your SS cardio on your bike day. No real need for more