High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for beginners

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  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    I am a 63 year old female - my maximum (100%) heart rate is ~170 (measured in conjunction with a stress echocardiogram by a cardiologist). I do a 20 min session using treadmill incline. Considering that it takes 25 seconds for the treadmill to adjust itself (yes I have timed it), I do a 120s rest cycle, hit the 11% incline for 90 sec. At 11% incline, my HR is between 145-150. That's high intensity enough for me. I started this last week and am doing it three times a week following my NRFL-W workout. It feels great :) As I get more efficient, I will increase walking speed to achieve the same work level - at the moment my walking rate is 3.3 mph.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    I like different forms of HIIT for conditioning purposes because I hate running for distance, sprints are awesome though. Checkout the YouTube Channel "The Fitness Blender" it's free and pretty cool. It's better than sinking money into real expensive videos (T25, P90, etc) that aren't entirely different or even better.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,406 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Mulfey36 wrote: »
    Hi again, if anyone else is doing HIIT please can you let me know your experience and results, being new to this I am a bit sceptical about HIIT and have my doubts it will work. It seems too good to be true right? less time cardio but better results? hmm :|

    Hi,
    I found a great one on You Tube. It is Crossfit for beginners from Darren at Crossfit Ignite in Sydney. I got results quick. There are two videos. I alternate them 4 to 5 days a week and play tennis the other days. One workout is 5 minutes and the other rep takes about 13 minutes.

    Also the "Pop Sugar" app has great short high intensity workouts. You can target arms one day and abs the next...

    I'm 50+ and beefed up my muscles fast with the Crossfit workouts and now I add Pop Sugar workouts.
  • Brimixed
    Brimixed Posts: 186 Member
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    When I started doing HIIT I did it on the treadmill... Run for X amount of time and Walk for X amount of time... obviously the walk was less than the run to get my heart rate back down.

    Now I do workouts with kettle bells, medicine balls, burpees, etc.

    There is a lot of info out there. Choose/Read wisely!
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,406 Member
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    I also read that it is wise to add stretching like in Yoga to your HIIT to give better range to your movement. You could become "built" but stiff without adding stretching exercises. And walk/run everyday.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    It doesn't have to be Yoga, it could be just regular stretching of some kind. If your body doesn't move correctly it doesn't matter how strong you get and you'll just end-up hurting yourself at some point because of the stiffness.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    There is an awful lot of twaddle talked about HIIT as it's become "fashionable".

    Yes it can be a very time efficient way of training but it's certainly not as magical as lot's of people seem to think. Fitness improvements can be spectacular over the short term but I'm not so convinced longer term.

    As regards EPOC (calorie burning after the event) remember you are only talking about a short exercise duration (20 mins) and therefore smallish calorie burn.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/steady-state-versus-intervals-and-epoc-practical-application.html/

    My opinion - If you are using it because it fits your available time and fitness goals then great. Otherwise to me it's just part of a fitness routine and has its place as does other forms of training.


    +1 for twaddle

    One addition: even in cases where the "afterburn" is longer (sometimes 12+ hours), the TOTAL extra calories burned is around 75-125. So that "24 hour burn" is not so impressive when you realize it's only 2-5 extra calories per hour.

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