Is this an effective HIIT exercise?

karahunts

I've never tried hiit before and I definitely ran faster than I ever have today, but does anyone have any thing to say about this work out in particular? Do you think its effective at all?

http://www.pbfingers.com/2014/04/30/treadmill-hiit-workout/

ROBJ3411

Hate to sound like a hater, cause I am a big fan of Hiit, it's either a good or bad workout depending on your fitness level. My rule of thumb is to do you "on" hard and your "off" or Rest easy. The common mistake is to think that if I do Medium recovery it is better, it is not. Also, the Harder(faster) you run the shorter you run. To vary intensity change your ON(speed or time), your rest or the number intervals.... It appears this work out is a progressively increasing intensity with decreased time of effort and decreasing rest. Nothing wrong with the concept. if the hard was hard and the easy & allowed you to recover then its a good workout If the hard, especially the last couple didn't really challenge you or you had to work on the recovery, then you can just adjust those aspects... I personally like to go super slow (like 2MPH) or total rest (straddle the Treadmill) during my off when I am doing hard intervals....

WolverhamptonFitness

^^ You can only really benefit from HIIT if you have a standard of fitness. otherwise you cannot push your self as hard.

yopeeps025

Interesting interval training in that link. Not really high intensity IMO.

MeanderingMammal

It's not HIIT. It's a fairly comfortable, albeit short, progression session.

That said, effective depends on what you're trying to achieve.

karahunts

Thanks for commenting...I figured it wouldn't be classified as hi it. How would something like this compare to doing a regular 30 minute jog/ run on the treadmill?

MeanderingMammal

I'd say that the difference is fairly negligible in terms of calorie expenditure or effect on the CV system.

Assuming those speeds as MPH then you're spending more than half the time walking.