HIIT me up!

khamaesi

I love mixing up my strength training workouts with hiit (high intensity interval training). Anyone have any good exercises they do with their hiit workouts?

minniestar55

I do some tabata workouts along with my cardio, I very the exercises; squats, jumping jacks, high knees, crunches, plank, step ups, side hops, man climbers...all sorts.

kcjchang

In popular culture, "Tabata training" has now come to refer to a wide variety of exercise regimens that may or may not have similar benefits to those found in Tabata's original study. Same goes with the mislabeling of interval training as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), abbreviated in all caps. When properly done, the session should leave you without any energy or drive to do anything else for the day. Weight training before hand would only get in the way.

In Tabata's study, the exercise was performed on a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. The study used 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). Tabata called this the IE1 protocol. (Tabata, et al (1996). "Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max". Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 28 (10): 1327–30.)

AllanMisner

For me personally, I’m not a big fan of mixing the modalities. Why not have a day of running or biking HIIT and then a day of hard, heavy lifting? Or morning HIIT, evening lifting?

Allan Misner
NASM Certified Personal Trainer (Corrective Exercise Specialist, Fitness Nutrition Specialist)
Host of the 40+ Fitness Podcast

lemmie177

Sometimes I'll do a barbell complex at the end of a strength workout, sometimes multiple rounds as an interval workout by itself. Otherwise, I split up strength and cardio/hiit workouts.

I recently tried fitnessblender's "berserker hiit" video and was introduced to lizard hops. They're the best/worst!

khamaesi

I think maybe I was misunderstood haha. I don't do hiit and strength training in the same day haha. By mixing I meant that I don't do solely hiit or solely weights. One day I'll do heavy lifting for example with legs, then the next day do steady state cardio or even hiit, though the hiit I'm still experimenting with.

AllanMisner

khamaesi wrote: »

I think maybe I was misunderstood haha. I don't do hiit and strength training in the same day haha. By mixing I meant that I don't do solely hiit or solely weights. One day I'll do heavy lifting for example with legs, then the next day do steady state cardio or even hiit, though the hiit I'm still experimenting with.

The key with HIIT is to emphasize the high intensity aspect. You should be going all in for that short duration. And then make sure you’re getting recovery during the rest. I typically program a 1:3 HIIT, with 30 seconds being the maximum duration for the work phase. Then do as many rounds as you can while still being able to get recovery during the three times the time rest phase. For someone new to HIIT, it is usually 3-5 rounds at first, working up to 8 - 10 rounds.

The more intense your HIIT sessions are, the longer the time between them should be. I wouldn’t do more than 2 HIIT sessions in a week.

Enjoy!