HIIT routines?

armydreamers

I'm going to start SL5x5 and I want to add just a bit of HIIT to that. First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me? I know it's an obvious question but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Would a HIIT routine at home be something like burpees for 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, a couple of other 30 second exercises without rest in between and THEN a rest for like 60 seconds, then back to the exercises? Do I have that right?

Also, how can I do a HIIT workout at the gym on the rowing machine or elliptical?

Thanks.

dbmeyers23

Yep..just think of doing a lot of work in a short amount of time. Not much rest...and you want to feel uncomfortable doing it. I love the rower...do 250 meter "sprints" with a minute rest for 7-10 minutes. I recently joined an Orange theory gym to this 2 times a week...my other workouts are strictly lifting heavy. Good luck.

armydreamers

dbmeyers23 wrote: »

Yep..just think of doing a lot of work in a short amount of time. Not much rest...and you want to feel uncomfortable doing it. I love the rower...do 250 meter "sprints" with a minute rest for 7-10 minutes. I recently joined an Orange theory gym to this 2 times a week...my other workouts are strictly lifting heavy. Good luck.

Are you saying just 7-10 minutes and you're done? Or do you repeat that?

chsberthelot

Yea basically constantly changing your heart rate higher to lower higher to lower
Love HIIT it works!

MeanderingMammal

armydreamers wrote: »

First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me?

So interval training in general is about alternating periods within your session with higher intensity periods and lower intensity. That has some benefits in terms of increasing your capacity as you're able to work harder if you're not sustaining as long.

In principle HIIT means that the high intensity periods are in the order of 95-98% of maximum heart rate, so the work periods are in the order of 20-30 seconds long. If you can sustain the work period for longer than that, you're not working hard enough. Few people can do more than 6-8 repeats at that intensity.

Whilst calorie expenditure isn't high some studies have shown that HIIT has a moderately improved impact on fat loss compared to low intensity activity like walking.

That said, when most people on here talk about HIIT what they mean is moderate intensity intervals, rather than high intensity it's about a short CV session that can sustain interest, so not huge benefits over and above just sustained steady state effort.

I guess the question is, what are you wanting to achive from your CV training that you think interval training will give you?

If you're just doing interval training, and you want to use a machine, then any machine will be fine. If you're really doing HIIT then spin bike is about your only viable option. All the other machines take too long to change intensities so you lose most of your work periods to aceleration and decelleration.

Examples of what I'll do would be a running session of say a 15 minute warm up at a 6 min km followed by 8 repeats of 20 second maximum effort sprints and 60 second recoveries at my easy pace, followed by 10-15 minutes of cool down.

On my turbo trainer it's similar timing.

LKArgh

armydreamers wrote: »

I'm going to start SL5x5 and I want to add just a bit of HIIT to that. First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me? I know it's an obvious question but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Would a HIIT routine at home be something like burpees for 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, a couple of other 30 second exercises without rest in between and THEN a rest for like 60 seconds, then back to the exercises? Do I have that right?

Also, how can I do a HIIT workout at the gym on the rowing machine or elliptical?

Thanks.

No. This is a short circuit. Not HIIT. Which is fine. The average person will not benefit, or manage to properly do HIIT anyway. It is just the new trend

FitPhillygirl

chsberthelot wrote: »

Yea basically constantly changing your heart rate higher to lower higher to lower
Love HIIT it works!

I love HIIT workouts also since there are a lot of ways to do it, and the afterburn is awesome.

MeanderingMammal

Eileen_S wrote: »

I love HIIT workouts also since there are a lot of ways to do it, and the afterburn is awesome negligible.

FIFY

armydreamers

aggelikik wrote: »

armydreamers wrote: »

I'm going to start SL5x5 and I want to add just a bit of HIIT to that. First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me? I know it's an obvious question but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Would a HIIT routine at home be something like burpees for 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, a couple of other 30 second exercises without rest in between and THEN a rest for like 60 seconds, then back to the exercises? Do I have that right?

Also, how can I do a HIIT workout at the gym on the rowing machine or elliptical?

Thanks.

No. This is a short circuit. Not HIIT. Which is fine. The average person will not benefit, or manage to properly do HIIT anyway. It is just the new trend

What is HIIT then? Examples?

filovirus76

When I do speed work while running, it is usually 6-8 intervals of 25 seconds sprint hard, 1 min 5 seconds light jog. First few sprints are a piece of cake. Last few sprints are tough. Ten minute warm up and cool down. Little over half hour total for work out.

LKArgh

armydreamers wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

armydreamers wrote: »

I'm going to start SL5x5 and I want to add just a bit of HIIT to that. First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me? I know it's an obvious question but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Would a HIIT routine at home be something like burpees for 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, a couple of other 30 second exercises without rest in between and THEN a rest for like 60 seconds, then back to the exercises? Do I have that right?

Also, how can I do a HIIT workout at the gym on the rowing machine or elliptical?

Thanks.

No. This is a short circuit. Not HIIT. Which is fine. The average person will not benefit, or manage to properly do HIIT anyway. It is just the new trend

What is HIIT then? Examples?

Chech here: http://fellrnr.com/wiki/High_Intensity_Interval_Training
When most people think of HIIT benefits in my (limited and completely personal) experience, they are thinking about Tabata. I have heard of very few people do something that resembles Tabata.
Once a trainer offered to demonstrate to a group of us what it is supposed to be like, without the actual equipment to measure VO2Max. It was a small group, all at the time exercising regularly at an intense level, most of us exercising for decades, but not athletes. These were the hardest workout of my life and I do not think anyone of us decided to ever try it again

awinner_au

armydreamers wrote: »

What is HIIT then? Examples?

Watch this video, abc tv is the local public broadcaster.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4319131.htm

MeanderingMammal

armydreamers wrote: »

What is HIIT then? Examples?

You're back in the realms of what is it that you want to achieve?

AnvilHead

^ That's not HIIT in that video.

armydreamers wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

armydreamers wrote: »

I'm going to start SL5x5 and I want to add just a bit of HIIT to that. First of all, can someone explain HIIT to me? I know it's an obvious question but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Would a HIIT routine at home be something like burpees for 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, a couple of other 30 second exercises without rest in between and THEN a rest for like 60 seconds, then back to the exercises? Do I have that right?

Also, how can I do a HIIT workout at the gym on the rowing machine or elliptical?

Thanks.

No. This is a short circuit. Not HIIT. Which is fine. The average person will not benefit, or manage to properly do HIIT anyway. It is just the new trend

What is HIIT then? Examples?

Example: Sprint as hard/fast as you can for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, repeat 5-6 times. If you don't feel like passing out, aren't gasping for breath and ready to puke, you didn't run hard enough and it wasn't HIIT.


Non-example: Push ups for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds; jumping jacks for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds; burpees for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, etc. Those exercises aren't high intensity enough to be HIIT. They may be interval training, but they're not High Intensity interval training (hence the acronym HIIT).

tinaisstillwell

Mercola.com explains and demonstrates. This is my HIIT workout on the elliptical: 5 min warm up, then go as fast and hard as I possibly can for 20-30 seconds, followed by a 90 second slow down. Repeat between 6-8 times.

sokkache

I second that rowing HIIT. I go on the rowing machine, 5 minutes warmup at 24/25 strokes/min (I suggest watching some rowing videos if you haven't done it before). Then for 15 minutes I will do sprints for 1 minute at about 30/31 strokes/min and then a 1 minute rest between each interval. Then cool down at 23/24 strokes/min for 5 minutes. I am sweating like a beast at the end of this and it's only 25 minutes

blues4miles

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

Whilst calorie expenditure isn't high some studies have shown that HIIT has a moderately improved impact on fat loss compared to low intensity activity like walking.

That said, when most people on here talk about HIIT what they mean is moderate intensity intervals, rather than high intensity it's about a short CV session that can sustain interest, so not huge benefits over and above just sustained steady state effort.

I think this is important. Some folks who want to incorporate more cardio training but might get bored easily find an advantage to it. But if you prefer moderate intensity activity over a sustained period of time like walking or spinning or running, there's no reason to assume intervals will be better. Better is only what works for you and your goals.

NorthCascades

HIIT exercises make you hungry. Because the intensity means you use up muscle glycogen, which your body demands you replenish.