Benefits of HIIT between weight lifting sets?

mandilamadrid

Hi everyone,
I've been lifting weights for a few months. At first, I separated weight and cardio but it took up far too much time, so I did 15 mins of Hiit, then one muscle group, 15 mins HIIT, the other muscle group. I've recently been wondering whether I should do a minute of HIIT in between sets instead, to keep my heart rate up throughout the whole workout? My goal is weight loss.

mmapags

If you are truly doing HIIT, and most don't, it affects the central nervous system. So does weight training. The are typically not recommended on the same day, much less between sets. Keeping your heart rate up is meaningful for aerobic training but less so for weight loss. If that's what you want to do, consider super sets with auxilliaries. Why not do a couple of HIIT sessions on the alternate days?
PS: What is the HIIT technique you are doing? Most who do true HIIT would question how you would have enough left to do lifting sets in between.

dalerst

Agreed if you think you can do a minute of HIIT between weight your not doing you HIIT workout correctly, I can't breath once I've done a minute in my HIIT session so defo wouldn't be able to lift after it.

mandilamadrid

mmapags wrote: »

If you are truly doing HIIT, and most don't, it affects the central nervous system. So does weight training. The are typically not recommended on the same day, much less between sets. Keeping your heart rate up is meaningful for aerobic training but less so for weight loss. If that's what you want to do, consider super sets with auxilliaries. Why not do a couple of HIIT sessions on the alternate days?
PS: What is the HIIT technique you are doing? Most who do true HIIT would question how you would have enough left to do lifting sets in between.

Really good points, I definitely underestimated the effects of the HIIT. What if I do a minute of just bodyweight cardio between sets rather than full on HIIT? Would I be compromising the benefits of cardio or weights a lot? I'm not focused on huge gains; more weight loss. What do you think?

TavistockToad

Whh not just do cardio on cardio days amd lifting on lifting days...

mmapags

TavistockToad wrote: »

Whh not just do cardio on cardio days amd lifting on lifting days...

I agree with this. No benefit to doing too much at once.

JeromeBarry1

@mandilamadrid By being willing to do weightlifting and cardio on the same day, you indicate that you are quite healthy. What's your BMI?

shannonbrewelch

Hey mandilamadrid,

I used to do HIIT and lifting on the same days, but ended up not getting enough out of my workouts because I was so exhausted from HIIT. If you wanna keep your heart rate up during strength training, then you are looking at something closer to circuit training.

This is where you do things like squat jumps, 180 switches, or burpees in your supersets. For example what I did during my lifting was this:

Superset 1 (three times through)
One-Arm Rows x 12
Tricep Dips x 12
Burpees x 12
1 Minute Rest

That is just an example of one. But if you are still wanting to do HIIT on a treadmill or bike on your cardio days, start at 30s sprint, 1 minute easy x 7-10. If you do it right, you will feel DEAD (and sore) haha.

Hope this helped!

mandilamadrid

Thank you shannonbrewelch! I think I'm going to be circuit training by doing bodyweight cardio between supersets.

canadianlbs

yeah . . . i wouldn't either. i cycle and lift, and if i do decide to start playing the all-out-intensity sprint game on my bike i make damn sure i don't do it before my lifting. but with that said, i may be lifting in a different way and for different reasons from you.

mandilamadrid wrote: »

to keep my heart rate up throughout the whole workout?

or you could just do your sets really fast and let them count as your hiit i kid, sort of. but sort of not since i've been doing 10-rep sets of my lifts now and then, and that's cardio even at 50% of work weight.

but really the whole point of breaking your lifts into 'sets' is to let your heart rate come down again and give your muscles time to refill with [whatever it's called]. so it's sort of defeating that purpose. i've done circuit workouts (twice) and that sounds like a sensible way of going about what you want.

rheddmobile

I'm not sure what the objective is here. Has someone told you the mistaken idea that exercise doesn't help weight loss unless you keep your heart rate up? That's not valid. Heavy weightlifting in particular creates an oxygen deficit which increases your metabolism for hours afterwards. No cardio intervals required.

firef1y72

canadianlbs wrote: »

or you could just do your sets really fast and let them count as your hiit i kid, sort of. but sort of not since i've been doing 10-rep sets of my lifts now and then, and that's cardio even at 50% of work weight.

but really the whole point of breaking your lifts into 'sets' is to let your heart rate come down again and give your muscles time to refill with [whatever it's called]. so it's sort of defeating that purpose. i've done circuit workouts (twice) and that sounds like a sensible way of going about what you want.

Seriously I thought it was just me that thought that. Been doing 5x10@50% as accessories after my main lift and boy does it bring my heart rate up when I do the deads. It seemed so weird after lifting heavy working set that the lighter sets take so much out of me.

mmapags

canadianlbs wrote: »

yeah . . . i wouldn't either. i cycle and lift, and if i do decide to start playing the all-out-intensity sprint game on my bike i make damn sure i don't do it before my lifting. but with that said, i may be lifting in a different way and for different reasons from you.

mandilamadrid wrote: »

to keep my heart rate up throughout the whole workout?

or you could just do your sets really fast and let them count as your hiit i kid, sort of. but sort of not since i've been doing 10-rep sets of my lifts now and then, and that's cardio even at 50% of work weight.

but really the whole point of breaking your lifts into 'sets' is to let your heart rate come down again and give your muscles time to refill with [whatever it's called]. so it's sort of defeating that purpose. i've done circuit workouts (twice) and that sounds like a sensible way of going about what you want.

Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP)

rybo

mandilamadrid wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I've been lifting weights for a few months. At first, I separated weight and cardio but it took up far too much time, so I did 15 mins of Hiit, then one muscle group, 15 mins HIIT, the other muscle group. I've recently been wondering whether I should do a minute of HIIT in between sets instead, to keep my heart rate up throughout the whole workout? My goal is weight loss.

This is not a very good idea at all. Do one or the other. And you are also not doing HIIT if this is the format you are following

sijomial

Sorry but that sounds like an awful routine, neither your strength work or cardio will be performed anywhere near optimal levels.
It's really hard to work out from your suggested routine what your training goal actually is. Have you actually given your overall goal plenty of thought and then done the same for each training session?
Ask yourself how is today's workout going to progress me towards my ultimate goal.

If you want to reduce the time taken base the majority of your strength routine around big compound lifts - far more time efficient than targeting individual muscles.