HIIT Questions

Rosefern1

1 How often should I do HIIT? Daily?
2 How long should my HIIT workout be?
3 What should my HIIT intervals be? (1 minute high intensity to 5 regular pace?)
4 What should be a target heart rate for high intensity? (I did HIIT on the elliptical with 1 min high intensity on level 9 at 8+mph and only got my heart rate up to 170 at the 28 minute mark)
5 Should I do HIIT and weights on different days?

pierinifitness

1. What is your weight loss goal?
2. What is your current cardiovascular conditioning?
3. What was the last HIIT workout you did?
4. What does the rest of your training consist of?

With this info, I’ll give you my two cents.

AnnPT77

What is your objective for doing HIIT in the first place? (It tends to be trendy, overhyped, mislabeled, and misrepresented these days, frankly.) Knowing what you personally hope to get out of it would make questions easier to answer helpfully.

Rosefern1 wrote: »

1 How often should I do HIIT? Daily?

Elite athletes in most sports typically don't do HIIT more than once or twice a week, if that. What would be your objective in doing more?

2 How long should my HIIT workout be?

If it's much longer than half an hour, including ample warmup and cool down, it probably isn't what has been considered to be HIIT before recently (when the hype started). Classic Tabata, for example, is 8 times 20 seconds max effort, 10 seconds easier effort, so 4 minutes. Add 10 minutes each of warm up and cool down, that's 24 minutes

What should my HIIT intervals be? (1 minute high intensity to 5 regular pace?)

There are lots of protocols. 1 high to 5 low would probably be a regular interval workout, not "high intensity" . . . but there's nothing wrong with a standard-type interval workout. They're part of sensible training plans

4 What should be a target heart rate for high intensity? (I did HIIT on the elliptical with 1 min high intensity on level 9 at 8+mph and only got my heart rate up to 170 at the 28 minute mark)

Heart rate lags effort by too long to be a useful guide during HIIT, though it can be interesting to look at evaluatively afterward. Without lab instrumentation, or test results to know your capabilities and power metering to know how you're utilizing them, your best bet is to go for max effort during the intense phases.

NorthCascades

Rosefern1 wrote: »

1 How often should I do HIIT? Daily?
2 How long should my HIIT workout be?
3 What should my HIIT intervals be? (1 minute high intensity to 5 regular pace?)
4 What should be a target heart rate for high intensity? (I did HIIT on the elliptical with 1 min high intensity on level 9 at 8+mph and only got my heart rate up to 170 at the 28 minute mark)
5 Should I do HIIT and weights on different days?

There's no such thing.

It takes 45-55 seconds for your heart to reflect what you're doing, HR lags. But your intervals are 30 seconds long. Your HR cannot tell you about the interval you're currently performing.

HIIT, aka Tabata protocol, means 170% of the power you make at VO2max.

If you're new to exercise, you should do 2 to 3 years at lower intensity first to building an aerobic base.

If you are in good shape aerobically, maybe start structural training after the first year and incorporate HIIT 8-12 weeks out from you "A" race as part of the build phase. Do not do HIIT just for doing it, it should complement the demand for that event.

sijomial

1 How often should I do HIIT? Daily?
Hell no!
Hugely depends on you and your goals. Maybe a couple of sessions in a few weeks in the year when peaking for a big event?
I suspect you aren't actually doing or proposing doing what would be recognised as HIIT outside of the YouTube "teeth, tan and 6 pack fitness guru" demographic.

2 How long should my HIIT workout be?
20 mins max?

3 What should my HIIT intervals be? (1 minute high intensity to 5 regular pace?)
That doesn't sound like HIIT at all, as you are "dying" after 15 secs of extreme effort if you are going for a minute then it sounds just like regular interval training. Regular interval training isn't a bad thing by the way.
What is your training goal? (For example if I'm training to get better on extreme ten minute hill climbs you can probably guess that 10 minute intervals would be beneficial.)

4 What should be a target heart rate for high intensity? (I did HIIT on the elliptical with 1 min high intensity on level 9 at 8+mph and only got my heart rate up to 170 at the 28 minute mark)
170bpm might be extreme for me but it might be a very ordinary rate for someone else.
Here's a visual demonstrating what previous posters have said about HR lagging behind effort (blue trace is power hence effort, red trace is HR)



5 Should I do HIIT and weights on different days?
Possibly a good choice to do on the same day but again depends on your overall training patterns, goals and capabilities. True HIIT is very fatiguing and requires recovery, which can impact your next training session.
I do my cardio (including interval work) on different days to weight training because I train better doing cardio and weights separately, that's not universal.