Need advice on HIIT Cardio

9chimera11
9chimera11 Posts: 40 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys,

I've been doing some HIIT cardio during the last couple of weeks. I wanted to test this because I heard its better for fat burning and more challenging.

I usually do it on a treadmill or an elliptical machine. The workout usually looks like this.

Treadmill

5 minutes warm-up at 4.5 km/h
2 minutes running at 7km/h
1 minute walking at 5 km/h
2 minutes running at 7 km/h

So on I do this for about 25 - 30 minutes.

During this time my maximum heart rate goes up to 170 and then comes back down to somewhere around 160 during the 1 minute periods.

During this period I burn about 200 calories, give or take.

My questions are these.

1. After 30 minutes I don't feel burn out so I do another 30 minutes of steady cardio [mostly on another machine. As in if I did HIIT on treadmill, I will do steady on Elliptical]. Does this mean my HIIT hasn't been intense enough?

2. Is it ok to do another round of cardio after an HIIT session?

3. How do you guys go about your cardio routine? Do you find HIIT works better than Steady?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated :D

Replies

  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    After 30 minutes I don't feel burn out..Does this mean my HIIT hasn't been intense enough?

    The goal of exercise isn't necessarily to feel burned out. Finishing with energy has its benefits. You burned 200 calories. If that's not enough to reach your goals, then do more.
    Is it ok to do another round of cardio after an HIIT session?

    Yes, but if you're not following a full-body strength training program, i would do that instead (on a different day if possible).
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    HIIT and lower intensity steady state cardio have different objectives; if your goal is overall fitness you would alternate between them.

    Steady state allows you to exercise longer, at a more moderate heart rate, building your aerobic base. With HIIT you are pushing right to the limit for brief periods of time followed by recovery periods.

    If you're able to do your workout for 25 to 30 minutes you're probably not pushing heard enough (if you can do another cardio session right afterward you're definitely not pushing hard enough) , you may also want to give yourself slight longer recovery periods to allow your heart rate to come down a little more. I'm not an exercise physiologists but given that your heart rate is only recovering by 10 bpm in a minute you may be better off, at this point, focusing on your aerobic conditioning.

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