Anyone here doing HIIT? How's it going?

Patttience

I just watched Michael Mosley's tv show on exercise today. I haven't been doing any exercise but i did just buy a pedometer. Clearly the pedometer isn't going to do much for my fitness but i though i might try doing interval sprints.

Although knowing me, i probably won't be able to keep that going any better than anything else.

So how are you going? What have you been doing? HOw long? What results have you got to show for it? Are you doing it the way he was told to do it i.e. 3x20 seconds 3x per week?

Have you got anything else of interest to report.

fitcrt

My husband & I started HIIT about 2 months ago & it is going well - we started out with the Thrive90 Fit Marriage program but didn't love it & now we are using BurstFit Fire & we are doing the beginner modifications. We are seeing results & it is challenging for us (we are close to 40 & were out of shape when we started). What we love is that our workout is done within 15-30 minutes depending on which one we are doing. We both work full-time & have kids, chores, etc. so this is how we fit in our workouts & it seems to be working.

kb9222

I'm doing 30 Day Shred and I'm currently on day 24. I would strongly recommend HIIT training. In 24 days I can see such a big difference in my body (especially my stomach, arms, back) and it has really incresed my fitness levels. I usually do some extra cardio too because I dont feel like there's enough cardio moves in 30 day shred.
Also, I tend to get bored really quickly and thats why I think HIIT is really good because you don't spend too long on any one move.

hrcc2000

My husband, son, and I have been doing a HIIT 90 challenge. We all modify it to fit our needs. They are so much stronger than me, so I do what I can, they do what they can, and we all get the workouts done 5 days per week. I've only lost about 8lbs, but I am SO MUCH stronger than I ever have been. I'm holding off on measuring until the end of the 90 days (wasn't supposed to weigh either, but I did that LOL). It's great not having to think about what to do. It's great having something different each and every day that we all can do at our own skill/pace.

I tried that HIIT walking/sprinting thing, but that was before I really had any stamina and before I ever really did any running. I H.A.T.E.D. it. I was so out of breath, just no good. This workout we do now works so much better for us.

Good luck.

Edited to add, we are on day 60

MeanderingMammal

I haven't been doing any exercise but i did just buy a pedometer. Clearly the pedometer isn't going to do much for my fitness but i though i might try doing interval sprints.

If you don't have a solid aerobic base then you're really not going to get any benefit from high intensity work, and in many ways you're more likely to injure yourself.

I would suggest working up to being able to do about 45-60 minutes of continuous moderate intensity activity before you start adding intervals.

The three different intensity modes deliver different types of benefit:

Long duration moderate intensity builds the aerobic base, shorter periods of higher intensity work around the lactate threshold improve ability to perform under physical stress and raise the lactate threshold, high intensity intervals help to improve oxgen uptake; VO2Max.

Note that stuff like 30DS etc isn't HIIT in its own right, it's more like moderate intensity until you've established a solid performance base

Foamroller

I recommend to try the Hiit. It's fun, fast and very informative of your status. Muscles fibers are roughly consistent of 3 different fiber types: the explosive (sprinters), endurance fibers (marathon) and a 3rd type that can be trained either way. That's why sprinters and marathon runners look so different, not only are their body types probably pre-programmed in their genes at a cellular level. But of course they also train in a highly specialized way to enhance their natural talent. We all have a mix of of all those types of muscle fiber.

Hiit specifically trains the explosive muscle fibers and the coordination from nerve to fibers, according to one of my cycle instructors. As we all know, being able to sprint fast, does not necessarily mean you can run long. Doing Hiit will, as I understood it, expand your heart's capacity to pump fresh oxygenated blood a lot faster than endurance or less demanding exercise. Think of it a cheat's way to better cardio health:) In other words, Hiit puts your heart on a stress test.

About your comment in the message: Increasing level of fitness is a vague goal. It's better to be more concrete. Find yourself a litmus test. A long stair somewhere is great. You try run it before you start Hiit, then you run it again and test yourself as you gradually get in better cardiovascular health. Almost instant gratification! Your body responds to the training you give it. Endurance training and Hiit aren't mutually exclusive methods, rather they go hand in hand. For example there is a class that I attend which is 90 mins, with built in bursts of Hiit. If I have a very good day I will do the 3x20mins orange zone too (very hard). If I have a bad day I will just keep my intensity at 68-72% after the bursts. This is called a restitution run, but you train the slow muscle fibers. Both forms are however endurance training, just at very different intensity levels.

You don't have to have a high fitness level before you try Hiit. Make sure when you try the Hiit that you're warmed up, ca 10 mins, before you do the bursts. If your mucles are totally unprepared for what you are gonna do to them, it's very hard for them, the joints and ligatures. If you don't warm up, you risk injuries faster. Try find some vids on youtube, you don't have to buy a gym memberships if you enjoy running. You can use the phone as a stopwatch.

The body is a highly efficient energy vessel, it doesn't waste or spend any energy in vain. For example, if we never challenge our bodies to do anything physical beyond stepping into a car or elevator, it simply stops spending energy to be able to do other more challenging things...like lifting all that stuff I bought at IKEA or bend down to pick up something that rolled under the sofa. That's why muscles shrink when they are not in regular use. Use it or loose it! The heart is one of our most important muscles, so giving it a go sometimes is good:) The more blood your heart can handle per minute, the more oxygen and nutrients flow to your muscles. You won't get big though, only lifting heavy weights give you bulk.

I watched an interesting vid on TED yesterday about what fat converts into. It took the scientist quite some trouble to do the math:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGKLpYtZ19Q

My story. I was a total couch potatoe! I started going to the gym regularily for the first time 3 years ago at the age of 40. I love indoor cycling and I'm currently taking courses to become a spinning instructor at the national college of sports science. I was very lucky at start cause a friend acted like a cheerleader, booking us on to classes and then teased/challenged me to actually come to the gym. I usually go the the interval classes anyway, so Hiit is built into the training.

This is what I do to push myself: I set individual goals, not just following the class blindly. I use the music actively. Try find the pulse tops in songs, usually chorus and time your burst to it. Then I gradually expanded the sprints into 30-40-50-60-90 seconds as I got fitter and stronger:)

I'm someone who performs better within a class setting. For me it was a game changer when I realized that I DO NOT have to follow the instructor. You're the expert of your body, the instructor is only there to motivate you to push yourself, but you're the one who is in charge and who benefits or miss out if you don't challenge yourself. Some days I can't get my pulse up, especially if I have worked out too hard in the previous days. I find that hard workout day every 3rd day or so is best for me. On restitution days I alternate with yoga, walking weights or just foamrolling which is self-massage.

Before I started going to the gym, I could not run 30 meters to catch the bus without panting hard. Now I can run up a quite long stair easily or accelerate fast to get that bus from 100 meters away:)

For me exercise isn't all about burning kcal anymore. For years I ignored my body and often brushed off signs it was trying to tell me. The body is the one entity in my life that can't lie to me, even if I lie to myself. Regular exercise is a productive way getting to know my system and let it speak to me. Your body holds your truth (and secrets), treat it with kindness and compassion.

Gosh, this became long, I hope you get the answers you were looking for and good luck with the Hiit:)

knitapeace

I don't incorporate HIIT into my running, I consider hills to be enough "interval" for me and there are several on my route.

I do, however, use dedicated apps to get in a burst of cardio HIIT after I do my strength work 3x a week. I've enjoyed using Sworkit, Johnson & Johnson's 7 Minute Workout, and The Superhero Workout. Fitness Blender also has a lot of HIIT videos that use a huge variety of moves and timeframes.

Do a Google search and read up on the recent 7 minute workout research. Based on what I've read, you really have to go all out during your bursts of activity in order to get the maximum benefit (insert something sciencey about VO2 max here, I don't really understand it).

MeanderingMammal

Muscles fibers are roughly consistent of 3 different fiber types: the explosive (sprinters), endurance fibers (marathon) and a 3rd type that can be trained either way. That's why sprinters and marathon runners look so different, not only are their body types probably pre-programmed in their genes at a cellular level. But of course they also train in a highly specialized way to enhance their natural talent. We all have a mix of of all those types of muscle fiber.

I'm not going to respond to this whole essay, but wanted to capture that there seems to be some misapprehension of the purpose of various types of training. I also want to point out that the old sprinters/ marathoners trope is a bit nonsensical.

Muscle response is heavily influenced by how one places that muscle under stress, but a rounded programme will have different approaches to delivering stress. The comparison is meaningless as at a moderately competitive level different running disciplines have different needs from their resistance training. The physique is as much driven by the resistance training as anything else. In that sense talking about muscle fibres with respect to sprint intervals doesn't really add much value.

Sprinters aid their explosive delivery of power through resistance training and base level aerobic fitness as well as their specific training.

Doing Hiit will, as I understood it, expand your heart's capacity to pump fresh oxygenated blood a lot faster than endurance or less demanding exercise.

Yes, it assists in improving VO2Max, but it doesn't improve cardiac endurance. The two are complementary to one another and are trained in different ways.

About your comment in the message: Increasing level of fitness is a vague goal. It's better to be more concrete.

You don't have to have a high fitness level before you try Hiit. Make sure when you try the Hiit that you're warmed up, ca 10 mins, before you do the bursts. If your mucles are totally unprepared for what you are gonna do to them, it's very hard for them, the joints and ligatures. If you don't warm up, you risk injuries faster.

I would agree that a more defined goal would be more productive, as a newbie that could be as simple as run for 30 minutes continuously, in perhaps 9 weeks or so. There are programmes out there that help with that.

An alternative could be to run 100 metres in xxseconds, and again there are plans out there to do that, but the former requires only a very basic level of fitness, whereas the latter requires both the former and some more sophisticated awareness of performance improvement.

I'd also agree with the point about adequate preparation, both in terms of working up to HIIT sessions and in warming up to the session itself. I've made the point about injury upthread, and won't repeat it. As far as session warm ups are concerned, I run for 15 minutes at about a 10 minute mile before going into a HIIT session for 20 minutes. I then cool down for another 15 minutes, although rarely at 10 minute mile as I'm so wiped out from the sprints.

That said, I do find that I get more from hills than sprints. The former are more entertaining because I'm out in the forest, the latter are a necessary evil for when I'm restricted to pavements.