HIIT on the elliptical,need advice please

zuzuanne88

So working out at the gym for me......has not been working out for my daughter.I leave her in the daycare and they call me like 10 minutes later to pick her up luckily for me I have an elliptical at home,but the training i'm doing for Self Drop 10 Challenge calls for HIIT.It's easy to set up the intervals on a treadmill for me,when I tried doing it jogging I found I couldn't keep up the intensity on my own.So my question is if anyone has ever done it on the elliptical....For example my first workout day would be going at a level 8 for 10 seconds then recovering at 5 for 12 seconds..I don't get these levels ?

UrbanRunner81

I set it one level like 10 the entire time. I go as fast I can for a minute (i try and keep around the same speed) and recover for a minute at a slower pace and repeat. That's what I do.

annabellj

when I was working with a trainer he told me to do level 8 then go down to 6 after 4 min and do level 6 for 45 seconds as fast as you can. then bump back to 8 to recover. do this every 4 minutes. dripping sweat by the end of 30 minutes

joeyyo

hi, I do Interval training on the elipticals and the Stair master. I start at a low level for 2 minutes and then every 2 minutes go up a level .. such as level 6,7,8,9 and then back to level 6 for two minutes and start the process again. . I do this for 30 minutes.

stephenatl09

Get a Seconds Pro App. I think it is available for Iphone and Andriod (that is is you have a smartphone) I use it for HIIT on the elliptical at the gym. You can set your intervals, put different music to each interval. When the music changes your interval changes. There is a free model but it needs to be programmed each time where the 'Pro" can be stored. It is well worth the $2.99 IMO. ..hope this helps

edit to add...I just increase my intensity not the level on the machine. I do it all at level 11. I just go all out for the high intensity intervals. When you do it outside you just increase your intensity like jog/sprint etc.

littlerunner007

Bump

jadedone

So working out at the gym for me......has not been working out for my daughter.I leave her in the daycare and they call me like 10 minutes later to pick her up luckily for me I have an elliptical at home,but the training i'm doing for Self Drop 10 Challenge calls for HIIT.It's easy to set up the intervals on a treadmill for me,when I tried doing it jogging I found I couldn't keep up the intensity on my own.So my question is if anyone has ever done it on the elliptical....For example my first workout day would be going at a level 8 for 10 seconds then recovering at 5 for 12 seconds..I don't get these levels ?

I have been doing these self intervals too. On the elliptical. I keep the incline the same (I like 12) and on the sprints I go what fees pretty hard. Somewhere between 180-200 RPMs depending on my energy level. For the easy, I go at a medium but aggressive pace: 120-135 RPMs.

10 = I am trying really hard no way I am talking to anyone.
5 = I am trying, and I can say a few short sentences, no paragraphs.

katiedid1226

I do all of the above, and when I really am sucking in the motivation department, I do the C25K earlier weeks and just go as hard as I can for 1.5 - 3 minutes, whatever the program tells me to do.

KaleidoscopeEyes1056

What I do (I don't know how high the cross ramps go on the posts I've been reading, so mine seem kinda high):
Start with the cross ramp at 10, which is where it is when I start the machine and a resistance of 5, do that for the length of one song
Then I go to 15-17 with resistance of 3 for one song (I go by the length of songs because it keeps it interesting for me)
Then Cross ramp 20 resistance 1 for one song

Katie3784

I have a few different HIIT routines for the elliptical.
1) Warm up for 4 minutes, then do 10 minutes of intervals alternating between 20 seconds going hard at level 13 and 40 seconds going slower at level 10. Then I do a 4 minute cool down.

2) Warm up for 4 minutes, then do 4 minutes of intervals alternating between 20 seconds going hard at level 12 and 10 seconds going slower at level 10. Then I do a 4 minute cool down. This is Tabata and it's really hard.

3) Warm up for 4 minutes, then do 10 minutes of intervals alternating one minute at level 14 and one minute at level 10. At level 14 for one minute, I cannot go that hard, but I do this routine so I don't get bored. Then I do a 4 minute cool down. I hate cardio, so I'm glad it's always over within 18 minutes.

jadedone

I like to do pyramid intervals on the elliptical on low energy days, It goes something like this:

Warm up at level 5 for 3-5 minutes
Move up to 7: sprint for a minute
Move down to 6: moderate pace for 2 minutes
Move up to 8 to sprint for a minute
Move down to 7 moderate pace for 2 minutes
......
Until I get to the top incline.
Then I'll repeat the same pattern on the way down. IF I don't have as much time, then the last part is more like down 1 sprint for a minute, down another 1, moderate for 2 minutes until it is cooldown time.

I always get a huge burst of energy in the last 1/3 of the workout, and the last intervals feel so easy after all that climbing.