Run, Walk, or HIT?

TAMayorga

Hello, I would like some advice. I LOVE walking; I've been doing it for years off and on. I'm sure my body's quite good at it and I probably don't get the benefit I could out of it. I HATE running. Enter HIT. I have a course around the campus at work; every time I turn a corner, I change from walking to running or running to walking. I notice that I burn significantly more calories doing the HIT than I do straight walking, and assume that I would burn even more with straight running. Here's my question: How is HIT supposed to be so much better for us (or so the internet says) than straight running?

scottb81

Running at around 75% of your max heartrate for extended times increases your aerobic fitness.

Doing high intensity running at around 90%+ of your max heartrate once or twice a week increases your anaerobic fitness.

Alternating walk and run intervals is a legitimate way to raise your heartrate and build aerobic fitness.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is neither better nor worse than aerobic steady state running. It is simply different as it is working different physiological aspects of fitness. The websites that claim someone is going to burn a ton more calories doing HIIT are not telling the truth.

moustache_flavored_lube

Running at around 75% of your max heartrate for extended times increases your aerobic fitness.

Doing high intensity running at around 90%+ of your max heartrate once or twice a week increases your anaerobic fitness.

Alternating walk and run intervals is a legitimate way to raise your heartrate and build aerobic fitness.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is neither better nor worse than aerobic steady state running. It is simply different as it is working different physiological aspects of fitness. The websites that claim someone is going to burn a ton more calories doing HIIT are not telling the truth.

This!!!!
All around fitness requires all around training

bcattoes

The idea behind HIIT is not just that you increase intensity but that you increase it greatly. For example, while doing a HIIT walk/run session you should be running harder and faster during the running phase than you could ever maintain on a long run.

It is the "high intensity" part of HIIT that makes the difference. It should burn more calories per minute than steady state cardio, but if you are doing it correctly, you will not be able to do it as long. HIIT can help with endurance on longer steady state sessions.

TAMayorga

You've cleared it up for me quite nicely. Thanks, everyone!