Is anyone out there doing HIIT?

IIISpartacusIII

I just listened to this podcast episode on HIIT, and thought it was very informative. The host had a Q&A with an actual researcher of HIIT training.

http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/2013/04/15/brink-zone-radio-high-intensity-interval-training-hiit-overrated-or-the-optimal-form-of-exercise/

I just finished listening to that. Very informative and I've started using it in place of my moderate intensity marathon cardio sessions. I'd much rather do 10-20 min if I can avoid an hour on the stairmill just get that god damned scale moving. So far I'm still dropping so I'll soon find out just how effective it is (I hope).

ravenrxx

I love HIIT. The fat just melts off. Im on my 9th week of turbo fire.

IIISpartacusIII

Well, HIIT, when properly done which is rare

How do you do it properly?

For high intensity how high do you need to go? E.g. How many mph on the treadmill for how long?

How many mph on the treadmill will vary from one person to the next so there is no blanket answer. From the Will Brink podcast on this where he had the HIIT cardio researcher she recommended at least 80% of your Max heart rate. I have a heart rate monitor so I know exactly how much that will mean for me but I don't know for you. Most cardio machines in commercial gyms have a heart rate function. You can get a read out by holding on to the handles which record heart rate.

heybales

Well, HIIT, when properly done which is rare

How do you do it properly?

For high intensity how high do you need to go? E.g. How many mph on the treadmill for how long?

You can't do HIIT on the treadmill or elliptical or machine, except spin bike, but even that's hard.
Why?

It's impossible to sprint all out for 15-45 seconds. Treadmill can't ramp up fast enough, and your top end speed will change near the end of 8 cycles, you'll be concerned about falling instead of concerning with pushing it as hard as you can.

You can do regular intervals, or Short Interval Training (SIT), on treadmill, but neither have the same effect as HIIT on the body.
They help improve oxygen uptake, raise VO2max, raise Lactate Threshold and ability to clear out lactate acid, improve carb utilization, improve endurance, store more carbs, ect. All things that can basically be done using existing muscles, so little to no need for more muscle. And it's that need to repair muscle that has the fat-burn during recovery like lifting does.

HIIT is putting a load up to failure on the muscles used after so many cycles (sounds like lifting and reps, right), creating micro-tears, so the body's response including most of above, is to make more muscle to handle that load better next time. Now, like lifting, only going to get new muscle if newbie to that cardio sport, lots of fat to lose, and eventually, you'll need to be eating in surplus.

The HR recommendations is merely to confirm you are reaching a hard enough effort.
But sprinting or whatever all out full force is good enough.
15-45 seconds hard effort.
3 x as long for recovery, so 45 to 135 seconds.
8 bouts

You must have recovery, or you can't push as hard on next bout. Just like lifting, if you don't rest between sets, you can't lift as much on the next one.

Good protocol for HIIT.
10 min warmup walk.
2 min slow jogging.
15 sec all out burst, followed by 45 sec walking, x 8 bouts (actually start jogging about 5 sec to end of recovery phase so sprinting from a jog)
10 min cooldown walk.

30 min.

If you want to make it interesting and have an hr, and feel you might as well kill yourself properly. Skip that cooldown walk.
20 min slow jogging.
1 min sprint, followed by 1 min walk, x 10 bouts (again start the jogging before the sprint, and even pace on sprint for whole 1 min)
10 min cooldown walk.

60 min total.

Track is best place to accomplish that. A watch that lets you set intervals too, though counting to 15 can take the mind off the pain.

When you slow down from that 15 seconds, like you just won a race, you'll see why it can't be done on a treadmill. Not until you do it and compare do you really see there is a difference.

Not that intervals on a treadmill won't have some benefit, but not nearly as much.
Oh, and true HIIT should only be about 20% of cardio workout weekly. And like lifting, it require rest the next day. Inability to sit and do stairs will tell you that too.

Just found my last example. Garmin HRM with training programs makes this so much easier.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/273351372

IzzyBooNZ1

heybales, I like your posts , very helpful

I posted below but do you know then are Fitnessblender HIIT workouts proper HIIT or what are they and are they a waste of time? How many days a week should you do them?

I am getting confused now over how much cardio and strength exercises should be done each weel !

heybales

heybales, I like your posts , very helpful

I posted below but do you know then are Fitnessblender HIIT workouts proper HIIT or what are they and are they a waste of time? How many days a week should you do them?

I am getting confused now over how much cardio and strength exercises should be done each weel !

HIIT is for those only doing cardio that don't want to do true lifting. And that's fine, might as well have some muscles benefit from lifting type workout.

If lifting, skip the HIIT. Besides which, with lifting it's either not being done correctly, and eventually neither will the lifting, or it'll just interfere with getting the best rest, recovery, repair from the lifting.

Any exercise only has improvements during the rest time, not during the actual exercise. The actual exercise is a drain, on strength, on carbs, or central nervous system. The improvement to get better is from the rest and recovery from exercise.

So if strength is your focus, cardio should support that.
Meaning, no cardio should wear you out before you lift, day before or right before. Day before Aerobic HR zone may even be too much, but usually safe.
Also, no cardio should interfere with repair the day after. Day after Active Recovery HR zone should add no additional stress and load to muscles already trying to recovery, just blood flow, which is great.

Cardio right after lifting can be done, and you could attempt to do intervals. They won't be HIIT, not if you did the lifting right anyway. But you can still throw a stressful cardio interval session at the body to improve the heart muscle then.

I'll go listen to them, but I have only seen probably 2 honest articles on the usefulness of HIIT, or the difference in interval types and response to doing them.
All the others are jumping on a fad that can have it's place, but is also blown way out of proportion, and misapplied, many times with negative results.
Exactly like the fat-burning zone was fad for a awhile, but it useful too actually, when applied right. Like fat-burning zone is actually the Active Recovery HR zone which was called that for years before.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/stead-state-versus-intervals-finally-a-conclusion.html

heybales

I posted below but do you know then are Fitnessblender HIIT workouts proper HIIT or what are they and are they a waste of time? How many days a week should you do them?

So reading over how they do it, about 1:1 ratio it seems like. Still useful, high calorie burn (which HIIT actually doesn't during the session because the rest is longer, but more post-workout).

You can't really hit the hard part as hard as you can if the rest isn't long enough. Or if the hard part is too long for that matter.

I guess I'm old school on this, 15-20 yrs back when the info on it was being used, and at that time it was always compared to lifting. If you needed more muscle to be faster, you did HIIT.

If it took you 45 seconds to do a set of 8 squats to almost failure, will waiting 45 seconds and doing another set have any chance in the world of hitting the same weight and reps? Not at all.
Or doing 30 reps compared to 5 reps. Endurance response, compared to strength response.

So it's like circuit training can still be useful, and show positive results, especially when starting out, but true lifting will have better results for the time spent.

Depends on goals too. Most here are weight loss and hopefully just fat loss. Lifting wins there.
Heart health, cardio wins there. But you don't have to do much.

hatethegame

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