Going HIIT

I wouldn't call myself an expert on this or anything, but I do a bit of HIIT, either on the treadmill or the elliptical. On the treadmill I start with a 5-10 minute warm up of steady running, building up the pace. Then I do 1 minute sprints and 1 minute jogs. I start with slow-ish sprints and build up the pace as I go on. I've found that it's greatly helped improve my steady state cardio speed. As for breaking your run up to do other exercises, I don't see any problem with that - I'm not sure if it counts as HIIT, maybe.

Steady state cardio is a waste of time IMO. Unless you REALLY need to burn a **** load of calories.. But then just eat less.

Watch this video. High Intensity Exercise is the best kind of "cardio" you can do. Weather it's lifting, sprinting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2PdJFbjWHEU#t=3727s

I wouldn't do more then 15-20 minutes and only about 3 times a week. I do my HIIT on a stationary bike, after I do about an hour of Weight lifting, I normally only do 10 minutes, 10 Intervals of 15sec High intensity and 45secs Low intensity, I really lost a good amount of body fat when I was in the desert, I did HIIT everyother day after lifting and doing steady pace cardio in the mornings everyday

I think your intervals into your run can be considered HIIT if the intensity is enough.

Hey, I do HIIT or a sprint workout usually twice a week. My workouts go a little something like this:

1. Warmup 15minutes including some steady state running, some high knees, butt kicks, walking lunges, side steps etc. and some surges at about 80-90%. With HIIT it's important to do a really good warm up because the working componant is short and intense. As a good rule, the shorter the workout the longer the warmup

2. Working componant. This varies greatly from week-to-week but to do a true HIIT running workout you basically will be dealing with 2 componants: the sprint (work) and the active recovery (recovery). Now where you can vary it to cater to your fitness level is the ratio of work to recovery. A beginner may want to start with a 1:2 ratio i.e. 30 sec work, 1 minute recovery. Intermediate can do a 1:1 ratio i.e. 30seconds work, 30seconds recovery. Advanced can do a 2:1 ratio, 30 seconds work, 15 seconds recovery. The times and ratios can be varied to suit your mood, goals and fitness level. You can make the work componant as long as you'd like. The important thing and what provides the distinction between HIIT and interval training is that the working componant is an all out effort. This componant should probably go anywhere between 5 minutes to 20 minutes but no longer (if you can go longer you're not working hard enough).

I like to mix my workouts up with HIIT and sprint training where the recovery portion is an actual recovery not active recovery.

3. Cool down. Jog or walk until your heart rate comes down a bit

4. This is where I would usually do any strength training such as pushups and abs

5. Stretch

Steady state cardio is a waste of time IMO. Unless you REALLY need to burn a **** load of calories.. But then just eat less.

Watch this video. High Intensity Exercise is the best kind of "cardio" you can do. Weather it's lifting, sprinting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2PdJFbjWHEU#t=3727s

^Put on a raincoat, because the cardio lovers are about to spit all over this. Steady state cardio is good for heart health and endurance, as well as mood elevation/stress relief for some people. JUST SAYING. I have to con myself into steady state cardio, but don't hate just to hate.

"Steady state cardio is a waste of time IMO."

I love seeing the followers of the next thing state that its the ONLY thing and anything prior is a waste of time. If you're doing serious HITT training then you won't be able to do it every day as you're going to need recovery time. LISS training is great for the heart, fantastic stress reduction and can be done almost every day. I generally mix sprints into my running but will never give up regular running. Balance people, balance.

Of course this is all my opinion. I do some jogging once in a while for pleasure also. So I understand that completely. But for a fitness and weight loss point of view, I think its a waste because it's not intense enough to cause an adaptive response.

Did anyone watch the video? It's explains why you get a superior "cardio" work out when going high intensity. I don't see how steady state cardio is good for the heart if it's not intense enough to stimulate improvement. Often times for beginners jogging is hard and intense. Then they become adapted and continue with the same intensity no longer causing stimulus for improvement.

The only thing I see in steady state cardio doing is unnecessary wear and tear on the joints, especially for endurance jogging. I doubt I would ever do a 5k or anything like that. I value the health of my joints. Most people doing steady state "cardio" are doing it to burn calories, and I think they are wasting their time. I don't believe that it burns much in the way of calories unless it goes on for hours and hours and then most machines and gizmos greatly over exaggerate what is actually burned.

From the research I've read, and that video I linked, there is an "afterburn" effect that can go one for a few hours after a high intensity work out that gives very similar results as a much longer steady state cardio. The video explains it much better than I can. So to me, doing intense sprint intervals for about 15-20 mins beats the hell out of jogging for 2-3 hours. Not to mention that we get stronger and faster from doing intervals with the opposite being true with steady state cardio causing some lean tissue wasting issues when it's taken overboard. With HIIT, you can't go overboard, because you're already going to failure and you're forced to rest. This saves the joints and stimulates change.

That's just what I think though. Steady state cardio is just another pitfall people think is necessary for weight loss and constant cardio improvement, when it does neither effectively.

A favorite quote from a YouTube channel I frequent.

"This is all just advice. Do what ever the **** you wana do!" -TMW