HIIT - What to do for the low-intensity part of the exercise

To do an actual proper HIIT workout you should walk or jog for the 'rest' interval. Technically HIIT requires working recovery. If you were to stop inbetween you wouldn't technically be doing a HIIT workout it would probably be classified as sprint training. Nothing wrong with either. Personally I find HIIT really difficult to do properly on the treadmill because of the time it takes for the belt to speed up and slow down. I prefer to do my HIIT outdoors on an oval or on a stationary bike or elliptical

To do an actual proper HIIT workout you should walk or jog for the 'rest' interval. Technically HIIT requires working recovery. If you were to stop inbetween you wouldn't technically be doing a HIIT workout it would probably be classified as sprint training. Nothing wrong with either. Personally I find HIIT really difficult to do properly on the treadmill because of the time it takes for the belt to speed up and slow down. I prefer to do my HIIT outdoors on an oval or on a stationary bike or elliptical

I agree with gmallan: When I do "HIIT" on a treadmill, I sprint for 20 seconds and stand on the sides for 10 seconds, entirely because I hate how time-consuming it is for the belt to slow down and speed up. When I do actual HIIT on any other piece of equipment or when I'm running outside, I do working recovery for the low-intensity part. Do whatever works best for what you are doing or using -- as long as you are getting the high intensity part going in appropriate interval blocks (regardless of interspersing it with stopping or working recovery), you're going to get the main benefits of the workout.

I walk fast during the "recovery" - I consider the slowing down and speeding back up of the treadmill (which only takes about 4-5 seconds) to be part of the active rest.

I do 2 min warmup walk 4.0, 1 min run 7.0, 30 seconds sprint 9.5, active rest walking 4.0 for 1.5 min, repeat until I get to 20 minutes. I get 6 run cycles and 6 sprint cycles in that time.

Pardon the ball-busting, but if you are not tracking your heart rate, how are you guys doing HIIT?

Pardon the ball-busting, but if you are not tracking your heart rate, how are you guys doing HIIT?

If you know your body well enough you have a pretty good idea of when you're hitting or getting near your max heart rate. If I'm not tracking my heart rate I just go all out for the "work" interval. We could get all technical with the HIIT thing (you really need to be tracking VO2max) but if my working portion is an all out effort I just call it HIIT. It's either HIIT or just an awesome workout, either way I'm getting results.

Here's the thing; they say that jogging or walking during low-intensity defeats the purpose of HIIT as it would appear to be just cardio at this point because there is really no real rest period between intervals

These 2 videos say otherwise so this is why I am confused:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWsReGs5T0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym7d2MzZ96I

So... I don't know, I just want to be sure I am doing things properly. I already finished C25k but that's boring now so I am looking towards Burst/HIIT. I did it this morning and have did it in the past on a bike and I absolutely loved it before.

So, to stop or not to stop; that is the question lol

You need to go at a pace so that you recover enough to be able to go all out again. HIIT is VEEERRRRYY intense and it's supposed to be that way. It's also not meant to be done for long periods of time.

I repeat to do HIIT you need to work during your rest period otherwise you are sprint training.

I think it's not important to get hung up on definitions and what is or isn't HIIT. HIIT is good, interval training is good, sprint training is good. Did you work hard, are you exhausted, are you getting fitter/improving? Just work hard, push the intensity, track your results. You'll soon know if what you are doing is working.