Is anyone out there doing HIIT?

I started doing the turbo fire hiit classes a few weeks ago and I prefer them to regular cardio. Its more beneficial and takes less time. I'm going to have to check out that site you mentioned it sounds right up my alley.

I'm also doing Turbofire, which includes HIIT into the workouts. I'm loving it so far too. Feel so accomplished!

I created some HIIT elements into my cardio workouts. So I incorporate tire flips (16 reps), walk out for 10-15 seconds, then sprint 100 yards at about 90%. Then fast paced walk for 100 yards, and on to 20 yards of lunges with sprinting out the other 80yards, then walk. I also mix in bleacher sprints, bleacher squats, leg lift, and standding jumps in. Usually takes me about 35 minutes to complete a few miles worth fo track work like that. I have been seeing some great results for both weight loss and physical improvements in movement.

I still do 20 minutes of gym strength training as well each day.

I didn't even know this website existed. Thanks for sharing!

And since HRM formula for calorie burn estimates is only valid for steady-state aerobic (HR the same for 2-5 min) exercise, and lifting and HIIT are neither steady-state nor aerobic, take about 1/2 of the reported calorie burn if closer to HIIT with cardio focus, or 1/3 - 1/4 if lifting with strength focus.

That recommendation is based on using a Garmin with Firstbeat algorithms that claims to deal with non-aerobic activity better, basically by not trying to estimate calories for the anaerobic effort that is seen.
And the anaerobic effort is figured out by looking at your breathing rate, if the HR shoots way up and the breathing rate doesn't at same level, then it was anaerobic and not counted.

And recommend a Polar RS300X HRM if you go this route to even have a chance of decent accuracy, the cheaper Polars estimate a key value, VO2max, by assuming good BMI means good VO2max, bad BMI means bad VO2max. And that is a bad assumption as you can be overweight and yet very cardio-fit.
That HRM at least has self-test and stat.

Well, HIIT, when properly done which is rare, has same response as lifting, for those that only want to do cardio.

All out anaerobic effort for short period with short rest.

ya this. I find most people do it totally wrong. like up the treadmill to 8mph or so, like they think thats actually full out or something.

sorry ladies and gents, you are doing intervals. not hiit.

oh no now I am confused... I do some HIIT workouts off fitnessblender.. am I wasting my time ?
the only weights I have are dumbells which I change the weight.
I do Muay Thai on mondays and fridays if that helps ?

bump - anyone??

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

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

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

bump