What do you do for HIIT?

Hi all,

Two to three times a week I venture to my neighbourhood gym with my friend. For three sets of ten minutes we do a cardio routine that looks like this:

I call out burpees for thirty seconds.

She calls out Jump rope for a minute.

I call out mountain climbers for forty five seconds.

ect. ect.

Bye the end of it all we are a huge disgusting sweating puffing mess, and we're both in pretty good shape. There is no resting but occasionally we'll pick an easier cardio exercise for thirty seconds such as butt kicks or running on the spot ect.

Question- Is this considered HIIT, even though we aren't resting much until the ten minutes are up, and how do I log this? I'm sure it burns a tonne of calories.

What do you guys do for HIIT?

I wouldnt really consider it HIIT if you ask me, but some people may.

My HIIT consist of all out sprints for short amount of times/distances.
Last night was 200 meter sprint, 50 meter lunges, 100 meter walk, 50 meter jog and repeat around the track once for each lane. When i started this a few months ago I could do like 1 lap.

Ugh, Okay. So I am just going to make a fake profile and put some troll posts up here.

Those get like ten pages of responses on this forum.

I should just open my window and shout my questions to the parking lot below.

I'm sure more people would hear me.

Chill out. YOu only have 15 minutes between starting it to being pissed no one responded yet?

+1

For it to be HIIT you would need to either take a rest or do lower intensity work between those sets so that your heart rate goes up and down during the workout. Sounds to me like its more intensive cardio?

I use Mark Lauren's "You Are Your Own Gym" program for HIIT. It's really good.

it cannot be HIIT if you're able to go for 10 minutes with minimal break. True HIIT means absolutely going all out for short bursts, followed by a usually longer rest period to recover.....so you can go absolutely all out for the next interval. To get the max benefit of HIIT, you have to get your HR up to near max. There's no one who can go all out at near max HR for 10 minutes. sorry. This doesn't mean you're not working hard or that you're not getting good benefit from what you're doing. True HIIT is simply misunderstood.

This is the HIIT that I do...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/H_Factor/view/sprint-interval-training-659426

No it doesn't sound like HIIT.
I don't do HIIT either but I do train at high intensity, mostly using a rowing machine or Spinning bike.

I use Mark Lauren's "You Are Your Own Gym" program for HIIT. It's really good.

I've got that book but I haven't had a chance to try it much yet.

As others have said, for HIIT, you want to go hard for X seconds, rest for Y seconds, with Y being some multiple of X usually, for beginners maybe 2X, or maybe 1/2X if you're in good shape.

So something like burpies for 2 minutes, 1 minute rest, etc.

You definitely need an HRM to do it properly because during the High Intensity intervals, you need to be pushing your heart rate near the maximum.

getting comfortable in 90% heart rate means time to tweak workout. I used to jump rope at 95% of max which I was told is dangerous but I was able to do so and feel nice afterwards. High heart rate can lead to cardiac arrest.

i'm pretty sure that the strickt definition of HIIT is that you get your HR to X% and then let it get down to Y% (not sure of the numbers)

the rest doesn't have to be just standing there, it can be a lower intensity cardio.

but it doesn't seem like you have a lower intensity cardio (unless you do the run in place option and go easy)

You don't need a track for HIIT....you can still do it with any other exercise that gets your heart rate near it's max.

Jump squats, burpees, jump rope, xplosions, box jumps, etc. etc. As long as you are going ALL OUT for the 20 or 30 second interval, followed by a rest period, then it's all good.

Some do more, but I believe the recommendation is about a 5 min warm up, 10 min of intervals, 5 min cool down. I'm dead after the 10 min so that's more than enough for me

Agreed! It's not HIIT, it's just HIT!

The point of HIIT is to let your heart rate recover fully so you can hit the next I (interval) with as much I (intensity) as you did when you started the workout. If there's not rest, you'll be working at a lower intensity rate at the end of the workout.

I have alot of HIIT options but my recent fave looks like this:

5 minute dynamic stretching warm-up
Step Mill: 30 seconds at level 18, 1 minute at level 4 - 7 sets for a total of about 10 minutes
Rower: 20 second maximal intensity, 40 seconds rest - 10 sets for a total of 10 minutes
Jacobs Ladder: 10-15 seconds fast, total body climb, 45-50 seconds slow, lower body only climb - 10 sets for a total of 10 minutes.

You can also swap any of these out for treadmill or track sprints, stadium runs, or any of your favorite body weight plyo

actually im not seeing any specific guidelines for HR%.

so i guess as long as you are serriously busting *kitten* during one or two of those exercises, and going about 50% in the others, then its apparently technically HIIT.

I guess my point is that, for it to be HIIT, you need to spend an interval working at near maximum compacity. In order to really keep that up for ten min, you'll need that 50% HR down time. other wise your more likely to be working closer to a medium pace (lol) through the whole work out

if you can spend 2 min (or any amount of time) at 90%, do that. That is the entire point of HIIT.

I use resources outside of the gym. I ride a bike in the park and I mash it up this steep hill and then cruise it down. I do this a couple of times. I also try to keep up with a car that is going 20mph and up until I feel my stomach burn or my legs are almost to failure

If I must do it in the gym I do burps to jumping pull ups. I can't get past 12 before I quake and crumble.

I actually had a guy at the gym and ask me " I don't mean to offend you but why are you so big if you can do HIIT jump roping" My answer was my eating.