HIIT Treadmill Exercise.

duhenson
duhenson Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,
I started a new treadmill workout at home and am trying to maximize fat loss. I need advise if this workout is safe to continue. I get through not without difficulty and feel great post-workout. Here is my routine: I warm up for 5 minutes at a brisk walk to bring heart rate up 130 or so and then start my 60 minute workout. I broke it down into 5 minute sets. I run at incline 1 for 60 seconds at 5 mph (gets HR to 150), then raise to incline 3 at 5.5 mph for 60 seconds (gets HR to 160), then raise to 6 incline at 6 mph for 60 seconds (gets HR to 185), then walk for 2 minutes at 1 incline at 3.7 mph (reduces HR back to 140), then repeat for a total of 12 sets equaling 60 minutes. I burn close to 1000 calories and I love it, but all websites say HIIT should not be done for more than 20-30 minutes. I am 32 with max HR of 188 and weigh 210. I've lost 13 lbs in 5 weeks doing this so far and feel great. I do this M-W-F with strength training T-Th-S and take Sunday full rest. My question is if this is proper cardio and is it safe to spike heart rates close to max for an hour?

Replies

  • Limeycat
    Limeycat Posts: 249 Member
    Don't know the answer to this, but bumping to find out!
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    That doesn't sound like a HIIT session; 6mph is warmup for a HIIT session.

    Notwithstanding that it's a decent session, although you have my admiration for tolerating a dreadmill for an hour.

    A proper CV session is one that delivers training effect, and you're improving your aerobic capacity so it's a proper CV session.
  • FaridPERU
    FaridPERU Posts: 172 Member
    mmm...

    when i do HIIT, my routine is something like this:

    1 minute at 5 mph
    30 seconds at 10 mph

    and repite the cycle for 30 minutes

    THIS IS WHAT I CAL HIGH INTENSE INTERVAL TRAINING...
  • duhenson
    duhenson Posts: 6 Member
    I find that running at a 6 incline at 6 mph gets the large leg muscles pumping more than running at 10 mph flat. It also spikes the heart rate much faster also. I was just curious if it was safe to spike the heart rate close to max in intervals for an hour. Thanks for responding.
  • duhenson
    duhenson Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks for the reply. 60 minutes on a treadmill isn't so bad when you break it down into 5 minute segments. I am trying to come up with a HIIT/ steady-state hybrid routine and I really love what I developed with this routine. Just making sure it's safe to spike the heart rate to max throughout an hour. It is a beastly routine than burns a ton of calories and is actually very fun for being an hour long.
  • Lozze
    Lozze Posts: 1,917 Member
    What you have is a good program but it's not HIIT. It's steady state.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    No, it's not HIIT. For you, that's a good thing. Your workout contains a decent amount of higher-intensity work, and by not doing "classic" HIIT, you are able to sustain a higher volume of exercise. This leads to excellent fitness benefits and a much higher calorie burn.

    The only caveat about assessing your calorie numbers is that if you are using the handrails for support, then the calorie burn is significantly overestimated.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,046 Member
    Not a HIIT routine, but an interval routine. And HR's are estimated recommendations. Many fit people will easily exceed what max HR's are for general population.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    You can't do HIIT on treadmill - not really.

    The High Intensity part is all out sprint for 15 - 45 seconds depending on your cardio fitness.
    Since the walking recovery is 3 x as long, no problem getting that right, probably 3.5 to 4 mph.

    Treadmills neither ramp up fast enough nor can you discern fast enough and control the buttons fast enough, especially as the efforts of later sprints will change compared to the first few.

    The fat-burning recovery nature of HIIT is because you are making it as close to lifting as you can get cardio, for those that don't want to actually lift and get those true full benefits. Because during the workout it's almost total carb burn, just like lifting.
    You go all out for short period, you recovery, you repeat about 10 reps.

    Just remember that diet is for weight loss - done right hopefully just fat loss, done wrong muscle mass loss.
    Exercise is for heart health and body improvement - done right supports just fat loss, done wrong can help muscle loss too.

    Only thing exercise helps with diet is the fact you need to eat less than you burn in total daily, and exercise help you burn more.
    So perhaps when you eat less, you are still eating at high enough level to sustain and adhere to the diet.

    But recovery also takes longer in a diet - I'm betting you attempt that routine daily, and you'll notice the speeds start going lower and lower.
    That is intense enough to probably need an easy day in-between.
    That way you can make this routine the hard day, and really make it hard.
    I always liked jog - run - walk routines on the treadmill too, much more involving, even with a treadmill with interval program so I didn't have to watch the time or incline or pace, but let it go.
    Jog medium level for you for 3 min.
    Run high level for 30 seconds.
    Walk low level for 90 seconds. HR should recover lower, so you can do the next cycle just as hard.
    Repeat.
    You'll need a warm-up and cool-down for that.

    But by having a rest day, you'll really get the most ability to push as hard as you can. Can't do that on tired muscles because you did it yesterday.

    Also, this routine does nothing for retaining muscle mass in rest of your body, just this with a diet will encourage muscle loss somewhere.

    Also, you can't spike the HR to max for an HR. You can't even spike it to max for 30 sec, you'd be lucky to hit 5 sec probably.
    You might hit max with outdoor sprint after warm-up so muscles can push as hard as possible.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Lotsa determined HIIT-splainin' going on this evening.

    Very.

    Determined.

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