HIIT question

twiggy8459
twiggy8459 Posts: 10 Member
edited November 11 in Fitness and Exercise
If i plan on doing HIIT workouts on tuesdays and Thursdays, should I supplement it with steady cardio on the off days?

Replies

  • DragonShoe_GCole
    DragonShoe_GCole Posts: 137 Member
    Hard to answer this without knowing your specific fitness goal(s)....Care to elaborate, please?
  • Lofteren
    Lofteren Posts: 960 Member
    We would need to know your entire training schedule and what you are training for to answer this question.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    Two considerations: 1) What are your fitness goals? 2) How well do you recover from these intense sessions?
  • twiggy8459
    twiggy8459 Posts: 10 Member
    Thanks for the responses everyone. I want to lose weight and also gain some muscle in the process. Big thing is the weight loss though. Right now I am on this schedule.

    monday - chest n triceps
    tuesday - cardio (hiit - 30 mins) and abs
    wednesday - back n biceps n forearms
    thursday - cardio (hiit - 30 mins) and abs
    friday - shoulders and legs
    saturday - Cardio stationary bike
    Sunday - full body stretching and mobility

    Just don't know if doing an easy ride on the other off days will hinder anything or if its worth it for the half hour.

    Robert
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    Building muscle strength and/or mass while losing fat is possible, but difficult. It takes eating at a slight deficit, timing nutrition, and having the patience to get a little of each at the cost of not optimizing either.

    I don’t have any major issues with your program, but I’d move to two to three full body workouts per week (5x5). As it stands now, you only hit each body part once per week. I think you’ll get more progress from more focus. And then I’d only do one HIIT session per week. Then one or two slow, easy cardio sessions (stationary bike) should be fine.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    I'd agree with the point above that doing full body resistance training is probably better for your pretty generic objective.

    I'd add the view that if you're properly doing HIIT then once a week is about as much as you want to do, although if you're just in higher intensity activity then probably not a huge issue.

    Weight loss is driven by your calorie deficit, decent quality CV work will help you to generate that deficit and will help optimise your CV conditioning and endurance, so I'd probably go to two steady state moderate intensity bike sessions and only one HIIT session.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    Another vote for a 3x full body routine. You have your SS cardio on your bike day. No real need for more
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