High Intensity Interval Training

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EpiGaiaRepens
EpiGaiaRepens Posts: 824 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know about high intensity interval training or have experience with it? I just started last week and had pretty amazing results from the get-go. I was running 2-5 miles on a regular basis, and wasn't getting any results (other than more wiggle room on my calories)....so I switches to doing HIIT running. I would run 5 mins at my usual pace, 1 min as fast as I could go without passing out for a whole minute, then do 4 mins at my reg pace. I did this 1 min max/4 mins reg routine five times, then ran another 5 minutes at my usual pace, then walked to cool down. I think this takes about 35 minutes. My experience was I felt completely exhausted for the rest of the day, and I broke my plateau!! I did this twice last week, then did a routine very similar upping the amount of time I stay in my max speed interval, but decreasing the number of intervals.

Anyways, then I found all this stuff online that says you should keep your max cardio to rest ratio 2:1...meaning I'd run for 60 secs at max speed, rest for only 30 seconds. This seems to me like a bad idea mostly because I want to work out for 30 minutes to burn my calories cuz I gotten in the habit of eating 1500 cals a day. Does anyone have any thoughts on this???? Anyone have any results from HIIT? I am trying to kick my last ten pounds!

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  • Lsng4good
    Lsng4good Posts: 86 Member
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    I don't know the the calorie-burning magic of how HIIT works, but I agree that it does get you results! My trainer had me doing HIIT last semester and not only did it get me out of my comfort zone by running really fast for a set time period, I felt so much better than just jogging for 30 mins straight. I love it and hopefully it will help you shred off those last 10 pounds! Best wishes, Hannah
  • ehedges31
    ehedges31 Posts: 72
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    Thats wonderful! I've just started the 30 day shred. Its 2 min of cardio, 1 min of strength and 1 min of abs with no break in between. so i think that's intervals (not sure though)

    But i also run and I'm needing to lose 15-20 pounds so I may try that. It sounds challenging and I'm on a plateau and need to get off it quick. lol
  • AmandaArnwine
    AmandaArnwine Posts: 56
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    TURBO FIRE :-)
  • kimmerroze
    kimmerroze Posts: 1,330 Member
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    Ideally I think you want the 2:1 ratio, but you have to work up to that. If you can only do 1:4 right now, that is fine, just work up to that. I am currently at 2 minutes slow 2 minutes fast. It will swing the other way here eventually. but it is something to work up to.
  • ch178
    ch178 Posts: 364 Member
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    I'm just getting into this as well and would be interested in what everyone has to say
  • AmandaArnwine
    AmandaArnwine Posts: 56
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    HITT Training is JUST as effective as long term cardio and BETTER because you continue to burn fat for up to 24 hours after the work-out.. like Weight training... Regular cardio only burns fat during that session and stops when your through .. I Hitt Train in Various way ALL the time
  • tam120
    tam120 Posts: 444 Member
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    http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-520-492-13262-0,00.html

    basically it says:
    "an article in The New York Times detailing the findings of a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology that claimed after only two weeks of interval training, six of eight participants doubled their endurance. A later study in the same journal found that again, after only two weeks of intervals (10 sets of four minutes of full exertion followed by two minutes of rest, every other day) participants increased their body's fat-burning ability during subsequent low-to moderate-intensity workouts by 36 percent. A 36 percent increase in fat-burning for the same old workout!"
  • ajricketts
    ajricketts Posts: 32
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    The 2:1 ratio is ideal, but that definitely takes time to get to. Where you are now is fine. I can't even imagine doing it at 2:1! If anything, you could doing 1:2, running hard for 1 minute, break for 2. However, the whole point of interval training is to break long enough to get your heart rate back down to normal levels before you ramp it up again. As your fitness level increases, that amount of time will get shorter.
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
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    Thats wonderful! I've just started the 30 day shred. Its 2 min of cardio, 1 min of strength and 1 min of abs with no break in between. so i think that's intervals (not sure though)

    But i also run and I'm needing to lose 15-20 pounds so I may try that. It sounds challenging and I'm on a plateau and need to get off it quick. lol
    that is actually circuit training, and it is good for keeping your heart rate elevated but it is not the same as HIIT, which is cardio exclusive.
    http://besttreadmillsonline.com/treadmill-articles/hiittraining/
  • EpiGaiaRepens
    EpiGaiaRepens Posts: 824 Member
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    Here's the other thing- I'm not actually "resting" during those 4 minutes. The website I saw said to keep going at 60-70% of your max .... I don't quite get why there are different schools of thought on this, or what's better...because the 2:1 thing is like 60 secs absolute MAX, 30 secs at REST. I'm doing 60 secs at Max, 4 minutes at 60-70% max. Anyone know why you would do one way over the other? Also, if I do 2:1, five reps, that's a grand total of about 8 minutes of exercise. That's gonna log on my calorie tracker as some ridiculously small amount of calories....should I do this AND run my usual 2-4 miles??

    FYI, here's the website that I got my routine from:

    http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=621
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Does anyone know about high intensity interval training or have experience with it? I just started last week and had pretty amazing results from the get-go. I was running 2-5 miles on a regular basis, and wasn't getting any results (other than more wiggle room on my calories)....so I switches to doing HIIT running. I would run 5 mins at my usual pace, 1 min as fast as I could go without passing out for a whole minute, then do 4 mins at my reg pace. I did this 1 min max/4 mins reg routine five times, then ran another 5 minutes at my usual pace, then walked to cool down. I think this takes about 35 minutes. My experience was I felt completely exhausted for the rest of the day, and I broke my plateau!! I did this twice last week, then did a routine very similar upping the amount of time I stay in my max speed interval, but decreasing the number of intervals.

    Anyways, then I found all this stuff online that says you should keep your max cardio to rest ratio 2:1...meaning I'd run for 60 secs at max speed, rest for only 30 seconds. This seems to me like a bad idea mostly because I want to work out for 30 minutes to burn my calories cuz I gotten in the habit of eating 1500 cals a day. Does anyone have any thoughts on this???? Anyone have any results from HIIT? I am trying to kick my last ten pounds!

    It can be done many ways. I do a sprint for 40 seconds followed by a 1:20 recovery phase.

    All the programs I have come across have been 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2 ratio for rest:sprint cycle. HIIT is only meant to be 15-20 minutes not including warm up and cool down, which is why the recovery periods should be short. You can also work up to this, next time do your 3:1 instead of your 4:1 and then get it down to 2:1 and if that is too difficult make your sprints shorter 30 second sprint followed by 1 minute recovery. instead of 1 min sprint 2 min recovery. Hope this helps a bit.
  • mocha76
    mocha76 Posts: 184 Member
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    bump
  • clare85
    clare85 Posts: 5 Member
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    Interval training is a really good way of burning fat. I do the Hannah Waterman Body Blitz DVD which is 4 20 min sectionsand according to her website, doing just one 20 min section burns upto 500 calories. She says that doing 10 mins of the DVD burns more calories than running for an hour!

    I lost a lot of weight with this dvd and have just started doing it again alongside other exercise and eating no more than 14000 cals a day.

    Hope this helps.
  • aviduser
    aviduser Posts: 208 Member
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    The interval training will train your body to handle exercise at max intensity (ie, over 80% of your maximum heart rate). It will also train your body to recover faster. The key here is measuring your heart rate. Other indicators are breathing rate (if you are panting and feel like you are seeing stars, you are over 80% of your max HR). Once your HR recovers to a reasonable level, you are ready to go again. So, start your intervals with 30 sec on, 2 min recovery and increase. 1 min on, 2 min recovery. 1 min on, 1 min recovery. 2 min on, 1 min recovery, and so on. Do this over a period of weeks.

    For me the HR looks like this: 160 BPM is my "threshold level", which means 80% of my max HR. Training at 160 or below is aerobic. Above 160 is anaerobic. I am recovered when my HR is below 150 or so. The longer the break in between intervals, the lower my HR goes.

    You can figure out your max HR with a simple test on the treadmill called the Foster Talk Test. Check this link: http://heartzones.com/_pdf/The_Foster_Threshold_test.pdf

    That take you through the test (which is simple). Then you will know where your training intensity is.

    Good luck.
  • bkelley32148
    bkelley32148 Posts: 279 Member
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    bump
  • abyssfully
    abyssfully Posts: 410 Member
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