Is HIIT undoing all my hard work on the gym floor?

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I've recently read that intense cardio such as HIIT can be bad for those hard earned gains from lifting weights...any thoughts?
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  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
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    I've actually always heard the opposite, that steady-state cardio is what can lead to muscle degradation but HIIT is fine. I find that I see the best gains and fat loss when I combine lifting with HIIT.

    That being said, there's nothing that's really going to "undo" your lifting (except maybe not eating enough, causing your body to fuel itself with muscle). I've seen strength gains over the past 6 months even though I've been training for a marathon that whole time. If you're consistent with your weights, some cardio isn't going to ruin anything.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    It can definitely impact your recovery if that's a concern, but "undoing" work...no.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    Was this information in a peer-reviewed scientific journal which was discussing research,
    or was it from a website run by who knows who & commented on by who knows who?
    I'm betting on the latter.

    No, cardio won't "undo" any gains from lifting weight,
    unless you're overdoing it & not eating enough (as Lauren said).

    But maybe if you're doing a lot of cardio (which generally uses leg muscles), go a little lighter on the strength
    work on legs the days surrounding the cardio, so they have time to rebuild the muscle (which is when it gets
    stronger; that's why rest days are important).
  • Kiahz
    Kiahz Posts: 17 Member
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    Thanks guys....I've had great results combing both so when I read that I was slightly baffled, the person was highly qualified so it made me think. At the same time though I'm a big believer in doing whatever works for u, and combining both certainly works for me
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Do you have a link to what you read?
  • Kiahz
    Kiahz Posts: 17 Member
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    I've recently read that intense cardio such as HIIT can be bad for those hard earned gains from lifting weights...any thoughts?

  • Kiahz
    Kiahz Posts: 17 Member
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    It was in an email @Orphia
  • Kiahz
    Kiahz Posts: 17 Member
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    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited December 2015
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    Wouldn't it be great if muscles were that responsive? Like Alice in wonderland?

  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    He is likely referencing a day/or over generalizing the results of a single study. Need a constant supply of shiny objects....
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited December 2015
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    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    Yup, seems to be about recovery - you really do need to let muscles rest and recover. I do HIIT immediately after the resistance training, then have a rest day the following day consisting only of light exercise like walking (which for my level of fitness isn't a challenge). You might experience overtraining if you did strength training, HIIT with the same muscles the next day, and then strength training again.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    *nods*
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?

    1) Because it's trendy and if they call it "HIIT", they can get people to sign up for their workout classes (money!).

    2) Because they can make up their own protocols, call it "HIIT" and sell books, DVDs, programs, etc. (money!).


    The definition of HIIT is short periods of maximal intensity exercise interspersed with less intense recovery periods. There are many different protocols used (Tabata being probably the most well-known) - but basically if you're not doing maximal intensity during the work periods, it's not HIIT. It may be interval training, but it's not High Intensity Interval Training (which is what the acronym stands for).

    While there may be no specific protocol, any form of actual HIIT is going to be very uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than most people will tolerate, and certainly brutal for a beginner with limited/no aerobic capacity (not to mention the possibility of injury from going all-out with a body that's not conditioned for that type of effort).
  • lemmie177
    lemmie177 Posts: 479 Member
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    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?

    My understanding was that HIIT is description for protocols used in scientific studies (though it originated long before that in athletes). When those studies started showing the benefits of HIIT, it became a vague marketing term for the fitness industry to sell you on those same benefits. I agree with the others, real HIIT is alternating intervals of maximal effort with recovery. I'd go one step further and say that the recovery should be passive if your really want to imitate the protocol in most studies.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    edited December 2015
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    lemmie177 wrote: »
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?

    My understanding was that HIIT is description for protocols used in scientific studies (though it originated long before that in athletes). When those studies started showing the benefits of HIIT, it became a vague marketing term for the fitness industry to sell you on those same benefits. I agree with the others, real HIIT is alternating intervals of maximal effort with recovery. I'd go one step further and say that the recovery should be passive if your really want to imitate the protocol in most studies.

    Interesting! If there are actual studies indicating that it must be high intensity to the death training to be considered HIIT, I'd be curious to see those. Otherwise IMO it's just opinion on top of opinion. Meaning, who cares, so long as people are working out at their own definition of high intensity, what's it hurting, and yes they're getting some benefit. However, again, if there are specific scientific studies delineating absolute maximum effort as a requirement to be HIIT, and associated benefits that do not exist unless you're going full pelt, I'm definitely curious. Otherwise it does seem like ascribing scientific definitions to, yep, a marketing term
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    edited December 2015
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    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    lemmie177 wrote: »
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?

    My understanding was that HIIT is description for protocols used in scientific studies (though it originated long before that in athletes). When those studies started showing the benefits of HIIT, it became a vague marketing term for the fitness industry to sell you on those same benefits. I agree with the others, real HIIT is alternating intervals of maximal effort with recovery. I'd go one step further and say that the recovery should be passive if your really want to imitate the protocol in most studies.

    Interesting! If there are actual studies indicating that it must be high intensity to the death training to be considered HIIT, I'd be curious to see those. Otherwise IMO it's just opinion on top of opinion. Meaning, who cares, so long as people are working out at their own definition of high intensity, what's it hurting, and yes they're getting some benefit. However, again, if there are specific scientific studies delineating absolute maximum effort as a requirement to be HIIT, and associated benefits that do not exist unless you're going full pelt, I'm definitely curious. Otherwise it does seem like ascribing scientific definitions to, yep, a marketing term

    The positive effects of HIIT seen in research are using High Intensity protocols (90%+ VOmax) -- if you think your suboptimal 10 minute pseudo HIIT is going to be equal to an hour of running then it hurts because these are basically useless for either cardiovascular health or calorie burns. So when people come out with "yeah, I tried it. Didn't work" they hurt themselves and are getting no benefit.

    It's a research definition first then became a marketing term.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    Options
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    lemmie177 wrote: »
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    "Walking or cycling at a low to moderate intensity burns off some extra fat without interfering too much with your performance in the gym. That’s not the case with more intense forms of exercise, such as HIIT."

    This is a snippet from one email, I couldn't find the other where he talked more in depth. He's the founder of Muscle Evo

    That goes back to what Dope said. The issue is recovery, not the it undoes your work, but that it could hinder your progress.

    ^ Recovery is indeed the point. If somebody is truly doing HIIT (and not just aerobic intervals), the HIIT is very taxing to the CNS and creates recovery issues of its own separate from the recovery issues associated with strength training. The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to perform HIIT no more than twice a week, with low/moderate intensity cardio on other days.

    A separate issue is that what most people consider HIIT is not actually HIIT. It's become a trendy acronym in the fitness world, but it's grossly misused. Walk/jog intervals aren't HIIT - it requires absolute maximal, all-out effort during the work periods. Not many people actually do true HIIT workouts because they're very uncomfortable/painful and most people don't enjoy lying on the ground gasping for breath and trying not to throw up on themselves at the end of a workout.

    Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about this. Isn't the whole thing made up to begin with? Was there some definition included with the development and packaging of this form of exercise that said only certain things could be HIIT? How does the fitness world misuse something it basically invented?

    My understanding was that HIIT is description for protocols used in scientific studies (though it originated long before that in athletes). When those studies started showing the benefits of HIIT, it became a vague marketing term for the fitness industry to sell you on those same benefits. I agree with the others, real HIIT is alternating intervals of maximal effort with recovery. I'd go one step further and say that the recovery should be passive if your really want to imitate the protocol in most studies.

    Interesting! If there are actual studies indicating that it must be high intensity to the death training to be considered HIIT, I'd be curious to see those. Otherwise IMO it's just opinion on top of opinion. Meaning, who cares, so long as people are working out at their own definition of high intensity, what's it hurting, and yes they're getting some benefit. However, again, if there are specific scientific studies delineating absolute maximum effort as a requirement to be HIIT, and associated benefits that do not exist unless you're going full pelt, I'm definitely curious. Otherwise it does seem like ascribing scientific definitions to, yep, a marketing term

    The positive effects of HIIT seen in research are using High Intensity protocols (90%+ VOmax) -- if you think your suboptimal 10 minute pseudo HIIT is going to be equal to an hour of running then it hurts because these are basically useless for either cardiovascular health or calorie burns. So when people come out with "yeah, I tried it. Didn't work" they hurt themselves and are getting no benefit.

    It's a research definition first then became a marketing term.

    Got any links?