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MyFitnessPal Community

HIIT time?

MarialejandraMarrero

Hi all! I've just started doing HIIT and I read on my workout guide that I should do it for 10-15min but Im wondering if this is including the "rest" time or is it only the actual running time?

Im supposed to run 30sec and stop 30sec. Thank you!

Replies

hill8570

If you can do even 10 30-on, 30-off cycles at first (with the "on" being max effort), you'll be doing well. Don't forget to warm up and cool down before and after.

MarialejandraMarrero

Hello! Im sorry but Im still confused

so I would workout for a total of 20min?
Thanks for your help!

Hornsby

You can work out for 20 minutes if you CAN. If you are new to HIIT and actually doing a true HIIT protocol (this would include going as absolute hard as you can for the 30 secs on), 20 minutes is a lot.

hill8570

Starting out, I'd say a typical HIIT workout would be of the form:

10 minutes warmup
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
30 seconds recovery
30 seconds max effort
10 minutes cool-down

That's, um, about 30 minutes total. However, unless you're in pretty good shape already, good luck. 10 cycles of max effort with only 30 seconds of recovery would have most people puking.

sarochka85

No way do you need a ten minute warm up and cool down.

Five min warmup
HIIT workout (intense activity interspersed with recovery... usually slower movement, but can be more like resting)
Cool down only if you want to... I don't bother as your heart rate comes down quickly anyhow.
Stretching as necessary (3-6 mins)

10 whole HIIT mins might be tough the first time... but good luck!

filovirus76

I wouldn't skimp on the warm-up. Good way to pull a muscle is to go straight to max effort with no real warm-up. So yeah, a ten minute light jog is recommended.

For starting I would suggest 8 intervals of 20 secs intense, 80 secs recovery.

Total time for the complete workout I outlined above would be 22 mins. Longer if you add a 5-10 min cool down.

JenRainbow1

I just follow Fitness Blender's HIT workouts. You have to make sure you don't a warm up and a cool down(including stretching), not all the videos have them. It is quite tough at first but keep at it.

chelseafxx

I'm in pretty good shape in my opinion and I'm still doing only 10 minutes of HIIT 3x a week and working my way up. 20 minutes of HIIT. sheeesh I'd be dead on the floor. I wouldn't worry about hitting a time for now if you're a beginner just try to beat your time eventually and work your way up to more time. That's what I'm trying to do at least. Next week I'm going for 15 mins

MeanderingMammal

sarochka85 wrote: »

No way do you need a ten minute warm up and cool down.

If you're really putting maximum effort into the intense periods, skimping on the warm up is a good way to get injured.

But if you're not really putting the effort in, then 5 minutes should be fine.

rankinsect

MarialejandraMarrero wrote: »

Hi all! I've just started doing HIIT and I read on my workout guide that I should do it for 10-15min but Im wondering if this is including the "rest" time or is it only the actual running time?

Im supposed to run 30sec and stop 30sec. Thank you!

Typically it counts all time, both the active recovery and the intense sprints.

30/30 is going to be fairly brutal, though, particularly as someone just starting. I'd recommend 30/20/10 instead, where it's 30 seconds low intensity (~30% effort), 20 seconds intermediate intensity (~60% max effort), 10 seconds max intensity (>90% max effort).

30/20/10 is my own preferred timing, and I take a 2 minute recovery period after every 5 reps.

robertw486

Well if I consider it HIIT, I'm not doing it for a half an hour unless that's including warm up and cool down time. I think the term has become so twisted it's hard to figure out where to draw the line these days. I even saw where another poster ( @CollieFit IIRC) posted a link from ACSM that said they considered anything over 80% HR Max as HIIT. And to me... well that could just be quicker paced cardio.

I mix it up quite a bit, from true Tabata, to some longer intervals, to some max sustained at a certain output level. Of all of them, the Tabata is the most taxing on the overall scale, but I've gotten to where I can now get 8-10 intervals with my HR still under control better. But seeing a 100 BPM heart rate rise in three minutes still gets your attention.

From the messing around I do on the elliptical, things are much more under control up to about 125-130% VO2Max. Any output above that, and things get serious pretty quickly. Surprisingly, below that point, but above VO2Max, I've got where I can crank power for minutes without the same impact as just raising the intensity up higher for the more brief period.

As for warmups, yeah. Do them. To do a true Tabata on the elliptical I'm now exceeding the readout on the calories per minute to hit 170% VO2Max. There are quite a few exercises where hitting that power output would probably not be possible, as you just couldn't sprint that hard, or do certain things to that power output level. On the elliptical it takes getting cadence up to the 210-220 level, with the resistance cranked up to 12-13. I'm accelerating hard enough that I have to use the grips to hold myself down onto the machine to get the RPM up.