Share your HIIT workouts!

Generally a track session:

Fifteen minutes warm up at 6min/ km
Six repeats of 100m sprints with 400m back at 6 min/ km
Ten to fifteen minutes cool down at 6 min/ km

All in about a 45 min session

I like to make up my own workouts about 15 minutes before I do them depending on how my body feels. Change them up all the time to keep your body guessing. Here is one that I did this week.

Complete reps range for each workout before resting.
SET 1
D.B walking lunges x10
D.B. Calf Raises x10
D.B. Shrugs x20
1 minute rest 4 Sets

SET 2
Chest to floor burpees x10
Bear crawls 10 feet forward and 10 feet backwards
Sit-ups x10
1 minute rest 4 Sets

SET 3
D.B. front squat x10
D.B. bent over rows x10
D.B. bicep curls x10
1 minute rest 4 Sets

SET 4
Tabata
Alternating planks

Usually Tabata intervals on the rowing machine (WU, 8 x (20" max effort, 10" easy), CD) but only in the run-up to competition, and not very often even then, because other schedules are a darned-fool waste of training time and life energy, plus the calorie burn is negligible.

gearhead426hemi wrote: »

sgt1372 wrote: »

gearhead426hemi wrote: »

If 1-2 minutes of constant work with rest then repeat isn't HIIT then what is?

The classic HIIT routine is the Tabata style 20 sec work and 10 sec rest interval which is done for 8 sets in 4 mins at max effort.

I do this occasionally on my Concept2 rower.

The object is to get your VO2 max up to 170% of "normal" but, since there's no way to measure VO2 w/o special equipment, you just need to run, pedal or row as fast as you absolutely can w/max effort.

I don't use a HR monitor but my C2 monitor gets up to 200+ watts or 1100+ cals/hr which is a high rate of effort for a 67 yr old man but nothing compared to what younger and stronger men could do.

After doing a true HIIT routine you should be completely gassed and panting for breathe because true HIIT induces both aerobic and anaerobic responses. I usually need at least 15-20 mins to recover after doing an HIIT.

On the other hand, I can routinely do 4x2500 meter sets w/5 min rest in between, which take me 12 min per set at the rate of about 130 watts or 700 cal/hr w/o even losing my breath and requiring no recovery time after finishing the 4 sets and rowing 10,000 meters, which I do daily.

Apples and oranges.

Some people may not find my workouts "HIIT" by normal standards, but I challenge anyone who doubts it is to try it. Find a weight that you can complete each of these exercises without dropping the weight between workouts so it will require max grip strength and max output to complete all 10 reps. If you can complete this without feeling completely gassed then you didn't push hard enough or choose the right weight. Theoretically you can make any workout into HIIT it you actually put in 100% intensity for the short interval.

I don't doubt that what you suggest is hard to do but it's just not HIIT in a strict sense.

FWIW, there's an on-going dispute in MFP about what's "really" HIIT with members often questioning the use of the term.

More often than not, the people using the term HIIT are just talking about doing low to moderate effort circuit or interval training and are not really talking about HIIT at all.

The high intensity endurance activities that you describe also do not strictly fit the HIIT model because, while exhausting, they can not induce an anaerobic cardiovascular response (which is one of the objectives of HIIT) because no activity can be sustained for long in the absence of oxygen.

So, the high intensity endurance activities that you describe (that are also common in crossfit) aren't really HIIT either.

So here’s part of my practice plan for my youth soccer teams (U15 and U17), it is just the HIIT part. I have them do each exercise for 20 seconds with a 10 second rest and then a 1 minute break between each round. You can do each exercise for 30, 40 or even 50 seconds with a 10 second rest but if you haven’t done this before you may want to go with the 20/10 and if you finish that with plenty of gas left in the tank just run through it again.
If you are not sure of what an exercise is you can google it or ask me, or you could switch it out for an exercise that you like.
FYI, When I do these for myself or with the group that I W/O with we will do 3-4 sets of these. You can also switch out the ball for a weighted medicine ball.
I hope this helps and that you enjoy it.

Tabata 3 rounds with one optional.
Round 1: 2minutes
1. Mountain Climbers
2. Running in place w/high knees
3. Push ups
4. Squats

1 minute break.

Round 2: 2 minutes T/T 5 minutes
1. Jumping lunges
2. Burpee’s
3. Starfish crunches
4. Plank

1 minute break.

Round 3: 2 minutes T/T 8 minutes
1. Russian twist w/ball.
2. Speed skaters.
3. Side crunches.
4. Alternating ball pushups. (Do P/U with ball under left hand, switch ball to right and do a P/U, continue switching the ball back and forth between P/U’s)

1 minute break.

Bonus Round 4: 2 minutes T/T 11 minutes
1. V-sits W/ball, alternating ball from hands to feet.
2. Mountain Climbers W/ball
3. Diamond P/U’s (modification W/ball)
4. Partner trunk twist ball passes

Hard to choose. Some good ones:

1) 8x1' all out, 1' easy pedal recovery (power/speed naturally drop, but the suckage remains constant)

2) 5x5' @ 130% of threshold w/5' easy in between (or roughly 5x5' at around the pace you could race all out for 8')

3) 8x1' @ 95% of maximum one minute ability, 10' rest in between

4) 30" ON/30" OFF with the ON portion being at 150% of FTP (i.e. little bit faster than mile pace) and OFF portion around 50% of FTP (like an easy jog, but not a slow shuffle or work either)

5) 10" ON / 20" OFF, ON portion is full gas max sprint effort, off portion is coasting/walking

Number one is a killer lactace clearance workout. Number two is a classic VO2 workout that will primarily improve aerobic capacity with a little bit of anaerobic endurance and lactate clearance. Number 3 is purely about improving anaerobic work capacity and endurance. Number 4 is a lactate clearance/VO2 workout. Number 5 is sprint endurance + lactate clearance.

sgt1372 wrote: »

The high intensity endurance activities that you describe also do not strictly fit the HIIT model because, while exhausting, they can not induce an anaerobic cardiovascular response (which is one of the objectives of HIIT) because no activity can be sustained for long in the absence of oxygen.

So, the high intensity endurance activities that you describe (that are also common in crossfit) aren't really HIIT either.

I agree in that we all tend to think of HIIT at anaerobic training.

1) That said, that's not a particularly accurate picture. I think the most classic concept of HIIT is tabata, or 20s sprint, 10s recovery. If you do these truly all out, you're going to deplete FRC (anaerobic capacity) after perhaps 3-6 of these sprints depending on the interval and just how "all out" your sprints are. At that point, you're still demanding a huge response from your body and have reached maximal oxygen uptake, or VO2 max. Most tabata intervals I see range between 5'-20'. So basically you start off very hard, and the first several repeats are an anaerobic blast which does drain FRC and places a little load on anaerobic demand, but after that point you've depleted FRC and really can only produce power equal to sustainable aerobic output.

Try doing tabata sometime, and commit to going ALL OUT on every single 20s repeat. By the time you get 5 or 6 repeats in, you'll be hitting your on portions at somewhere between 5k and 10k pace, or 15'-60' cycling power, because that's about all you can do with FRC largely depleted.

Something like Tabata is primarily a VO2 max workout, with a modest carryover to lactate clearance and a small carryover to anaerobic capacity.

2) Moreover, it's important to realize that all kinds of things elicit an anaerobic response. If you have a threshold on the bike of 300w, and you ride ever so slightly over that at 310w...you're getting an anaerobic response. Why? Because 300w is your threshold, i.e. the maximum power you can supply aerobically. Anytime you want to produce more power that has to come from your anaerobic "battery" or FRC. If you have a 24kJ FRC and a 300w threshold you can gas yourself anaerobically doing a variety of things:

- 30" at about 900w
- 1' at about 700w
- 5' at 380w
- 40' at 310w

All of these will equally deplete anaerobic capacity.

DWBalboa wrote: »

stanmann571 wrote: »

DWBalboa wrote: »

So here’s part of my practice plan for my youth soccer teams (U15 and U17), it is just the HIIT part. I have them do each exercise for 20 seconds with a 10 second rest and then a 1 minute break between each round. You can do each exercise for 30, 40 or even 50 seconds with a 10 second rest but if you haven’t done this before you may want to go with the 20/10 and if you finish that with plenty of gas left in the tank just run through it again.
If you are not sure of what an exercise is you can google it or ask me, or you could switch it out for an exercise that you like.
FYI, When I do these for myself or with the group that I W/O with we will do 3-4 sets of these. You can also switch out the ball for a weighted medicine ball.
I hope this helps and that you enjoy it.

Tabata 3 rounds with one optional.
Round 1: 2minutes
1. Mountain Climbers
2. Running in place w/high knees
3. Push ups
4. Squats

1 minute break.

Round 2: 2 minutes T/T 5 minutes
1. Jumping lunges
2. Burpee’s
3. Starfish crunches
4. Plank

1 minute break.

Round 3: 2 minutes T/T 8 minutes
1. Russian twist w/ball.
2. Speed skaters.
3. Side crunches.
4. Alternating ball pushups. (Do P/U with ball under left hand, switch ball to right and do a P/U, continue switching the ball back and forth between P/U’s)

1 minute break.

Bonus Round 4: 2 minutes T/T 11 minutes
1. V-sits W/ball, alternating ball from hands to feet.
2. Mountain Climbers W/ball
3. Diamond P/U’s (modification W/ball)
4. Partner trunk twist ball passes

See, this is exactly what we're talking about.

Great circuit. NOT HIIT. Not even sort of HIIT.

And NO, using a Tabata timer doesn't make it HIIT.

Ok expert explain in your professional opinion what is.

If only there was already an explanation in the thread of what is and isn’t HIIT

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

gearhead426hemi wrote: »

If 1-2 minutes of constant work with rest then repeat isn't HIIT then what is?

Because the High Intensity element means getting your HR into the 95-98% MHR range. it's not just about working harder during the work periods, it's about maximising the effort. The activities that you identified are unlikely to generate sufficient aerobic load to really do that.

That said, I suspect the originator wasn't asking for HIIT workouts, but for recommendations for circuit training.

L_Master wrote: »

DWBalboa wrote: »

stanmann571 wrote: »

DWBalboa wrote: »

So here’s part of my practice plan for my youth soccer teams (U15 and U17), it is just the HIIT part. I have them do each exercise for 20 seconds with a 10 second rest and then a 1 minute break between each round. You can do each exercise for 30, 40 or even 50 seconds with a 10 second rest but if you haven’t done this before you may want to go with the 20/10 and if you finish that with plenty of gas left in the tank just run through it again.
If you are not sure of what an exercise is you can google it or ask me, or you could switch it out for an exercise that you like.
FYI, When I do these for myself or with the group that I W/O with we will do 3-4 sets of these. You can also switch out the ball for a weighted medicine ball.
I hope this helps and that you enjoy it.

Tabata 3 rounds with one optional.
Round 1: 2minutes
1. Mountain Climbers
2. Running in place w/high knees
3. Push ups
4. Squats

1 minute break.

Round 2: 2 minutes T/T 5 minutes
1. Jumping lunges
2. Burpee’s
3. Starfish crunches
4. Plank

1 minute break.

Round 3: 2 minutes T/T 8 minutes
1. Russian twist w/ball.
2. Speed skaters.
3. Side crunches.
4. Alternating ball pushups. (Do P/U with ball under left hand, switch ball to right and do a P/U, continue switching the ball back and forth between P/U’s)

1 minute break.

Bonus Round 4: 2 minutes T/T 11 minutes
1. V-sits W/ball, alternating ball from hands to feet.
2. Mountain Climbers W/ball
3. Diamond P/U’s (modification W/ball)
4. Partner trunk twist ball passes

See, this is exactly what we're talking about.

Great circuit. NOT HIIT. Not even sort of HIIT.

And NO, using a Tabata timer doesn't make it HIIT.

Ok expert explain in your professional opinion what is.

I partially agree with stanman here. Some of these flat out are unlikely to be intense enough unless the athlete in question is very large, very out of shape, or both. The plank example is a good one. That's not even cardio. My HR is like 100bpm holding a plank. Muscularly challenging, but not cardiovascular challenging.

Some of the others, even done as fast as possible just aren't intense enough to be challenging for someone with reasonable fitness, especially not in a short duration.

The first circuit would work as HIIT in the strict sense for a good number of people. Probably not for highly conditioned, lean athletes. The others I'm less bullish on, as the moves simply aren't that aerobically challenging. Planks and crunches both. Planks have almost no aerobic component, and crunches have very little. I could do 30' of crunches without stopping (which by definition means aerobic intensity is not sky high) or more, if my abs didn't give out due to muscular fatigue. Same for Russian twist.

Bottom line is that to be HIIT the circuit needs to be hit hard enough to deplete the anaerobic capacity and then work at maximal oxygen levels (VO2). Not happening for most athletes with those circuits.

Keeping in mind this routine was originally designed for a youth soccer team ranging in ages 12-16, many have never done anything remotely close to this. I have also used this routine with a few of the folks at work as well as the Wellness Center that I workout at. However, those folks are on the opposite end of the spectrum a few in their 40's but mostly 50's to late 60's and not in good shape to put it kindly.

With that being said I can agree that you are both correct, that to a trained athlete (which you both appear to be)this would be easy I'm sure and perhaps would barely cause them to break a sweat at all.

However, from my understanding and from what I have been told by certified trainers is that HITT has less to do with the exercises. It has more to do with the fashion and pace in which you do them and work to rest ratio.

So with that being said any exercise can be just that an exercise or a HITT. It's about the pace at which you are executing it and how much it is pushing you. If your HR gets in your 90% range then it is effective. Which is why I started them at 20 seconds on and 10 off. As that got easy to them I went 30/10, still with a one minute break in between sets.

Again I will agree that several of these exercises are routine warm ups or even cool downs for most well trained and in shape people but for my target group (ages 12-16 year olds) this kills them, it wears them the hell out. I can't say that they are or are not getting into their HR's into their 90 percentile or not, as very few of them have HR monitors.

So maybe this wont fit the bill for most 20, 30, or even 40 something's but again this routine was designed originally for 12-16 year olds. I just want to share it with the OP as it sounded like they just wanted inputs and possible needed an easy starting place.


Also, here are a few links that may help the OP as well as all of us.

https://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/lose-weight/burn-fat/killer-hiit-exercises/
https://www.mensfitness.com/training/cardio/8-amazing-fat-burning-intervals
https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/10-hiit-workouts-to-get-you-shredded-for-summer/
https://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-routines/5-fun-hiit-workouts-get-you-through-week?page=2

DWBalboa wrote: »

However, from my understanding and from what I have been told by certified trainers is that HITT has less to do with the exercises. It has more to do with the fashion and pace in which you do them and work to rest ratio.

So with that being said any exercise can be just that an exercise or a HITT. It's about the pace at which you are executing it and how much it is pushing you. If your HR gets in your 90% range then it is effective. Which is why I started them at 20 seconds on and 10 off. As that got easy to them I went 30/10, still with a one minute break in between sets.

Again I will agree that several of these exercises are routine warm ups or even cool downs for most well trained and in shape people but for my target group (ages 12-16 year olds) this kills them, it wears them the hell out. I can't say that they are or are not getting into their HR's into their 90 percentile or not, as very few of them have HR monitors.

So maybe this wont fit the bill for most 20, 30, or even 40 something's but again this routine was designed originally for 12-16 year olds. I just want to share it with the OP as it sounded like they just wanted inputs and possible needed an easy starting place.

The bolded part is spot on in my opinion. The only caveat is that some exercises will either cause muscular fatigue before HR is driven high enough, or flat out won't be challenging enough. In my case I'm pretty sure I could never do russian twists or sit ups for abs and have them drive heart rate up towards maximum. Just not enough muscle fiber recruitment.

One other point it make is that you can get worn the hell out by something that's not necessarily HITT. As an example:

That ride absolutely wore me out, but was not HITT. Just a longish ride done at a relatively high aerobic intensity.

The rides below is more towards what we would consider HITT, but the intervals might be long for some peoples taste:




This last one is absolutely HITT: