HIIT workout?

madison3611 · February 2020

Is this type of work out good for someone that wants to go from being a walker to a runner? I also want a good cardio workout to help me slim down quicker than just walking on a high incline on the treadmill.

Newbie 🙋🏼‍♀️

amusedmonkey · February 2020

HIIT is brutal for a newbie. The chance of injury would be pretty high. You can utilize interval training (with a program like couch25k) if your goal is to run, but make sure the running portions are not too intense, otherwise you won't complete your program properly and, as mentioned, you may get injured.

HIIT is a specialized kind of training, usually used to help improve oxygen uptake in athletes and to train for high effort segments of their sport. In many cases, it doesn't produce a higher burn than a moderate intensity workout because rest intervals burn fewer calories. You can also keep up a moderate intensity longer, but you can't keep up HIIT for too long, not to mention you won't be able to do it as often as moderate intensity because you will require more recovery. Another reason why the highest calorie burn will be in the form of HIIT, but in the form of exercising at the highest intensity you can keep up for the amount of time you want to exercise at the frequency you want to exercise.

Now, slimming down quicker is not the safest goal to have. You risk creating problems for yourself both physically and mentally. It's okay to want to exercise more intensely, but you will need to fuel those workouts. Your rate of weight loss would not change (hopefully your current chosen rate is reasonable), but what would be different is the number of calories you are able to eat to lose at that rate. You would want to eat more the more active you are.

janejellyroll · February 2020

The best way to go from walking to running is to run. The easiest and funnest way to do this is to incorporate bursts of running into your regular walking routine. Some people like to use a structured program, like Couch to 5k (you can look online or there are many C25k apps out there). Other people just turn up the treadmill, run for a bit (like even 30 seconds at first), turn the treadmill back down to recover, and then run a little bit again. Over time, you reduce the amount of time you spend walking. This is also fun to do outside (when I was starting out, I would pick a mailbox or stop sign, run to it, and then walk for a bit).

No exercise, on its own, is going to make you "slim down quicker." Weight loss is created by a calorie deficit. Exercise is just a small part of that. We've also got all our regular everyday activity and (really important) what we're eating. Slimming down quicker isn't necessarily what is safest or sustainable. It's also hard to progress towards your fitness goals when you're losing a lot of weight quickly.

MikePfirrman · February 2020

I'm not trying to be smart when I say this, but walk/run wouldn't be true HIIT (because real HIIT will be limited by your ability to physically run for a long while as a newbie), but it would be a great and reasonable starting point.

There have been many threads on HIIT on here in the past. I'd look at a few of those for a clearer idea of what HIIT really is and isn't. It's a very loose term any more that's being thrown out for anything that raises your HR. That's not accurate. Getting up off the couch raises your HR, but it's not HIIT. When I think of HIIT, it's getting up to 80% or more of Max HR, something that a newbie shouldn't do. I didn't attempt real HIIT until I had many years of cardio under my belt. It's not pleasant and it doesn't burn more calories. There has been some science that says it's helpful to protect telomeres, the protective covering of your DNA, which stave off aging. So it has some usefullness, but you want to just be able to run, HIIT is much later in the progression of endurance.

MattHilburn · February 2020

Sounds like your in need of a starting point with working out. There are many good free at home workout apps that would be a good introduction to working out. They do not require any special equipment just body weight workouts. 8fit is one app. Like I said this would be a starting point many would not consider these true HIIT workouts but would get you a base to work your way to a true HIIT style workout

cwolfman13 · February 2020

madison3611 wrote: »

Is this type of work out good for someone that wants to go from being a walker to a runner? I also want a good cardio workout to help me slim down quicker than just walking on a high incline on the treadmill.

Newbie 🙋🏼‍♀️

True HIIT requires a substantial cardiovascular base. Most of what people refer to as HIIT isn't really HIIT...it's just marketing. If you want to go from being a walker to a runner, a C25K program would be better than doing random intervals. Running wise, HIIT would be intervals of all out sprints which make you a good sprinter, but not a runner.

benwalker86 · February 2020

Hey Madison! Sounds like you want to take it up a notch! Great work.

HIIT workouts involve a lot of combined movements, heavy on the legs. A lot of jumping involved.

If you looking to get into more active workouts, maybe consider other drills like sleds (light at first) or perhaps battle ropes if you're looking to do something more dynamic? Before taking part in these routines i would start conditioning your legs gradually if you haven't been taking part in a resistance program. But i agree with the comment before if looking to do a more advanced running program. Good luck!!!

HIIT workout?

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