Is HIIT the most misused term on these boards?

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I only call it a HIIT workout if it made me nauseous or about to collapse.

EXACTLY... I feel like crawling out of the gym when I'm done

Heard this term a lot, still have no clue what HIIT is... someone please tell me!:)

Not sure, but it's definitely up there with "starvation mode" and "toning"

So to clarify, HIIT is HIGH INTENSITY...meaning sprinting/walking, right? There should be a dramatic difference between the two intervals, correct?

Using the treadmill as an example yes... Typically I do 9 - 11mph for 30-60 seconds (depending on mood) then drop down to 3.5 -4 mph for 2 mins..repeat

So to clarify, HIIT is HIGH INTENSITY...meaning sprinting/walking, right? There should be a dramatic difference between the two intervals, correct?

Using the treadmill as an example yes... Typically I do 9 - 11mph for 30-60 seconds (depending on mood) then drop down to 3.5 -4 mph for 2 mins..repeat

haha, ok, that is what I do, although I'm not as fast. I usually do 1 min at 8-9 mph and then 1 min at 4 mph. I was just thinking, ummm....do I know what I am doing? Ya, I guess so.

Not sure, but it's definitely up there with "starvation mode" and "toning"

^ this

Tabata might be another misunderstood term.

http://www.tabataprotocol.com/

Wrong: "I just did an hour of tabatas."
Right: "Those tabatas made me crave death just to put an end to it."

If you can finish a Tabata workout without wishing for death, then it wasn't a Tabata workout; it was just an interval workout. :laugh:

TOTALLY agree. I do HIIT 1-2x a week. I do it on a bike because I know I'll be flying off the back end of a treadmill if I had to go full speed on one. I'm sure people think I'm NUTS pedaling so freakin hard for 30 seconds at a time it looks like the bike will just take flight. In 16 minutes I am DRIPPING sweat. I didn't know the effects the first time I did it and nearly fell over getting off the bike. I now know to do a few minutes on the bike after, get off of it SLOWLY, hold onto it and stretch a bit before even attempting to walk. And then, when you walk, you walk like a flamingo because your muscles are just like "WTF just happened???" I haven't looked at the pedal thingy to see how fast I'm going when I'm going full speed. I'm not even sure I can concentrate to lift my head up to look at the thing, but next time I'll try.

Tabata might be another misunderstood term.

http://www.tabataprotocol.com/

Wrong: "I just did an hour of tabatas."
Right: "Those tabatas made me crave death just to put an end to it."

If you can finish a Tabata workout without wishing for death, then it wasn't a Tabata workout; it was just an interval workout. :laugh:

Hahaha NO KIDDING.

I do 20 minutes of Tabatas 3 times a week and it fricking kills me. HIIT is nothing in comparison.

Repeats of walking for a two minutes and jogging for one minute is a good workout, but it is not HIIT.

That may in fact be high intensity for some. I think it's all relative.

If you are doing HIIT, you wouldn't be able to sustain the jog for 1 minute. HIIT is going maximum capacity, and NOONE can sustain that for a minute. I struggle to do it for 30 seconds-I usually wind up around 20-25 seconds before I KNOW I'm slowing down. So while speed at maximum will vary person to person, the length of time that people can actually exert themselves at maximum capacity isn't going to be a minute for anyone.

JOKE: Well, to me it means Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia cause I'm a nurse.

But, I too, would like calrification of both terms HIT and Tabata

Heart rate...

Intervals are good whether or not they are HIIT, but those of you not doing HIIT shouldn't think we are reaping the benefits.

Instead of accusing people (perhaps correctly) of misusing the term HIIT, and giving examples of what it is not, it would be a lot more helpful if you could spell out what IS HIIT...

It depends on your definition of HIGH intensity. For weight loss benefit, It would be as fast as you can go for a length of time, maybe 1min, 30seconds, 1.5mins. etc... followed by a period of rest. I'd guess i'd classify it above "moderate" intensity.

The way intervals work is that on the rest period, you're body does it's best to cope with the stress it just experienced. In time recovery would be faster. You're really training the "recovery" when you do intervals. The more fit you are, the faster you recover.

Brilliant, thanks for explaining.

In that case, yes I am doing HIIT (to improve my cardio, not for weight loss) I'm running to the absolute max, with my little legs whirring like a sewing machine for about 20 to 25 seconds, then recovering and doing it again and again and again. It's absolutely brutal, and a bit scary to be running that fast to be honest, I'm still a bit nervous of it all going horribly wrong, but I can tell it's making a huge difference to my fitness level. I'm mostly not logging it as HIIT on here, because I only do it for about 15 minutes, then stay on the treadmill for at least another 15 minutes and do a slow jog or a 15% "hillwalk" just to burn off a few more calories.

What is HIIT?
it is doing an exercise at 100% heart rate -you should be barely able to do another second after about 30 secs.
this means the sprint is both aerobic and anaerobic.
you then work lightly for 30-60 secs.
repeat for 20-30 mins
a crucial part of HIIT is that in the light phase your heart rate doesnt drop below 65-70% of your max heart rate.
For myself i jog for 10 mins to warm up,then do hiit -
sprint up a hill until come to standstil,walk back down and repeat for 20 mins
then 10 min jog after hiit.
Hope this helps.