HIIT - getting through the first 4 minutes!

Options
XFitMojoMom
XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
:grumble:
I could barely get through the first four minutes...:embarassed:
So the next 16 minutes I alternated between brisk walk (4.0) for 60 sec, then jog (5.7) 60 sec, then run (6.7) 30 sec, then back to a walk for 90 secs.

So... was my workout in vain? How can I work my way to doing this properly.???..

Thanks!

Replies

  • 135gratitude
    135gratitude Posts: 364
    Options
    I would suggest you do the HIIT using your heart rate percentage instead - 70%, 90%, 60% and back again. Is that what you are doing?

    The speed of the treadmill is arbitrary to the individual when training, as depending on your fitness level, those treadmill speeds could be >90% HR, or it could be <60%.
    :smile:
  • Tinker73
    Tinker73 Posts: 45
    Options
    I am sorry for the stupid question but what on earth is HIIT?:flowerforyou:
  • Valtishia
    Valtishia Posts: 811 Member
    Options
    I am sorry for the stupid question but what on earth is HIIT?:flowerforyou:


    high intensity interval training
  • bates
    bates Posts: 122
    Options
    from the looks of it, and what I understand of HITT, you should alter what you are doing just a bit.

    start with at least 5 minute warm up, what I like to do is warm up, stretch, and warm up again. I only do this because stretching when you arent "warm" is not nearly as effective as when your muscles are warm. But anyways, warm up 5mins, stretch, and warm up again for 5 mins. Then once you are done with that, HIIT is like you know based on the intervals you are doing, low, high, low high. It seems like you are doing a low, medium, high, low, medium, high. You want to focus on low high low high. you benefit more from all out force exertion compared to the medium exertion which is what hiit is based on
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    I would suggest you do the HIIT using your heart rate percentage instead - 70%, 90%, 60% and back again. Is that what you are doing?

    The speed of the treadmill is arbitrary to the individual when training, as depending on your fitness level, those treadmill speeds could be >90% HR, or it could be <60%.
    :smile:
    I don't have a HRM so I'm going on what I feel is going on in my chest. I'm looking into the polar F6, seems to be the recommended one on this site.

    Bates - I found this site for beginning HIIT http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit_table.asp So I tried to follow the high low, but like I said, I barely got through the first 4 minutes of it and that is why I went low/med/high.
  • Celestia
    Celestia Posts: 106 Member
    Options
    I would suggest you do the HIIT using your heart rate percentage instead - 70%, 90%, 60% and back again. Is that what you are doing?

    The speed of the treadmill is arbitrary to the individual when training, as depending on your fitness level, those treadmill speeds could be >90% HR, or it could be <60%.
    :smile:

    I just got a HRM (Timex Ironman, and I love it) and i am wondering how do I figure out the 70-90-60 % for when I do HIIT. Could anyone help me with this? Based on the standard age calculations, it says my max heart rate is 192. So to do proper HIIT, I would interval between 70-90-60% of that 192 Max Heart Rate?
  • spicy618
    spicy618 Posts: 2,114 Member
    Options
    I would suggest you do the HIIT using your heart rate percentage instead - 70%, 90%, 60% and back again. Is that what you are doing?

    The speed of the treadmill is arbitrary to the individual when training, as depending on your fitness level, those treadmill speeds could be >90% HR, or it could be <60%.
    :smile:

    I just got a HRM (Timex Ironman, and I love it) and i am wondering how do I figure out the 70-90-60 % for when I do HIIT. Could anyone help me with this? Based on the standard age calculations, it says my max heart rate is 192. So to do proper HIIT, I would interval between 70-90-60% of that 192 Max Heart Rate?

    Exactly!
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    :grumble: Okay - so this is why I hate working out when my kids are around....

    Photo309.jpg

    :grumble: My 3 year old decided it was okay to play with my bender ball and she threw it at the treadmill while I was running at full intensity. It got caught under the board, burst and ended up caught between the front end of the machine.:explode:

    I put her up for sale on ebay - for parts...:angry::laugh:
  • bates
    bates Posts: 122
    Options
    i tried doing HIIT the other day, and failed after the first 4 too so i know where you're coming from. when i would train for football all we did was HIIT, because thats what football is full speed, stop, full speed stop. I've been out for about 6 months now and all the conditioning is gone, its just something you have to train to get up to, and work at staying at. trust me the HIIT workouts are booty kickers.

    if your treadmill is toast from your last picture, you can accomplish the same thing running stairs. if you have a highschool nearby with a decent size stadium all you have to do is sprint up the stairs, walk down, and turn right around and go straight back up. start out doing 6 and gauge where you are from there.

    in college we had to run up a stadium that (mind you it wasnt HUGE but pretty big), went from A-Z, then AA-MM, and these markings were on every other stair. we would do about 15/20 reps of this, and now i can't do 5 without dying, but again its training, its like losing weight you get out what you put in!
  • kblu0816
    kblu0816 Posts: 1,627 Member
    Options
    :grumble: Okay - so this is why I hate working out when my kids are around....

    Photo309.jpg

    :grumble: My 3 year old decided it was okay to play with my bender ball and she threw it at the treadmill while I was running at full intensity. It got caught under the board, burst and ended up caught between the front end of the machine.:explode:

    I put her up for sale on ebay - for parts...:angry::laugh:

    I don't have any kids but I do have pets and they have put several holes in my yoga balls and I know what you mean...want to put them up on craigslist. Which is ironcially where I get alot of my sports equipment lol. :laugh:
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    Actually - the treadmill was fine. The bender ball bit it.:grumble:
    Glad I wasn't alone after the first 4. Today was a little better, but I used the interval trainer that was programmed in the treadmill. I got through 20 minutes before the kid threw the ball at me, put her in a time out, got the destroyed ball out from the machine and did another 10 minutes.
  • bates
    bates Posts: 122
    Options
    Actually - the treadmill was fine. The bender ball bit it.:grumble:
    Glad I wasn't alone after the first 4. Today was a little better, but I used the interval trainer that was programmed in the treadmill. I got through 20 minutes before the kid threw the ball at me, put her in a time out, got the destroyed ball out from the machine and did another 10 minutes.

    if she was old enough you could get some chores out of her in "payment" for a new ball!!! :laugh:
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    nah, she's 3.5...
    I told my husband about it and he said that it's his fault because they were playing catch with it the other day when I took the dog for a walk.
  • bates
    bates Posts: 122
    Options
    nah, she's 3.5...
    I told my husband about it and he said that it's his fault because they were playing catch with it the other day when I took the dog for a walk.

    even better! looks like a free dinner date/movie on him :bigsmile:

    i know i would!!!

    oh ya and tell him not to forget the :flowerforyou:
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    nah, she's 3.5...
    I told my husband about it and he said that it's his fault because they were playing catch with it the other day when I took the dog for a walk.

    even better! looks like a free dinner date/movie on him :bigsmile:

    i know i would!!!

    oh ya and tell him not to forget the :flowerforyou:

    I thought diamonds would be the proper repayment?:huh:
  • bates
    bates Posts: 122
    Options
    nah, she's 3.5...
    I told my husband about it and he said that it's his fault because they were playing catch with it the other day when I took the dog for a walk.

    even better! looks like a free dinner date/movie on him :bigsmile:

    i know i would!!!

    oh ya and tell him not to forget the :flowerforyou:

    I thought diamonds would be the proper repayment?:huh:

    hahaha if hes willing the shell it out, go for it!!!
  • 135gratitude
    135gratitude Posts: 364
    Options
    I would suggest you do the HIIT using your heart rate percentage instead - 70%, 90%, 60% and back again. Is that what you are doing?

    The speed of the treadmill is arbitrary to the individual when training, as depending on your fitness level, those treadmill speeds could be >90% HR, or it could be <60%.
    :smile:
    I don't have a HRM so I'm going on what I feel is going on in my chest. I'm looking into the polar F6, seems to be the recommended one on this site.

    Bates - I found this site for beginning HIIT http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit_table.asp So I tried to follow the high low, but like I said, I barely got through the first 4 minutes of it and that is why I went low/med/high.

    Oh yes - I have the Polar - and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

    Spend the $100 - you won't regret it! It makes we want to work out a couple of times a day just to see how many calories I can burn!
    :flowerforyou:
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    Options
    well, I bought the Nikey IMARA... It was on sale marked down 50% and there was no F6's in stock... only an F7.

    I'm a little confuddled on how to actually get to set the low % max HR and the Hi % HR...
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Options
    well, I bought the Nikey IMARA... It was on sale marked down 50% and there was no F6's in stock... only an F7.

    I'm a little confuddled on how to actually get to set the low % max HR and the Hi % HR...

    FYI mojo, bates is right. you'll get there eventually, it takes about a month to really get your wind up, but you'll get it eventually.

    Some tips, the key is it's relative, which means hard for you may not be hard for others, just do hard for you, then when it's no longer hard (or as hard), just push it up a notch. If the program calls for 1 minute hard, and 1 minute light, go 1 minute hard and 1.5 minutes light if it's too hard, or more, it doesn't matter if it takes a little longer at the start, make it just on the verge of being too hard, the point of hiit is to reach that anaerobic zone and stay there for 30 seconds or more, then to back out, let your muscles recover their glycogen (takes between 1 and 2 minutes for most) then push it again into anaerobic. You WANT to be dying and barely able to breath at the end of the hard part, but if you're dizzy then you should stop and warm down with light activity for a few minutes, give it about 5 minutes to cool down, if you're still dizzy then, walk for about 5 minutes, the one thing you don't want to do in that case is just stop, that's bad, blood can pool in the extremities if you don't do a warm down, and can lead to bad things. By the way, this is true for any semi-intense activity, don't ever just stop, always do a warm down after.

Categories