H.I.I.T. success stories, tips or hints?

So I've been doing lots of research on H.I.I.T. (high intensity interval training), and hear almost miraculous things about it. Things like you only have to do about 15-20 minutes of cardio with 30-40 second bursts of activity at your max exertion with enough rest between to bring your heart rate back down (I hear 2-3 minutes) ... that this, if you're also strength training 3-4 days per week, can replace 40-60 minute cardio sessions at a moderate pace. I've also heard that you will burn up to 6 times more calories over a 24 hour period after a H.I.I.T. session.

I've started building this kind of training into my trail running and elliptical work lately, but it's still too early to tell if there'll be a difference in my rate of loss and leaning-up, but I'm hopeful.

I'd love to hear from those of you who use H.I.I.T. in their workout schedule. How often do you do it? How, or on what, do you do it (jump rope, elliptical, running)? Have you seen results, and if so, after how long/often? Has H.I.I.T. replaced most of your "normal" cardio work (you know, those long sessions on the bike or treadmill)? What is your  high-intensity to low-intensity ratio?

And lastly, does anyone know if "high intensity" depend on one's current physical condition? For example, to ME running at 8mph for 40 second, then back down to 3mph for 2 minutes feels like a H.I.I.T. workout ... but I've read that THAT won't do it. But for me, it sure feels intense!

Thanks in advance, I look forward to your replies!

so how do you log either interval training or HIIT???

After reading this thread and googling on my own, I decided to try this last night. I found a beginner's program online that has you doing 30 secs fast then recover for 90 seconds and repeat 6 times and gradually decreasing recovery time over a period of about 6-8 weeks. 

I went to the track.  For my hard part I did the bleacher stairs.  Though I was really tired, I don't think it was intense enough because I really could have kept going.  So tomorrow night I'm going to just sprint instead.  I want the best workout possible!

I'm glad you brought this up!  Good luck!

I do it on a treadmill only if I have to.  I find doing HIIT on a treadmill a bit dangerous and difficult, because you can really hurt yourself plus the speeds dont change immediately.  But when I do, I do rest intervals between 3.5-4.0 MPH for about 1 min or 1 and a half min.  I do my work intervals (30-40 seconds) in a pyramid format.  I start with an easy one at 8.5, then I do 9, then 9.5, 10 is my max for now but I'm hoping to do 11 max in a month or so.  I then work my way back down to 8.5 to end it.

I do H.I.I.T on a stationary bike and it is a great workout! I do it with high resistance so when you are in between going all out it is still difficult!

I usually do it for about 15 minutes, but I am doing 60-90 second rest and 30 sec all out.

In my research it is not recommended to do H.I.I.T. on a treadmill. You cannot immediately go from sprint to rest or vice versa so it is not a correct H.I.I.T. session. Also The jump rope is an awesome workout!

I'm thinking about giving it a try tonight. I don't have time to go to the gym... or a lot of time to work out at home today, and my body is craving a good, sweaty workout. So I'm going to give it a shot on my elliptical at home.

From what I've read, and from what everyone's posted, I gather that beginners should not go beyond 10 mins. I'll see how it goes tonight and let you all know.

Original Post by dakatz:

I find doing HIIT on a treadmill a bit dangerous and difficult, because you can really hurt yourself plus the speeds dont change immediately.  

i second that. i've tried it & it just doesn't work as well. maybe on those self-driven ones but i have not seen any of those in years. 

Ive tried doing HIIT on a bike and an elliptical before and i find i don't work myself as hard, i tend to want to give up and on these machines, i end up going slower and not working myself...

however i have tried this on a treadmill and because of the speed its going at I work myself 110+% - i run because i have to, if i dont i think im in a bit of trouble!!  so is it really that bad to use the treadmilll or should i try and use some other way of doing it...?

If you do the bike at a high resisitance like 10 it is an awesome workout I feel like I am about to pass out after 10 minutes! I love it lol! Also I do it on the spinning bikes, not the one that you sit low on.

I did my HIIT workout tonight at the track.  This time I sprinted for the hard part.  I could only go 20 seconds all out.  It felt good and bad at the same time lol.  I tried a slow jog for the recovery periods but I couldn't do it so I just walked.  I think that worked well because then I was able to sprint faster after 90 seconds.  So I guess I'll just be doing the sprint/walk method.  I want some results!

Good thing I read Mortalmonkey's story about the arrhythmia.

I just went through a very scary series of arrhythmia in the last 6 weeks that took me to the cardiologist. I was put through a series of tests, including an arrhythmia holter for 24 hours and a thallium stress test this week. 

My heart is in athlete condition and nobody had a clue as to what was causing the arrhythmia. We all thought it was stress related. Now I know, thank you Mortalmonkey. You just saved me from seeing an electrophysiologist and a lot of more money thrown on more tests.

Original Post by unsaid78:

I did my HIIT workout tonight at the track. This time I sprinted for the hard part. I could only go 20 seconds all out. It felt good and bad at the same time lol. I tried a slow jog for the recovery periods but I couldn't do it so I just walked. I think that worked well because then I was able to sprint faster after 90 seconds. So I guess I'll just be doing the sprint/walk method. I want some results!

i did just about the same thing yesterday. my hamstrings are sore, which is good cuz they need more help than my quads. but i find i work my hams more than my quads when hiiting & more quads when just running.

I have a question pertaining to this...

When you do HIIT on the elliptical, do you vary the resistance (and inclince if possible) with the intervals or just the intensity of your steps? It seems like ideally you should, but it's kind of hard to keep changing the settings while you're trying not to pass out. haha

Also, is there some way to program this into the ellipticals at the gym?

I had great results when I did a 3 to 1 ratio of walking to jogging/running.  I did 60 seconds to walking at a good pae, then jogged/run for 20 seconds.  In about twenty minutes, that was all I wanted!

I like HIT weight training also.  Less time, more results.

About the only thing I don't HIT/HIIT on is my bike.  I use it as transportation right now, and want to build up my "sea legs" before I start HITting it.

Jerry

Yes yes yes... but how to LOG it?  Anyone?

 

I tend to think you should log it as either "vigorous" whatever or sprint training - it will burn a lot of calories when you do the high intensity portion :)

Original Post by melkor:

I tend to think you should log it as either "vigorous" whatever or sprint training - it will burn a lot of calories when you do the high intensity portion :)

Thanks melkor!

Ok so I just did my first HIIT session: 6 all out sprints at 20 seconds each with 2 minute speed walking recoveries in between.  Maybe I got myself a bit worked up for this to be really really bad, but I was kinda surprised at how reletively simple it was.  I mean, I'm exhausted and sweating right now, felt a burn in my thighs during the sprints, and my heart was pounding (no HRM though so I don't really know how high it got).  But I never felt like I was going to pass out or throw up or anything.  Does this mean I wasn't doing it right?  Does it mean that I'm in better cardio shape than I thought?  One more question for melkor or whoever: when I log it as sprint training or high intensity or whatever do I say I did 14 minutes total of high intensity? or do I say like 2 minutes sprinting and 12 minutes walking?

EDIT: This is actually really a pain to log.  And since I'm really trying to be exact about my calorie intake/burn I feel I need an accurate burn meter.  I guess the only way to do this would be with a HRM.  But for now I have to use CC and the highest the running activities go is 10.9 mph.  Now I just calculated that my sprints were 1/10 of a mile at 20 seconds, so that means if I had sustained this speed over a full mile (yeah right) I would have done a 200 second/3.33333 minute mile which is about 18mph.  How on earth do I log that?

I wonder if I have been doing some form of this during my C25K training...  At the end of each running segment, for the last minute, I sprint as fast as I can.  Now the the running segments are fewer and longer I don't do it as much, but I definitely get the 'I'm going to puke' feeling.  I'm almost done with the program and have been considering next steps - maybe this is it!

I feel like the more I learn/hear about different exercise programs/techniques the more I want to try and there is just not enough time to do it all! 

Well - I am really glad I read this thread as I was going to go out and buy a treadmill for doing HIIT. I am doing NROLFW and in phase one still, but in phase 2 there is one day where we do hiit for 15 minutes after the weights.

I am not sure what I will be doing then for hitt as I really don't want to run outside in the winter.  Would this work jogging/running in place?  around the basement?  Jumping jacks/treadmill walking?