HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) - BEST CARDIO!

I have spent a lot of time over the past few days telling people on the forums about HIIT cardio (High Intensity Interval Training). There are still a lot of people who don't know about it. So I wanted to make a thread about it for people to refer to.

All the time, I see people on various forums complain about lack of progress with cardio, despite the fact that they are doing hours and hours of it religiously. I used to be in the same boat. I did cardio religiously 5-6 times a week for 45-60 minutes a session. While I did lose some weight, my bodyfat % stayed pretty much the same. The whole point of cardio, other than cardiovascular fitness is to get rid of bodyfat and get lean. So why wasn't this happening when I was doing so much cardio? When you do cardio at a steady state for an extended period of time, two things happen. The first is that the body adapts to what you are doing. The second is that it begins to feed off muscle instead of the fat. So you need to do cardio that targets bodyfat, and spares muscle. This type of cardio is HIIT.

Performed 2-3 times a week on non-lifting days, HIIT mixes fast, short bursts (10-30 secs) going as hard as you can, with recovery periods at a slower pace (40-90 secs). You can do HIIT on any piece of cardio equipment. It gives you a far superior cardiovascular and endurance workout because you are expending much more energy and your metabolism is sped up considerably for hours and hours (somtimes days) after you finish. This means that you are burning calories while you are resting. After doing regular cardio, your metabolism goes back to normal after a few hours. 

A sample routine (Sprinting outside) :

A three minute warmup, followed by sprinting for 15-20 secs, walking briskly for 40-60 secs, and then switching off from sprint to walk for 20 minutes. Then you finish with a 5 minute cool down. So as a whole, you end up doing cardio for 28 minutes, three times per week that burns bodyfat and lets you retain muscle.

* Make sure that you give yourself a good 10 minutes to stretch before you start. With how intense the exercise is, you need to make sure you are loose so you don't cramp up or get injured. Also make sure to always do your warm up and cool downs.

* Starting out, you may have trouble going the whole 20 minutes because it takes awhile to get used to. So you just do as much as you can and eventually work up to 20 minutes worth of intervals. Just keep at it and be persistent. It works!

Hopefully this information is helpful to people.

From what I have found, it takes about 3 times the amount of time to walk back to where you started the sprint from. I timed out a 15 second sprint, and then kept track of how long it took me to walk back to the starting point. It took around 40-45 seconds. So do a sprint, walk back to the start, and then sprint again. A great way to do it is on a track. You can sprint the straight away portions and walk the corners.

I remember reading somewhere that it is better to keep the sprints shorter (10-20 secs) because after a certain period of time you are no longer running at a 100%. Plus, with shorter sprints, comes shorter rest periods, which means you can get in more sprints per workout. I usually do 15 sprints per workout.

What I have run into lately however is leg pain. I am planning on taking a week off from sprinting/leg lifting to let my muscles rest. That way they will come back stronger. Then I plan on cutting my sprint sessions back to twice a week, so I will be able to get a better leg workout with weights. Doing 3 sprint sessions a week and lifting with my legs on top of that has been really tough on my legs.

See, that's my primary concern with an over-reliance on intervals; I note that even Olympic speed athletes will only do intervals twice a week at most. And you'll have to factor in how the conditioning base you built through the steady-state cardio prepped you for max-effort sprints without injury - you kinda need the movement skill from learning to run with proper form to do the high-intensity stuff properly.

 Now, I'm not one to advocate a diet of steady state cardio as a baseline for any fitness program, far from it - but to remove it entirely from your list of options is also not a good idea. Keep your options open and choose the tool most suited for your current training goal.

 Granted, steady state cardio is pretty far down the list of usefulness for most dieting goals, but it's still on the list; and as you're seeing now, sometimes you need to work out at recovery intensities. That is, below 50% of your max heart rate, about the speed of a brisk walk - gets your blood flow up and facilitates nutrient transport to your muscles without significantly impacting recovery.

 Fatigue management and recovery capacity are important variables in any training regime and varies a lot with your training age - an experienced trainee can handle training volumes that would outright kill a beginner.

Yeah that is the one frustrating thing. I LOVE the results I get from 3 sprint sessions a week. My bodyfat is way down, my abs are finally beginning to "pop" so to speak, and my metabolism is through the roof from it and the lifting I do. However, my right quad has been aching for a few weeks even though I always do my stretching and warm ups.

I think what I will start doing is 2 days per week of SS cardio @ 20 minutes a session after my upper body lifting days and then 2 days a week of sprinting on non-lifting days. That way I will be able to get a better leg workout in with weights.

Oooh!  Pick me!  I love this topic!  So, I'm training for a figure competition in July and my trainer (a trainer's trainer, so to speak) has me doing HIIT (as well as other training) 3-4 times a week at night only.  He never allows me to go more than 15 minutes (not including a 5 minute warm-up.)  I sprint for 20 seconds, slowly jog for 40 seconds, 15 times.  It has helped me tremendously!  I am down to about 9% body fat now and I really think this type of training has had a big part of it...obviously as far as training goes.  (My diet has had the biggest impact.) 

 However, I have to strongly agree with Melkor, as I usually find myself doing...that it really depends on the person.  An athlete (some) can handle stuff like this, a beginning exerciser-well, they probably couldn't handle it.  And, I have to say, that my left quad is usually quite sore afterwards for a day or so...I really have to watch and know myself to keep everything balanced.  So, overall, if one is up for it and has a doctor recommendation, try it out. You'll be happy you did!  or not...or very sore...=)

Ok-so if you can't sprint or don't want to due to fear of injury or in my case-an already very touchy knee-how else can you do HIIT?

I know OP said on any cardio machine but does anyone here actually do it on a bike or in a Spin class?

I am easily bored with cardio if it is inside - the spin classes I loved a few months ago are now putting me to sleep-so I would like to do something quicker when I have to be inside.

(My favorite spin instructor does some pretty heavy "burns" and tries to get us to go "anaerobic"but I would suspect this is closer to interval than HIIT?)

HIIT can be done on any cardio machine. You just apply the same principles.

For example - If you were running on a treadmill, you would warmup for 3-5 minutes, and then jack the speed up on it to a level that has you go as hard as you possibly can, and then once 10-30 seconds passes, you lower the speed to do a much slower recovery interval. If you were on a bike, you would pedal as hard as you could for 10-30 seconds, and then slow it down to recover. The principle applies to any machine that you would use.

You don't get bored because you are constantly changing speeds. It makes the time go by much quicker.

Original Post by future214:

(My favorite spin instructor does some pretty heavy "burns" and tries to get us to go "anaerobic"but I would suspect this is closer to interval than HIIT?)

 Going "anaerobic" = HIIT

Original Post by trhawley:

Original Post by future214:

(My favorite spin instructor does some pretty heavy "burns" and tries to get us to go "anaerobic"but I would suspect this is closer to interval than HIIT?)

 Going "anaerobic" = HIIT

 So...High Intensity does not need to be FAST-Really heavy is ok too?

yeah, when I did HIIT yesterday the realization hit me that sprint = run. HAHAHAHAHA. Well I did it anyway, and it wasn't so bad. But boy was I every feeling it where I'd never felt it before!

So now I don't do my lower body weights/strength before or after HIIT.

Which leaves me with 2 days of HIIT, 2 days of upper body, 1 day of lower body, and 1 day of mountain hiking (which I guess could almost be considered lower body?) OR swimming (if this flippin pool will ever cooperate - now the pump is blown and we're waiting for insurance adjuster to appraise to get a new one)

I think that'll work though. Loving the results! Like someone else said - the HIIT really involves my abs WAY more than my speed walking. And it didn't hurt!

Original Post by future214:

Original Post by trhawley:

Original Post by future214:

(My favorite spin instructor does some pretty heavy "burns" and tries to get us to go "anaerobic"but I would suspect this is closer to interval than HIIT?)

 Going "anaerobic" = HIIT

 So...High Intensity does not need to be FAST-Really heavy is ok too?

 I really don't understand the question.  HIIT means High Intensity Interval Training.  High Intensity means getting your heart rate above your anaerobic threshold which you can only do for short periods of time.  Intervals means recover a bit and do it again.  On a bike you can either pedal faster or push more resistances but if you go the resistance route becareful not to blow out a knee and also if the resistance causes you to slow down too much your heart rate will drop.

On a bike you can either pedal faster or push more resistances-  trhawley-You understood the question fine and answered it, thanks.

Original Post by future214:

On a bike you can either pedal faster or push more resistances-  trhawley-You understood the question fine and answered it, thanks.

 

 As an aside, the Tabata Protocol, which is a 14 minute HIIT workout that is supposed to be the most effective way to increase both speed and endurance, was developed on stationary bicycles even though the athletes were speed skaters.  Dr. Tabata's test subject would maintain a constant 90 ppm cadance and would increase the resistance during the "on" phase of the intervals. 

So I did HIIT this afternoon on my bike (on the bike path -scary thread in the Lounge).

My heart was pumping out of my chest harder than any other workout I do. Kinda cool. It was hard to keep track of the time-no watch, so I counted 1, 1000, 2, 1000.

Probably only did 10 miles when I usually do 20-30. At least I know I am shaking things up again.

Hey, I have another quick question that probably has an obvious answer.  I play basketball, so I have pretty good stamina already, do you think it would be more beneficial for me to sprint harder during the "on" interval, or make the "on" interval longer?

-Thanks!

jewels,

You determine how much recovery you need by how long you did the sprint interval for. A good rule of thumb is to multiply the sprint interval times 3. So if you do a 20 second sprint, take a 60 second recovery interval. I usually time out a 20 second sprint, and then walk back to where I started from during my recovery. It usually takes me 45-60 secs to walk back there. Also, you can do it based on how you are feeling. The more tired you are, the longer you will need to recover. The whole point of the recovery intervals is to get you back to where you can go all out again.

HIIT takes a little while to get used to. When I first started doing it, I could only do 6 sprints. Now I am up to 15 per workout. All you can do is just stick with it. I love the results I have gotten with it. I must warm you however. Make sure that you are stretching for at least 15-20 minutes before doing sprints. I recently found out from my doctor that I have a slight quadricep strain due to lack of proper stretching. So I am taking a full week off from HIIT and leg lifting and just doing upper body lifting this week. Then starting next week, I am cutting my HIIT sessions down to twice per week and adding two 20 minute SS cardio sessions after my upper body lifting sessions. That way I get a mix of both and I don't overtax my legs.

Original Post by floggingsully:

HIIT is the best cardio... for what?

 physical fitness

Original Post by epurcell1976:

Hey, I have another quick question that probably has an obvious answer.  I play basketball, so I have pretty good stamina already, do you think it would be more beneficial for me to sprint harder during the "on" interval, or make the "on" interval longer?

-Thanks!

with HIIT you shouldn't be able to "sprint harder" - you should already be going as fast and as hard as you can possibly go - no holding back - I'll quote another post-er who said "run as if a lion was chasing you"

the program I follow starts with a few intervals and 90 sec rests and gradually increases the number of intervals while decreasing the rest time - check it out:

http://www.intervaltraining.net

Original Post by tri3:

Original Post by floggingsully:

HIIT is the best cardio... for what?

 physical fitness

Which measure of physical fitness?