My HIIT routine/diet is it safe?

When I first experienced hiit on the treadmill, I felt like I wanted to throw up. My body was burning all over as if I stepped out of a boiler room. I felt my heart beating I could actually hear it. I had to take a breather it took an hour for me to feel normal again. I did hiit twice two weeks ago, not sure if I am ready but I love the rush. I did this during the night hours and this workout disturbed my sleep and my heart still was racing. I never experienced this with regular cardio this kind of sensation so it must mean I am doing it right.

Basically I came up with this routine starting this Monday it's combined with weight training. All of this is done in the morning time before I head into work.

Monday- Upper Body Workout 1hr (shoulders, arms, upper back)

Tuesday- HIIT workout 20 mins on treadmill

Wednesday Lower Body Workout 1hr (calves, quads, thighs, abs)

Thursday- Thursday HIIT workout 20 mins

Friday- Upper Body workout

Saturday- HIIT

Sunday-Rest

I will switch equipment every week. Any advice on what to eat before and after if you are vegetarian? I eat a can of organic beans with Quinoa before my workout. After the workout I eat a salad. Should I eat protein after every single one of these workouts? Like eat a handful of almonds or a vegetarian omlete with egg whites only?

This is all starting in October how long would I see results will it be by December?

Well I am no cardio expert but i does not sound like it is that good for you. You are putting your body under stress.

What are you hoping to achieve? In the long term, moderate aerobic exercise is probably going to be more beneficial.

I read somewhere that top athetes e.g. professional marathon runners do not live as long as "normal" people because of the stress their hearts have been under. I am not 100% sure if that is true, but it makes sense. You can go too far with exercise.

Original Post by anniebaker2008:

I read somewhere that top athetes e.g. professional marathon runners do not live as long as "normal" people because of the stress their hearts have been under. I am not 100% sure if that is true, but it makes sense. You can go too far with exercise.

Professional marathon runners tend to do tons of 'moderate aerobic' exercise, high intensity exercise has been shown by numerous studies to extend people's lives. 

HIIT is strength training for your heart - you don't want to overdo it to the point where you overstrain it, but doing it strengthens your heart and makes you live longer.

 The unfavourable adaptations in your cardiovascular system due to excessive medium-intensity cardio - like marathons - increases your death risk in a statistically significant manner.

 There's all sorts of vegetarian protein options including soy protein, hemp protein and pea protein you can get if you're having trouble reaching your target through food - there's a slight metabolic advantage to using fast-digesting protein before and after a workout that will somewhat improve your results.

 Not to the extent that supplement companies would have you believe, but it does add up over time and can make a difference in how fast you reach your goals. But in the main, protein is just food, and you should mostly aim to get your needs from actual food instead of supplements.

Do you have a citation for death risk increase?  I'd be interested in reading that.

 The Harvard Alumni Study - do cardio, you'll live longer. Don't do too much, but to get into the activity bracket where death risk increases you have to be expending more than 4000-6500 kcal/week in intense exercise so for - oh, 99% of the world that's not a real risk. And if you are working harder than that, start scarfing down the antioxidants - quite a few of NIHM studies suggest that it's not the energy expenditure itself that's the problem, it's the lack of sufficient antioxidants to compensate for your oxygen load.

 But run the numbers and you'll see that if you expend more than 4000-6500kcal/week in exercise at greater than MET12+ intensity, and your death risk doubles. It's still 27 times less than the sedentary population, but it's twice the rate of people with a more reasonable workout schedule,.

Is there any evidence about the quantity of antioxidents to handle the oxygen load of an avid runner or cyclist? Eating plenty of chard and blueberries sounds like a plus to me, and what we should be doing anyway.

Here is an article about Ultra Cycling, it discusses anti-oxidants, bone density and the "limited heartbeats" theory.

http://www.ultracycling.com/training/ultra_he alth.html

It looks like keeping a balance is the important thing.

Haven't seen anything definite one way or the other about an optimal antioxidant-to-exercise ratio, and there's good evidence to suggest that anti-oxidants taken in excess of what you actually need are in themselves pro-oxidative in some measure so I hestitate to recommend specifics.

 There's any number of hucksters out there who'll show you ORAC data and tell you that the more the merrier and "buy my magic pills/powder/potion/extract", but I think that you're far better off getting yours from the food you eat. If you get most of your carbs from berries, fruits and veggies I don't know that supplementation is either neccesary or useful; if you're getting most of your ride carbs from sports drinks and energy gels there might be a point.