The HIIT thread - Post all questions, routines, and experiences here

Now I know I am not a moderator. However, it seems like we always have at least 1 or 2 new threads dealing with HIIT popping up. People either want to know what HIIT is, if they are doing it right, or the various ways HIIT can be done. I say that instead of clogging up the board with all of these HIIT threads, we limit it to one thread. I will leave it up to Melkor whether or not he wants to sticky this thread at the top with the others.

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How HIIT is Done : HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) mixes fast short bursts going as hard as you can with recovery periods. The "sprint" intervals where you go all out as hard as you can, usually go for 20-30 seconds and the recovery intervals usually go for 60-90 seconds. You start out with a three to five minute warm up, and then for 15-20 minutes, repeatedly go back and forth between your sprint and recovery intervals. Then finish with a 5 minute cool down. It is recommended that you only do HIIT up to three times per week on non lifting days or if you do it on a lifting day, wait 6-8 hours after your lifting session.

The Benefits : HIIT has become an extremely popular method of cardio due to the fact that it gets amazing results in a considerable less amount of time than regular cardio does. You only have to spend 20-25 minutes three times per week doing it. It specifically targets bodyfat, spares muscle, and raises metabolism for up to 12-36 hours after you are done. It also gives you an unbelieveable cardiovascular workout because you are working your heart at two different speeds (90-100% in the sprint intervals and 60-70% in the recovery intervals).

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Use this thread to post any articles you have found on HIIT, any routines you want to share, or overall experiences with HIIT and the results you have gotten from it.

(20 + 5 + 5 = 30) ;)

I go 20 with 10 min warm up and cool down, so mine actually last 40 minutes. I take a while to adjust.

I think that's why I was so fuzzy yesterday after my HIIT.  I went 15 minutes HIIT on treadmill and 20ish on the stairmill.  Friday I'll make it a HIIT session on the stair mill for only 25 minutes w/ 95 stair rate max and 25 stair rate rest.  Yikes!

Original Post by vanessa1031:

I think that's why I was so fuzzy yesterday after my HIIT.  I went 15 minutes HIIT on treadmill and 20ish on the stairmill.  Friday I'll make it a HIIT session on the stair mill for only 25 minutes w/ 95 stair rate max and 25 stair rate rest.  Yikes!

If you are going to do HIIT, you should make that your ONLY cardio for the day. Since you are pushing yourself really hard during HIIT, there is no need to do an additional steady state session directly after. Aside from the fact that it raises your metabolism for many hours after you finish, the major benefit of HIIT is that you only have to spend 20-25 minutes doing cardio for the day and you are done. Any other cardio you do after is just overkill. Now in all honesty, if you have the energy to do more cardio after HIIT, you aren't pushing yourself hard enough during your HIIT session. After doing HIIT correctly, you should feel exhausted and completely burned out. You shouldn't have any energy left to do anymore cardio.

i agree.  I just wish I could RUN better-  i'm so bad at that-  and then my shins hurt and it's awful.  I'll do the stair mill going REALLLLLLLLY fast then slow for 20 minutes.  I def want to do HIIT the right way-  I'm already seeing results in my problem areas; so I know I"m on the right track.....it's fun to push yourself-  although in the middle of it I want to fling my body off the machine I'm on and die.  :)  but the after effects are SO WORTH IT.

Original Post by vyperman7:

Original Post by jonathius2:

I tried HIIT again last night (after an uncessful attempt on the stationary bike - feet kept slipping off the pedals in the fast period).  I wasn't so sure I did it right the last time but I am pretty sure I did it right this time lol.  I FELT it for sure and I sweated like crazy.  I don't think I have ever sweated that much at the gym before.  I was soaked.  I had to take a 5 min cooldown before the last 5 min cooldown but I figure it was my first time, so I need to get used to it.  Not goign to beat myself up for it.  Including 3 5 minute cooldowns, I went for 50 minutes.  I did it on the treadmill this time.  It was annoying to keep pumping the speed up and down but I was able to push myself this time where I couldn't on the bike, because of the aforementioned pedal problem hehe. 

You say you went for 50 minutes? Now I realize that you included all the cool down time you took in this. However, an HIIT session should never go over 25 minutes. You do a 3-5 minute warm up, 15-20 minutes of fast/slow interval, and a 5 minute cool down. That is it. The reason why it is shorter in duration is because the sprint intervals are so intense, that it wears you down too much to go for an extended period of time. So make sure that the next time you do it, you push yourself as hard as you can @ 100% on the sprints, and that the whole workout does not exceed 25 minutes.

 For some reason I thought it was 45 minutes.  Doh.  No wonder I needed an extended break.  I'll shorten it down tonight.  I did push myself as hard as I could on the sprints, or at least I thought so.  I'll ramp it up some more tonight.  Least now I know I won't have to go as long lol.

Hi, I'm sorry if this question has already been addressed, but I have a question about how many calories are burned.

I am up to week 5 in an 8 week HIIT program I found online.  (Love this workout, p.s.  http://www.intervaltraining.net/Lose_Belly_Fa t_Fast.html )   I do my HIIT on an elliptical which has a calorie counter.  The stage that I'm at now is 5 min warm up, 10 30 second sprints and 30 second rest periods and 5 min cool down.

At the end of this the calorie counter on the machine says right around 150.  To me, for as hard as I am pushing and as much as I sweat, it seems like I am burning way more than 150 calories.

I'm trying to get a good approximation of how much I burn because I want to make sure I eat enough to avoid a plateau.

Is there any way of determining how many calories I'm really burning?  Or is 150 correct?

jewels,

First of all, if you are doing 30 second sprints at 100%, you want your recovery intervals to be at least 60-90 seconds. If you do 30/30 intervals, you aren't giving yourself enough time to fully recover to put 100% into each sprint. Make sure to take longer recovery intervals.

Now in regards to your question...

The benefit of HIIT is not how many calories you burn during the exercise. Since HIIT is done for a much shorter duration, the number of calories burned is going to be a lot lower than a regular cardio session. The benefit to HIIT is how much your metabolism gets raised after you are finished. Regular cardio only raises your metabolism for a few hours after you are done. So while you may burn more calories during regular cardio, your metabolism isn't burning a lot of calories after you finish. Whereas, HIIT raises your metabolism for 12-36 hours afterwards because of how much energy you put into it. So while your initial calorie burn may be somewhat low, you end up burning a lot more calories through out the day while you are at rest. This is way more important because you spend a lot more hours during the day resting and being sedentary than you do exercising.

Oh ok.  I understand.

Thanks!!

Also, you have to remember that calories burned depends more to how far you go -- not so much how fast. 

So, say you walk for an hour and go 3 miles.  If your entire HIIT session ends up at 3 miles distance, then the number of calories you burned during the 2 workouts would be approximately the same. 

The additional burn for the next 12-36 hours isn't even a whole lot from what I understand.  But there are still a lot of benefits to doing HIIT. 

Check out motiontraxx.com  its a free podcast website.  Its music for running. Its free and they have an interval training podcast in the archives. 

Original Post by vyperman7:

How HIIT is Done : HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) mixes fast short bursts going as hard as you can with recovery periods. The "sprint" intervals where you go all out as hard as you can, usually go for 20-30 seconds and the recovery intervals usually go for 60-90 seconds. You start out with a three to five minute warm up, and then for 15-20 minutes, repeatedly go back and forth between your sprint and recovery intervals. Then finish with a 5 minute cool down. It is recommended that you only do HIIT up to three times per week on non lifting days or if you do it on a lifting day, wait 6-8 hours after your lifting session. 

I'm new to this method of training but need to explore other options now that my favourite aerobics class has been cancelled (grr!).

I'm curious  to know why you can't combine lifting with HIIT, and can you combine it with body conditioning exercises (like yoga, pilates etc)? When I say combine,  I mean doing the HIIT workout immediately before or after lifting/body con.

Lifting and HIIT can be done on the same day. It is recommended that if you decide to do this though that lifting is always done first. You want to have all your energy available for it. Then once you have done your lifting, weight 6-8 hours and do your HIIT. The problem with doing HIIT too soon after lifting is that you won't be able to put 100% into HIIT. When you truly bust your ass lifting weights, you are too tired to do HIIT right after or even a few hours after. When it comes to yoga or pilates, I would do the HIIT session first so that you have all your energy to truly give 100%. Then do the yoga or pilates afterwards.

What I started doing, was a full body routine on M/W/F in the mornings for lifting and doing my HIIT sessions on the same day at night. That way I only have to workout three times a week. Less time in the gym is better for me.. :)

Hi,

I know you must get a ton of these questions, but would you consider the following HIIT?

12 min at 6 mph
1 min at 7 mph
2 min at 6 mph
Repeat 1 min/2 min cycle 5 more times
6 min cool down

The only reason I ask is because I don't run very fast... I think I can get up to about 7.5 mph before I start tripping over my own feet.

Thanks in advance!

I'm curious about this too. I keep checking my heart rate after each interval. If I'm in the 80-90% of my max heart rate, regardless of how fast I'm running (or in my case, rope jumping ), I count that as a good interval. I am mostly wiped after I'm finished, but then an hour later, I start to think about my intervals and wonder if I worked hard enough.

I've only done 3 HIIT sessions to date, and I lift 3-days a week, and I am still losing inches, so something must be working. I just want to make sure if I'm going to dedicate any time to HIIT, that it's actually doing something for my body.

Original Post by mceleste:

Hi,

I know you must get a ton of these questions, but would you consider the following HIIT?

12 min at 6 mph
1 min at 7 mph
2 min at 6 mph
Repeat 1 min/2 min cycle 5 more times
6 min cool down

The only reason I ask is because I don't run very fast... I think I can get up to about 7.5 mph before I start tripping over my own feet.

Thanks in advance!

What you are doing isn't HIIT. Take a look at your first part of the post where you say that you go for 12 minutes @ 6mph. With HIIT you are constantly switching off between your fast and slow intervals. The fast intervals designed to get your heart rate @ 85% or higher lasts for 20-30 seconds. The slow intervals to recover last from 60-90 seconds. The main point of HIIT is that you are switching speeds so often that your body doesn't adapt to what you are doing.

The speed you are going at doesn't really matter as long as you are giving it your all and your heart rate is getting high enough. Here is what you want to do. Warm up for 3-5 minutes, go 20-30 seconds as hard as you can, 60-90 seconds at a slower pace, and then for 15-20 minutes keep switching off from the 20 to 30 second fast with the 60-90 slow. Then you do a 5 minute cool down. The whole thing shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes at the most if you do the 5 min warm up, 20 minutes of intervals, and 5 minute cool down. When starting out, you should definitely keep it between 20-25 minutes total.

Ah I see.... The only thing is I find that if I don't warm up for 10-12 minutes at the "resting" speed, then after I finish my hamstrings hurt like crazy! Almost as though I didn't stretch at all before my run (although I stretch for 15-20 minutes before and after each run). The whole heart rate thing is going be somewhat hard... because as I said before I can't get very fast (as I end up falling over myself) so I'm finding it hard to get to that high heart rate within the 30 second sprint. Any suggestions?

Original Post by lindinig:

I'm curious about this too. I keep checking my heart rate after each interval. If I'm in the 80-90% of my max heart rate, regardless of how fast I'm running (or in my case, rope jumping ), I count that as a good interval. I am mostly wiped after I'm finished, but then an hour later, I start to think about my intervals and wonder if I worked hard enough.

I've only done 3 HIIT sessions to date, and I lift 3-days a week, and I am still losing inches, so something must be working. I just want to make sure if I'm going to dedicate any time to HIIT, that it's actually doing something for my body.

There are two ways to test to see if you had a good HIIT session. The first is how high you are getting your heart rate in your sprint intervals. If you can get it to 85% or above, you are doing well. The second is how you feel directly after. If you feel completely wiped, then you know you put everything you had into it. The speed in which you go, doesn't really matter as long as you get your heart rate high enough. For some people, it takes less exertion to get their heart rate into the max zone, hence a slower speed. For others, it takes more hence the higher speed. Just keep monitoring your heart rate and as long as you get it into the right zone, you are doing fine.

Everyone who gets into HIIT wonders about the effectiveness of it or if they worked hard enough because people are in the mindset of having to do hours of cardio to get results. Once people start seeing the results they get from HIIT, they learn to trust the system and themselves more.

Original Post by mceleste:

Ah I see.... The only thing is I find that if I don't warm up for 10-12 minutes at the "resting" speed, then after I finish my hamstrings hurt like crazy! Almost as though I didn't stretch at all before my run (although I stretch for 15-20 minutes before and after each run). The whole heart rate thing is going be somewhat hard... because as I said before I can't get very fast (as I end up falling over myself) so I'm finding it hard to get to that high heart rate within the 30 second sprint. Any suggestions?

 Maybe you should try another type of exercise for your HIIT that you would allow you to get your heart rate up higher. HIIT isn't really effective unless you push yourself to the limit on every sprint interval. I recommend that people try using a stationary bike because it is much easier to put everything you have into the peddaling motion of a bike, then it is to sprint on a treadmill. Plus on a stationary bike, you don't have to worry about constantly changing speeds on the machine. It is simply a matter of pedaling faster on your sprints, and slowing down on your recovery intervals.

Thanks for the help! I'll give it a try tomorrow~

Original Post by vyperman7:

There are two ways to test to see if you had a good HIIT session. The first is how high you are getting your heart rate in your sprint intervals. If you can get it to 85% or above, you are doing well. The second is how you feel directly after. If you feel completely wiped, then you know you put everything you had into it. The speed in which you go, doesn't really matter as long as you get your heart rate high enough. For some people, it takes less exertion to get their heart rate into the max zone, hence a slower speed. For others, it takes more hence the higher speed. Just keep monitoring your heart rate and as long as you get it into the right zone, you are doing fine.

Everyone who gets into HIIT wonders about the effectiveness of it or if they worked hard enough because people are in the mindset of having to do hours of cardio to get results. Once people start seeing the results they get from HIIT, they learn to trust the system and themselves more.

 Oh good. So, I must be doing something right then because I'm definitely above 85% of my heartrate, and I can get there within 30 seconds. Right now, my intervals are between 30-40 seconds, which is how long it takes before I trip over the rope and after the high interval, I walk for a good 90 seconds. I test my heartrate again before my next interval to make sure it has come down below 80%.

I'm considering purchasing an interval timer because right now, I just use my watch, and I'm guesstimating the exact seconds I'm doing this.