interval training

just out of curiousity for those that do interval trainging on treadmills, what does your workout usually consisty of, for me i usually do about a minute of walkingat 4 mph, and then 45 sec of running between 9.2 and 9.5 mph, i was just wondering if that sounded like an okay workout, and i alternate betweeen the two for 30 min.

I am not able to run due to an injury, but I am able to do the precor elyptical. I usually monitor my heart rate. I work it up to 140 beats per minute and hold it for a full 2 hours.......Just seeing if your paying attention. I hold it for a full minute and then go back to a slow down pace of about 110 beats per minute.  The longer i work out the longer the high interval heart range is held, mean it takes longer to cool down.  I listen to fast paced music while I do cardio and heavy metal when I lift weights. It's all good. cheers

M

There are so many factors involved that it's hard to say.  Your age, your physical condition, your resting heart rate, your heart rate after the high speed interval etc.    Chances are if you are doing it and comfortable doing it, you're fine.   As with anything else, to get the maximum benefit, you can't keep doing the same thing over and over, as far as your workout goes.  Change the lengths of the intervals, vary the speeds, add an incline etc.  Your body responds to challenges (changing speeds etc.) by building muscle and heart endurance and you'll find your endurance/top speed etc. improved if you vary things up on a regular basis.

Wow, my legs don't go that fast! I have crazy short legs though. The idea of interval training is to combine cardio and fat loss (right?). For the sake of cardio your heartrate should be above 60% of max (max being 220 minus your age), for 'fat loss' your intervals should get your heart rate up to 80% of your max. This should give you a rough range for HR (mine is 150-180-ish), and you should stay above the first when walking, and peak near the second while running. That's how I do it, anyway. I do 3 minute intervals, because my heart rate can't drop back much in less than that. If you can control the HR, you're probably fine.

If I butchered any math here, my apologies, and someone will correct me.

Minda, good for you on the interval training!!!  The idea behind interval training is that your body will respond/improve much faster in response to challenges, in this case, changes in speed and duration and it has proven very effective.  It's the accepted training standard for professional athletes.   It's the rise and fall of the heart that produces results in endurance, calorie burn and weight loss, better than steady state running does.  What you are doing sounds pretty good, and I think if you keep it up you'll notice your peak heart rate for a given speed and duration beginning to fall, and your recovery times will improve dramatically in a short time.  I was like you when I started and was amazed at how quickly I improved and I am definitely not a runner, or at least didn't think I was.  I hated it, now I love it!!!!

this is my 3rd week of HIIT.. I do 30 sec at 8.0 then 90 sec at 3.0, for 20 minutes (total of 10 sprints)

I'm going to try 8.5 and 9 next week.. today it was feeling alot easier at 8.0. But I have to go down to 3.0 to get my heart to stop trying to leap out of my chest!

loving this post.  Every time I'm on the treadmill I think of doing HIIT but I wasn't sure what speeds to go LOL!  I was thinking 3.2 for walk; 8 for running.

Now for the duration-  is it 90 seconds slow, 30 secs super fast??

Also-  it seems like everyone always go just a normal pace-  I'm going to look like the jiggly lady running her **** off; but that's just what I will be doing....running my **** off!!!  LOL!

Original Post by vanessa1031:

loving this post.  Every time I'm on the treadmill I think of doing HIIT but I wasn't sure what speeds to go LOL!  I was thinking 3.2 for walk; 8 for running.

Now for the duration-  is it 90 seconds slow, 30 secs super fast??

Also-  it seems like everyone always go just a normal pace-  I'm going to look like the jiggly lady running her **** off; but that's just what I will be doing....running my **** off!!!  LOL!

 

 

 OMG if you haven't run before do NOT start at 8! I only went to 6 the first day, 7 the next day, and stayed there for the next few. THEN to 8 for only a couple of the sprints!

monday my sprint speeds went 6-7-8-7-8-7-8-8-8-8 and today I went 6-7-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8. I always start the first couple out lower to really warm up, even though I do walk for 10 minutes first.

oh yes, 90 sec slow, 30 sec as fast as you can go - once your muscles have been built up!

at first I went too hard too fast and was sore for a WEEK!

Original Post by iron-mike:

I am not able to run due to an injury, but I am able to do the precor elyptical. I usually monitor my heart rate. I work it up to 140 beats per minute and hold it for a full 2 hours.......Just seeing if your paying attention.

 my jaw dropped when I saw that!!  lol-  i was paying attention!

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

Original Post by vanessa1031:

loving this post.  Every time I'm on the treadmill I think of doing HIIT but I wasn't sure what speeds to go LOL!  I was thinking 3.2 for walk; 8 for running.

Now for the duration-  is it 90 seconds slow, 30 secs super fast??

Also-  it seems like everyone always go just a normal pace-  I'm going to look like the jiggly lady running her **** off; but that's just what I will be doing....running my **** off!!!  LOL!

 

 

 OMG if you haven't run before do NOT start at 8! I only went to 6 the first day, 7 the next day, and stayed there for the next few. THEN to 8 for only a couple of the sprints!

monday my sprint speeds went 6-7-8-7-8-7-8-8-8-8 and today I went 6-7-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8. I always start the first couple out lower to really warm up, even though I do walk for 10 minutes first.

 

oh yes, 90 sec slow, 30 sec as fast as you can go - once your muscles have been built up!

at first I went too hard too fast and was sore for a WEEK!

 i used to do hiit prior to getting preggo-  I'll def have to work up to it!  I put the treadmill on my old 9 and almost flew off!!!!  6.5 will be good for me to start back into it.  Now I'm excited!!!!

I was marginally excited to start, but now I find that those are the days I most look forward to!

i have to make sure i have the right cheesey techno beat to run by or I won't be able to go fast!!  I've been ellipticalling then stairmilling and this will be perfect to break up that same ol routine day in and day out.  also; will most likely help my abs; b/c that's the only cardio maching I can actually feel them working.

Vanessa, what level you start at depends on your current condition. Assuming the treadmill has a heart monitor, various levels for your run portion of the interval and check your heart rate at the end of each interval to make sure it doesn't exceed your target maximum rate.   Same thing with the recovery portion.  Try maybe a 30-90 but again, it depends on your current conditioning.  I do mostly a 90/90 but it took me a long time to work up to that.  Take a week or two to find out what speeds and durations work for you.   It's going to be different for everyone but if you use your heart rate as a guide, you can't go wrong.

OK,. just got back from the gym.  I was going to HIIT; but I was bored on the elliptical.

15 minutes on treadmill:  3.2-3.5 for 60-90 secs then 7-7.5 for 45 secs.  I couldn't go longer than that!  Then I hopped on the stairmill and did 40-45 stairs/minute for 60 secs then 75-80 steps per min.  This lasted for 15 minutes as well.  I was very very sweaty afterwards.

Def something I can build on.

I'm kinda nauseas....but I think this was a pretty good HIIT first try, as I did not pass out, throw up or cry.  :)

Everytime I do HIIT I change it up.  I JUST got back from the gym and this is what I did on the treadmill:

5 min at a 6.7 to warm up

10 min alternating every 30 seconds between a 7.0 and a 9.1

next 10 min alternating every 30 seconds between a 7.0 and a 8.0

25 min total running.

THEN...pumped some serious iron!!! :-)