HIIT - Advantages and Advice

marathonic

Okay, so I think it's about time I add some HIIT into my routine in order to reduce gym time and add variety.

My normal, slow-steady cardio is 10kph for 30 minutes on a random setting, i.e. it goes from incline 1.5 - 7.8 randomly.

Today was my first attempt at HIIT and I tried 10 minutes with 30 seconds at 15kph and 60 seconds at 8kph. This was done at a constant incline of 2. I'll probably increase each by 1kph next time because I don't like the 8kph speed (halfway between a walk and jog).

Is this a high enough intensity? I'm assumming not because the 10 minutes burned 185 calories whilst my 30 minutes slow-steady burns 550 calories - the calories per minute burned in each is about the same.

I'm not sure whether I'm doing this correctly or not. Is the main advantage of HIIT that it burns calories at a quicker pace (in which case I need to up the intensity) or is it that it increases the metabolism meaning that you burn additional calories after the session is over?

I have to admit that this session did get my heart rate up quite high and got me sweating.

Squiggle

marathonic wrote: »

Today was my first attempt at HIIT and I tried 10 minutes with 30 seconds at 15kph and 60 seconds at 8kph. This was done at a constant incline of 2. I'll probably increase each by 1kph next time because I don't like the 8kph speed (halfway between a walk and jog).

Is this a high enough intensity?

Your intensity level during the 30 seconds should be your balls out lving best speed for each interval ! Your balls out speed for the 6th interval will probably be less than for the 1st interval because you should be wrecked at that stage ! A treadmill is not ideal for HIIT imo as the take up is too slow. I use a bike.

marathonic

Squiggle wrote: »

Your intensity level during the 30 seconds should be your balls out lving best speed for each interval ! Your balls out speed for the 6th interval will probably be less than for the 1st interval because you should be wrecked at that stage ! A treadmill is not ideal for HIIT imo as the take up is too slow. I use a bike.

Yeah, I noticed that so I'd always press the button for the fast speed about 4 seconds early (which wasn't even enough). Today was my first try at it and was mainly just to get used to the machine settings for intervals.

I'll be modifying what I do based on the comments on this thread.

Mellor

marathonic wrote: »

Is this a high enough intensity?

Prob not, you should be able to hit closer to 20 for a 30sec sprint

I'm assumming not because the 10 minutes burned 185 calories whilst my 30 minutes slow-steady burns 550 calories - the calories per minute burned in each is about the same.

first of all, you are comparing 10 mins with 30mins, hardly even.
Secondly, how the hell does the machine know how much your burned?
The numbers are a guide, over-estimated on purpose, and they are based on the speed on the belt only, they ignore the increased burning of energy, while jogging while your heart is still racing.
Also, the major benefit of HIIT is that you burn elevated energy for hours afterwards.

I'm not sure whether I'm doing this correctly or not. Is the main advantage of HIIT that it burns calories at a quicker pace (in which case I need to up the intensity) or is it that it increases the metabolism meaning that you burn additional calories after the session is over?

this one. Ignore the figures on the machine, they mean nothing. A very fit guy, and a guy 50kg over weight burn vastly different calories doing the same run.



As I said in the other tread the other day,

HIIT;
30 seconds should be balls to the wall, you should literally not be able to continue past 30seconds and crumble to a crawl just so you regain energy in time for the next one.

marathonic

Thanks for your replies. Up until now, my program has consisted of 30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 on the bike with a 5-minute cooldown on each.

I've decided to replace the bike with HIIT. Based on the first response, I tried HIIT on the bike today and did find it better. I may also consider the rowing machine instead (thoughts?? I've never used the rowing machine before).

For the bike, I set it to level 12 and done 85rpm for a minute followed by 120-130rpm for half a minute for a total of 10 minutes. This really did kill me and I'd considered giving up part of the way through. Therefore, it seems to be a better choice for me than the treadmill for HIIT.

I understand what you're saying about the calorie counter's on the machines but I'm only using them as a guideline (I've nothing else to use until I get a HRM).

According to the machine, I'd burn 380 calories in the 30 minutes slow-steady whilst I burned 150 calories in the 10 minutes HIIT - about 18% more.

I'm quite happy with the bike but would be interested in peoples opinions on switching to the rowing machine. Whatever I choose, I'll be sticking with until at least the New Year. Perhaps the rowing machine would be a better choice to make more use of the upper body considering I will be doing my slow-steady on the treadmill.

I like the idea of 22 minutes less gym time in the mornings before work :-)

menoscemo

It is almost impossible to do run intervals (or HIIT as you fitness folk call them) effectively on a treadmill becuase the intervals should be 'balls to the wall'. In theory you should be so wrecked that you can hardly turn down the speed at the end. I know i can never go full out on a treadmill for fear of falling off.
Much better to do running intervals outside, preferably up a big hill.

A Bike or a rower sound like much better alternatives in the gym. There is also no reason for only doing only 30 second spurts, as fitness increases build up the duration of the intense part to 1 or 2 minutes+ and increase the reps/shorten the recovery.

bubbleking

Theres a pretty cool study going on in DCU at the moment comparing 6 weeks of HITT traing to 6 weeks of steady state cardio.

HITT includes;
100m sprints in 18 seconds - 18 seconds recovery
4 reps
4 sets

overall takes about 16 minutes after warm up etc

Steady state;

running on treadmill for 40 minutes at 60 - 70% max HR

will be interesting when the results are published

settopbox

my money is on HIIT showing much larger improvement.

Use hiit maybe 4 times a year,(for 6 weeks at a time 3 times a week) to get and keep in shape.

light headed and sick if you do them right,

but fitness levels are superb and the weight just falls off.

hug0

Ive started doing this on the treadmill for 20 mins after my warmup, i go from 5/6 up to 9 on the treadmill. Do you think it would be more effective on the bike, just would have thought the bike would burn less than running?

Also how many times a week to get results, Im female and want to lose 7 pounds but finding it very hard to budge! How long until I would see results doing this? I would say I have a healthy diet also. I do weights and kettlebells also.

marathonic

Okay, just looking for a little more HIIT advice/clarity and though I'd keep it in the same thread.

From what I’ve read, doing HIIT will increase my metabolism for the rest of the day. I’m not sure what difference that makes in calories. I like to know the difference to keep me motivated so, as you might see in my fitness log, I’m using what I think may be a conservative estimate of 70 calories extra burned throughout the day after a 10 minute HIIT session (30 second sprints, 1 minute slow).

Does anyone know if there are any studies to give more clarity on what difference HIIT makes to the amount of calories burned after the session is over and do you think that my estimate above is too high or low?

I know that it shouldn’t really matter but I think it’ll improve my motivation and give more reason to stick with the HIIT if I have a better idea of the benefits. Aside from the calories, I believe that the HIIT on the bike should make it easier to progress to higher speeds on the treadmill as the weeks roll by. Would you agree?

Coileach dearg

marathonic wrote: »

Okay, just looking for a little more HIIT advice/clarity and though I'd keep it in the same thread.

From what I’ve read, doing HIIT will increase my metabolism for the rest of the day. I’m not sure what difference that makes in calories. I like to know the difference to keep me motivated so, as you might see in my fitness log, I’m using what I think may be a conservative estimate of 70 calories extra burned throughout the day after a 10 minute HIIT session (30 second sprints, 1 minute slow).

Does anyone know if there are any studies to give more clarity on what difference HIIT makes to the amount of calories burned after the session is over and do you think that my estimate above is too high or low?

I know that it shouldn’t really matter but I think it’ll improve my motivation and give more reason to stick with the HIIT if I have a better idea of the benefits. Aside from the calories, I believe that the HIIT on the bike should make it easier to progress to higher speeds on the treadmill as the weeks roll by. Would you agree?

The only study you need is looking in the mirror after 2/3 weeks doing 3 HIIT sessions per week. I'm not talking about treadmill HIIT which is useless if you ask me, I'm talking about running outdoors/rowing/cycling.

HIIT is underestimated if you ask me. When you feel like throwing up at the end of a HIIT session, you are doing it correctly.

Keep doing it and you will see results. Combine it with a decent weights programme and eating plan.

legend365

Coileach dearg wrote: »

I'm not talking about treadmill HIIT which is useless if you ask me.

I'd disagree. Find 20kpm pretty intense for 30-40 seconds.

LFC5Times

Anyone got any ideas for a decent HIIT program?

I have a green up the road from me that I could do some HIIT on.

Like should I sprint 100m jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Or should I sprint for 30 secs or 45 secs and jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Thanks

menoscemo

LFC5Times wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas for a decent HIIT program?

I have a green up the road from me that I could do some HIIT on.

Like should I sprint 100m jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Or should I sprint for 30 secs or 45 secs and jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Thanks

Does it matter? FFS it's not rocket science. Run to the point of near collapse, take a break and repeat, doesn't matter if it's 100m, 800m 30 seconds or 45 seconds.
IMO a nice big hill is the easiest way to do this.

LFC5Times

menoscemo wrote: »

Does it matter? FFS it's not rocket science. Run to the point of near collapse, take a break and repeat, doesn't matter if it's 100m, 800m 30 seconds or 45 seconds.
IMO a nice big hill is the easiest way to do this.

Thanks for your nice reply, easy to speak to someone like that over the internet not so easy in person! :mad:

olaola

LFC5Times wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas for a decent HIIT program?

I have a green up the road from me that I could do some HIIT on.

Like should I sprint 100m jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Or should I sprint for 30 secs or 45 secs and jog back and repeat a certain amount of times?

Thanks

Whatever is the handiest for you. AFAIK you need to do it more based on time, so lets say you run like a madman for 30 secs, recover for 60 (or when you start doing it, 90 secs) recovery isn't stationary! So you have to keep moving while you recover, even though you shouldn't be able to do much!
This is a good site: http://www.intervaltraining.net/HiitTraining-30.html
You'll notice after two weeks or so, that you can shorten the ratio from 1:3 to 1:2. Keep pushing yourself, like including hills - shortening recovery etc.

I do it on the crosstrainer in the gym, and it does seem that I put more effort into the workout in comparison to a steady resistance. That's if the sweat on my t-shirt is anything to go by!

legend365

You know you've done well when you gotta shower in your t-shirt

farmchoice

I read this forum regularly but rarely post but on this occasion I thought I would give my two cents worth as I started doing HIIT about two months ago.

I started off on the rowing machine with I found good and also mixed it in with some sessions on the bike. I stayed away form the treadmill initially as I thought I would not be able to get up a full out sprint on it.
After a couple of weeks I gave it a go and found it great. It was just a question of watching the time and adjusting so that I was up to full sprint when I started counting.

Mixing up the 3 different machines seems like a good idea as it makes things a bit more interesting. I read an article somewhere about the following routine and I gave it a go. Do 5-6 30 second interval sprints on the machine of your choice. Then do 20-25 min steady state cardio session. Then finish off with 4 one minute interval sprints again on the machine of your choice.

Over the course of the last two months I have found HIIT to be excellent. I have lost plenty of weight and my overall fitness has improved dramatically.
I mix up the machines and the routines, one day 30 second intervals the next one minute the next day a bit of both. The routine with the steady state in-between I do every now and again, maybe one every two weeks.

I think 3 times a week is the max that you can do HIIT, anymore and you would chuck it in as it’s too intense. Also you sprinting intervals have got to be all out, balls and all effort and I would suggest a minimum of 6 intervals and a max of 10-12 intervals per session.