HIIT

buswankers

Hi

I've been doing HIIT training twice a week in an effort to improve my fitness, I find it very difficult to know if my sprint sections on the treadmill are fast enough to achieve my goal.

I sprint for 30 second intervals at 18km with 30 second rest in between for at least 3 sprints then as I start to get tired I decrease the sprinting speed but would never go down under 17km. I can usually manage about 12/13 sprints in total but after the first 5 I would extend the rest period to a minute for a couple before going back to a 30 second rest period again.

Any thoughts on the above or any advice on how I can improve on it is welcome!

Thanks

Hanley

It's nigh on impossible to do HIIT properly on a treadmill. So you're probably right.

buswankers

Cheers!

Acheron3

Not an expert but all I've read about HIIT says that for short bursts of activity shorter rests are required. In your example it is 30s activity then 30s break whereas I've read 30s sprint then 10s rest is more optimal. I don't think the speed you are running is as much a factor as the effort you put in.

Mellor

Acheron3 wrote: »

Not an expert but all I've read about HIIT says that for short bursts of activity shorter rests are required. In your example it is 30s activity then 30s break whereas I've read 30s sprint then 10s rest is more optimal. I don't think the speed you are running is as much a factor as the effort you put in.

Short rest is more optimal for what?
What does supposedly achieve?

buswankers

Acheron3 wrote: »

Not an expert but all I've read about HIIT says that for short bursts of activity shorter rests are required. In your example it is 30s activity then 30s break whereas I've read 30s sprint then 10s rest is more optimal. I don't think the speed you are running is as much a factor as the effort you put in.

Thanks - appreciate the feedback will try that out & see how I go

Dermighty

Less rest between sets/intervals makes them harder, increasing the effort it takes to complete them.

Mellor

Dermighty wrote: »

Less rest between sets/intervals makes them harder, increasing the effort it takes to complete them.

Think about what your suggesting fir a minute.
The idea is to go flat out. How would less rest make this harder? Max effort is max effort. Less rest would simply mean max effort achieves a lower performance.

Clearlier

Think about what HIIT is trying to achieve? Think about what you are trying to achieve - better fitness is great but fitness for what?

If you're looking for a high VO2 max then longer intervals will deliver better results. If you're looking to run a marathon or develop your out and out speed or quickness then you're doing the wrong kind of training.