What to aim for in a HIIT session

Carnival Of Sorts

Hello Folks ...

I've been looking for something to shake up my gym workouts, with a view to burning more fat than before now that my fitness level has increased somewhat.

I've been reading about HIIT and have been trying it with not quite the results i was expecting ....

I've been following the idea, that on a cross trainer, i should warm up, then go flat out as much as possible, for 30 seconds, followed by 90 seconds at a more relaxed pace, and repeat this 8 times.

Should I be aiming to burn as many calories as possible ? or getting my heart rate as high as possible ( at which point, i should ask, when doing HIIT - is it ok that my heart rate goes into the red according to the monitor on the machine )

For example, the cross trainer at my gym allows for levels 1 through 30.
I tried out level 10 for my HIIT session, broke quite a sweat and my heart rate was up near the higher end of things - but i wasnt quite at the point where my legs were burning, or i was about to vomit or anything - the kind of results i've been reading about or lead to expect.

Am i simply not using a high enough level of resistance ? Or what are the tricks for finding the right level to train at when using HIIT.

Any hints, tips or advice would be very much appreciated.

daithi1970

Hi, Here's one of my treadmill HIIT routines..
1. Warm up run for 2 mins at 12 kph
2. 1Min at 9.5
3. 1 min at 15 kph
4.Repeat steps 2 and 3 eight times
5 Cool down walk at 6kph for 2 mins

Most gym cardio equipment will have the facility automatically select an interval programme, or may give you the option of entering speeds and times manually

hope this helps,

daithi

amazingemmet

So your main aim from an interval sessions is to end up a sweaty pile on the floor questioning your sanity at the end. To achieve this you must.

1: Go at hardest sustained pace you can hold for the choosen duration, ie if you're doing a 20 sec interval its not go all out for 5 seconds then slow down and die for the other 15seconds

2: So you have 3 variables to mess with in the interval training one the duration of the interval how long you go for. Different intervals have different effects in my experience. for fat loss I generally use longer intervals with my clients 45-60 seconds where as for general work capacity work I use shorter ones.

3: Then you can change the rest period, you can rest longer for more recovery or shorter for incomplete recovery. You can also use your heart rate as the measure of recovery, ie when it returns to a set level then start the next round.

4: Then you can change the amount of repeats which will increase the total amount of time you spend on training.

Here's an example interval program from one of my fat loss clients: I increased the repeats by 2 rounds every week after week two:

conditioning:

Warm up for five minutes

Round: Perform 1 minute as fast as you can (a level 9 or 10

intensity on a scale of 1-10).

Recover at a moderate pace for two minutes (a level

6-7 intensity).

That’s one round and it lasts three minutes

Cool down for five minutes.

Weeks 1-2

Perform three rounds, three times per week.

The total cardio time will be 19 minutes per
workout including warm up and cool down

Carnival Of Sorts

Emmet,

Thanks very much for the reply and the info ...

Just to clarify, when you describe the level of intensity as 9/10 on a scale of 1-10, is this in reference to the level of resistance on the cross trainer ?? So in keeping with that, given that the one i use allows for levels 1-30 , should i be cranking it up to level 25 or so ??

Also, in terms of fat burning cardio, i was working out my target heart rate in terms of it being 60-70% of my max, to be be in the ideal fat burning zone ?

It would seem HIIT session fly in the face of this, given that your heart rate would peak, quite a bit outside this range - is this perfectly ok ? Or should I also be concentrating on keeping my heart rate in this range Because doing so would seem to go against what i'm expecting from HIIT.

Thanks again for your help.

amazingemmet

Sorry the level is a on a rate of perceived effort where 10 is an all out effort and 1 is complete rest. The goals of HIIT is to reach as close to your max heart rate as possible, max heart rate ~220 - age, and maintain it there.

roseybear

amazingemmet wrote: »

Sorry the level is a on a rate of perceived effort where 10 is an all out effort and 1 is complete rest. The goals of HIIT is to reach as close to your max heart rate as possible, max heart rate ~220 - age, and maintain it there.

I.e. OP resistance not really important, just go hard and fast for the chosen amount of time and try to gt ur heart rate as high as possible, keep it there for the interval, recover and repeat