Benefits of interval training?

silverharp

just a general question about using interval/hiit training as part of an overall fitness strategy, general principles?, things to avoid? how much to get a meaningful impact? going to give it a go as i have steady state cardio coming out the wazoo. I commute cycle over 100km per week on average but its fairly flat and at this stage it just feels like ticking over.

The plan was to at least twice a week either do a cardio machine(s) work out at the gym including intervals or out for a jog and give or take, over a ~50min period do up to 9 1min bursts at 5min intervals aiming for 90-100% max heart rate. There seem to be min on min off versions of this and be done in 20min but I would prefer the longer recovery in between.

if i had a specific question it would be over time should i leave the machines in an easier mode in between?, ie does overall quantity matter much or is it the quality of the max effort time?

anyone that has done any version of this, did you see improvements you could put your finger on?

Alf Veedersane

silverharp wrote: »

just a general question about using interval/hiit training as part of an overall fitness strategy, general principles?, things to avoid? how much to get a meaningful impact? going to give it a go as i have steady state cardio coming out the wazoo. I commute cycle over 100km per week on average but its fairly flat and at this stage it just feels like ticking over.

The plan was to at least twice a week either do a cardio machine(s) work out at the gym including intervals or out for a jog and give or take, over a ~50min period do up to 9 1min bursts at 5min intervals aiming for 90-100% max heart rate. There seem to be min on min off versions of this and be done in 20min but I would prefer the longer recovery in between.

if i had a specific question it would be over time should i leave the machines in an easier mode in between?, ie does overall quantity matter much or is it the quality of the max effort time?

anyone that has done any version of this, did you see improvements you could put your finger on?

5 minute rests after a 1-minute work period would be too long to be honest. I wouldn't be inclined to have more than 3 mins recovery after going all out for a minute, wirh a view to being able to reduce rest periods because you're recovering quicker. But I guess if it takes 5 minutes to recover, so be it. You'll know at the start whether you've allowed too long or too short for rest.

What you do on your rest depends. If I was running, my rests would be a light jog; rowing machine, stop rowing; bike, legs just turning over.

I did a couple of races a couple of years ago and pretty much did all my training on the rowing machine. I had gotten sick of the route I'd run from home and I had few alternatives so i did a lot of interval training as I had a decent baseline for aerobic fitness. Came in with a couple of PBs for 8k and 5k.

silverharp

i probably dont need the 5min in between, is there a heartbeat range to work to go from for example 100% down to 80% and that's the trigger for the next one? i did one the other day and the rower was the one that was tiring at the end so 10 minutes on that with 1 or 2 rounds would be ok for now

Alf Veedersane

silverharp wrote: »

i probably dont need the 5min in between, is there a heartbeat range to work to go from for example 100% down to 80% and that's the trigger for the next one? i did one the other day and the rower was the one that was tiring at the end so 10 minutes on that with 1 or 2 rounds would be ok for now

There probably is but I don't have a HRM so it was just trial and error on the time I should be doing 150m /250m /500m etc in and the rest periods I needed to get the full stretch of intervals out of it. Took more trial and error on rowing machine than running as I had a better idea of running paces.

The first time you could give it the full 5 minutes rest if you wanted so you'd be going at a very high intensity for the 1 minute. You want the pace to be high and consistent through the full minute rather than trailing off for the last 15-20s. You'll have a better idea of what kind of rest you need between intervals from that first day.

dave699

The gym I'm in do HIIT classes. Its usually 30 seconds on 30-40 seconds off. Think id struggle to do a full minute at full intensity. I'm only starting out so maybe I'm just not fit enough.

Alf Veedersane

dave699 wrote: »

The gym I'm in do HIIT classes. Its usually 30 seconds on 30-40 seconds off. Think id struggle to do a full minute at full intensity. I'm only starting out so maybe I'm just not fit enough.

You wouldn't be going at the same intensity for a minute as you would be for 30s. You'd probably be as goosed but you wouldn't be hitting the same intensity necessarily.

silverharp

ive done a few now, its a different kind of a "100%" to doing 30 second style but just aiming to get my heart onto the 90%+ max during each min. 15min elliptical, 15 min treadmill and 5 min on a rower. For efficiency I do one of them during the week when cycling home so no warming up needed. If it ups my fitness I might aim for 2min off and aim to be in and out in 30 minutes which would make it possible to do going into work.

Alf Veedersane

silverharp wrote: »

ive done a few now, its a different kind of a "100%" to doing 30 second style but just aiming to get my heart onto the 90%+ max during each min. 15min elliptical, 15 min treadmill and 5 min on a rower. For efficiency I do one of them during the week when cycling home so no warming up needed. If it ups my fitness I might aim for 2min off and aim to be in and out in 30 minutes which would make it possible to do going into work.

The pace will always be lower when your intervals are longer but that's not to say it isn't max effort.

The longer you go, the more you should be able to drop the rest periods.

Ryder

silverharp wrote: »

just a general question about using interval/hiit training as part of an overall fitness strategy, general principles?, things to avoid? how much to get a meaningful impact? going to give it a go as i have steady state cardio coming out the wazoo. I commute cycle over 100km per week on average but its fairly flat and at this stage it just feels like ticking over.

The plan was to at least twice a week either do a cardio machine(s) work out at the gym including intervals or out for a jog and give or take, over a ~50min period do up to 9 1min bursts at 5min intervals aiming for 90-100% max heart rate. There seem to be min on min off versions of this and be done in 20min but I would prefer the longer recovery in between.

if i had a specific question it would be over time should i leave the machines in an easier mode in between?, ie does overall quantity matter much or is it the quality of the max effort time?

anyone that has done any version of this, did you see improvements you could put your finger on?

when I was training for a long distance cycling event a couple of years ago I used an interval based plan called The Time Crunched Cyclist, which substitutes intervals for volume and I did reasonable well on a low mileage and low time plan.

I found it very effective but it would be difficult to maintain indefinitely at a high intensity.....better if a goal in mind.

I now train twice a week with kettlebells with short intervals but not as intense and find it very effective for increasing work capacity