HIIT, ellipticals, & treadmils...
 

A few questions...

When doing HIIT on the elliptical machine, is there a setting you use or just manual?
Calorie burner calculators say that the elliptical burns about twice as many calories as a treadmil (because it's getting your arms involved, thus raising your heart rate faster), does this still apply when doing HIIT?
I don't have a heart rate monitor, is there another way to figure how many calories you burned doing HIIT vs. constant cardio?
Which do you find is more effective for HIIT - elliptical or treadmil?
Do you really, honestly, notice a difference? Have you lost weight faster by doing HIIT vs. constant cardio?

OK... so that was more than "a few" questions... :dizzy: Sorry!

I can't really say, as I've never been great at doing HITT the right way... I can say that I like the elliptical better overall than the treadmill.
I'm actually going to try to get my HITT accomplished by pounding on my weight bag - I think it will be easier for me to get the down periods that way without a machine telling me "speed up" on the display! :)

Generally, you need to do HIIT yourself, I wouldn't rely on a treadmill/elliptical setting unless you have one that uses a chest strap heart rate monitor. I'd also recommend getting a heart rate monitor watch. It really is the only way to compare calories burned. In general, an elliptical will allow you to work harder while feeling that you are working less but you could do HIIT on either.

The purpose of HIIT is also the ability to burn the same amount (and possibly more) calories in less time than if you were doing steady state cardio.

I have noticed with my own heart rate monitor that I do burn more calories while doing intervals versus not doing intervals even when I'm doing a longer workout without intervals.

Ok, a few clarifications - and I'm going to take your questions out of order, since I think I can make it clearer that way. :)

The *machine* itself does not inherently burn more calories. How you USE the machine is what impacts the number of calories you use. Also that information pre-supposes that your elliptical machine has arm motion. My gym has 2 kinds of elliptical machines - ones with arm motions and one without. :) So that right there skews the data. And if you use a treadmill to run and you pump your arms while running, you can raise your heart rate just as fast as if you're using an elliptical with the arm motions. Or, conversely, if you just dawdle along on the elliptical, it doesn't matter if you're using your arms or not, you're not raising your heart rate enough.

So - given that - you simply can't say one machine is "better" than the other in raising your heart rate, because it's all about how you use the machine.

Specifically with regard to HIIT, you can do HIIT on any machine - elliptical, treadmill, bike, even using a jump rope, or just running in place.

I'll answer these two questions together, because for me, they're related.

I *personally* find that HIIT is easier (not to do, but to achieve the intensity I need) on the elliptical. I find that waiting for the treadmill to increase it's speed actually slows me down. I can't run faster or sprint until the treadmill catches up with me, which means I don't get to my max as quickly. On the elliptical I don't have to wait for the machine's resistance or speed to catch up - I can just pedal faster at my existing resistance if I need to.

So yeah, I find the elliptical more effective than the treadmill because of that.

Which sort of leads to, yes I use the machine on Manual. Because if I use it on some kind of program, it's not taking into account *my* heart rate, *my* fitness level, etc. I use a Polar HRM and manage my intervals based on my actual heart rate.

It's actually harder to calculate the calories you burn doign HIIT because the increased "burn" rate continues for up to 3 hours after you finish the HIIT. That's the big benefit to HIIT. With ss-cardio, the burn rate doesn't last that long after your workout, so it's easier to say you burned X calories while working out.

Yes. I notice a HUGE difference. Not only in breaking a stall (which I've done twice now by ramping up my HIIT), but in the way I feel during and after my workouts. I can tell that since I started adding HIIT to my workouts, I've become fitter than when I was just plodding along with ss-cardio.

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I am just getting back into working out and I've never done any HIIT, I used the elliptical and the treadmill but I just bought a stationary bike and I am going to work back up to where I don't get exhausted but could you please explain HIIT to me? I think it's something along the lines of hard/fast for like 2minutes and slow for 1 or something like that, not real sure.

Thanks.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153391

We're just talking about how it works in this thread. There's also a sticky at the top of the Exercise area that describes HIIT.

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peachcake,

I like Body for Life's explanation of it.
http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/cardiotraining.asp

Oh, thanks.