I just learned about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and I really want to try it. I've recently returned to the gym & I LOVe the Elliptical Trainer, adn would like to maximize it's effect. How many times per week do you do HIIT? for how long? specifically, how many minutes high, low, moderate etc. do you do? I also want to build muscle to burn fat. So far I've been doing some upper body reps with 5 lb weights. Not much, but a start. Any thoughts...?

I do it the BFL way. On a level of 1-10, it's a minute of 5, a minute of 6, then 7,8, and 9. This is a total of 5 minutes. Do this for 4 - 5 minute sessions, each time starting back over on level 5. The only difference is that on the 4th set I want to hit "10" for intensity for the last minute. This means that last second is the last second I can take of it. If I do it like that, I've hit my 10! I do this for 20 minutes, then I cool down 5-10 minutes. BFL calls for 20 minutes a day, 3x a week, but most people I hear from do it more often.

Try doing a search in the Exercise forum. I know there is a thread on it somewhere, and I believe that is the place.

I do HIIT on my exercise bike and I love it! It's been so instrumental in my success thus far not only in losing fat but also in increasing my cardiovascular and endurance capabilities as well. Here's one link to some good information, and here's another. HIIT is just so effective.

I've started to do HIIT which I like a lot but I don't have any official method right now. Basically I do a few minutes of warm up, then increase my speed, then I decide to do a minute of a HII which ramps up at the very end, then I slow down to a normal pace, let my heart rate slow down a little, then when it gets to a certain point (or a certain amount of time, whatever comes first), then do it again.