What's your HIIT?
 

If you do it, what's your HIIT routine & how many times a week do you do it? Just curious, not trying to compete, as I know it's different depending on your fitness level.

For now, I'm trying 1 min sprint runs of a speed of 5 every 5 minutes on my treadmill. After the 1 minute I do a brisk recovery for 4 mins on 3.5, and then repeat.

What's yours? And how often do you change it up if you've been doing it for awhile? I used to do just walking and my treadmill would handle cranking up the incline and speeds for me on a predetermined sequence, but I decided I wanted to challenge myself with run sequences.

I do 3 minutes on the elliptical at about 5.0 then punch it up to above 7.5 for 30 seconds, then repeat. I applaud you for being able to go full blast for 1 minute..that's really hard!

Well, thanks Only, but you are already running the whole time aren't you? That's my goal at some point - to run for 20 mins straight. I figure it will take about 10 months to get there, but that's cool. The c25k program was too rapid for me. Hope that I can see good weekly gains and increase by :30 every week, but not sure if that will be possible doing it 3x week instead of 6x week. I should probably do the HIIT 3x and steady state, or just the walking hiit which isn't as chest clutching hard, the other 3x/wk.

Hmm, I have a couple that I use on the elliptical. Most of the time I use the C25K podcasts. Week 2 has a 5 min warm-up then 6 cycles of fast for 90 sec, walk (or slower; he calls it a brisk walk), followed by a 5 min cooldown. I love that he tracks the time, but I'm not crazy about the technorock music. :) Otherwise, I have a playlist of country music, all quite upbeat, and all with a chorus. I use the chorus for my faster cycles. It's not as scientific, but on the days I get into the music, it's intense! If I believed the HR on the machine, my heart should have exploded out of my chest long ago! :rofl:

I rotate HIIT with slightly lower intensity Anaerobic Intervals

For HIIT, I'll do:
Tabatas on the bike. 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds easy. I really can't handle this for more than the traditional 8 rounds - 4 mintues.

I'll do some 30 seconds all out, with 1 min easy recover. This I do for about 15-20 minutes.

Occassionally, I'll do 30 seconds all out, with 1.5 min easy recovery for about 1/2 hour. I do all my real HIIT on the bike or sprinting on a track because that is the only time I can really go all out. I just don't have the coordination/guts to jump on and off a treadmill that is going at an all-out rate and if I were to manually adjust the speed while moving, then by the time I adjusted the speeds, the work interval is half over.

For Anaerobic intervals, I let heart rate decide the speed.

I go 1 minute run at which I must be at least 160 bpm by the end. (age predicted max heart rate 175). If I do not get to that HR by the end, I raise the speed for the next work interval. I do 2 minutes recovery at a walk. I want to recover to between 125-130bpm by the end of the rest. If I don't fully recover to that range, I drop the speed for the next recovery interval. If I recover below 125, then I adjust the speed up for the next recovery interval.

I do similar with 1 min to 1minute work to rest and 2 min to 1 min work to rest. With the 1:1, I use heart rates of 155 and 130. For the 2:1, I use 150 and 130. I do these for a minimum of 30 minutes, not including a 5min warmup and 5 min cooldown, but have gone up to a maximum of 1 hour.

Steady state, I usually do on the elliptical to give my joints a break from the treadmill. For steady state, I try to keep HR between 130 and 135 for 1 hour. I'll usually rotate, 1 day of intervals with 1 day of steady state.

Heart rates are established by my heart rate monitor and not the machine

I always do the running on the treadmill. I alternate 1 min walking at 3.5mph and 1 min sprinting. I increase the speed pretty regularly. I'm up to 9.8mph with my sprints at the moment and my HR gets all the way up there by the end of the minute (to about 93% of my statistical max.)

I've been thinking I should try the tabata-style intervals, with just 20 seconds of all out sprinting, but I'm ambivalent about it. I'm not sure how fast I can actually run, even for 20 seconds. I should probably try it one day.

I was thinking about this the other day...

When I get on a treadmill and try to go anything above 4.2ish I absolutely die! When I get on the elliptical I swear I can sometimes get up to 8 or 9 even and keep it there for my 30 seconds, and then decrease down to a steady 5.0-5.5 or so. I swear, on the elliptical it does not feel like running, maybe it's because I can use my arms as well. Does anyone have any thoughts on this???

I tried HIIT yesterday for the first time. :D
I went with 4 min at about 5.0 - 5.5 km/h (3.1 - 3.4 mph) and 1 min at about 9.0 - 9.5 km/h (5.6 - 5.9 mph). The 4 min were too long, though, I could have made those intervals shorter.
While fast walking I my heart rate (I have a monitor) went down to about 130 bpm, running made it go up to 170 bpm (max according to age (220 - age) is 197, according to the second calculator here 192 bpm).

I did this on the treadmill, but I think I'll try something else today, because having to manually change the speed is annoying.

I'm thinking about just using the HR instead of looking at the time - maybe slow down until HR is at 130, then go up again until it reaches 170, then down again, etc.
This is still very new to me so I'm experimenting. :D

I do cardio every day and HIIT about five of those. Due to my knees, walking and running are out and I can't elevate my HR enough on a bike, so it's always the elliptical.

I go by HR and tend to average around 90% of my (theoretical) max for the half hour, with four or five peak intervals around 98 - 100% of (theoretical) max (I know HR formulas are just a guess, but I use them as a way to gauge where I'm at). I tend to keep my speed constant around 170 strides per minute and change the resistance in order to elevate my HR. My intervals are usually two minutes at high intensity (one minute forward and one back) and four minutes at 85 - 90% (two minutes forward and two back). I also change the incline of the crossramp every two minutes.

By the way, HIIT is impossible without music!!

I've been doing my HIIT for about 27 minutes and with the rest ss cardio up to an hour on the TM.
However I think it is too much as I had to take a day off because I had pain in my tendons or ligaments behind my knees, or maybe it's part of my calf muscle--I am not sure. At any rate it is not the knee joint itself.
I tried icing but that did nothing.
My husband gave me Reiki on that area which did help.
I read in Craig Ballantyne's TT manuel that he says not to do more than 6 high intensity intervals so I really think I need to cut back.
I was doing more time because I know at 6.4 miles an hour I am not up to my highest intensity.
Since I really love cardio I never wanted to get to the place where I hated it so I am increasing at .1 a session.
Started at 5 miles so I feel pretty good that I am up to 6.4 ( in a month) with a 3.5 recovery. 1 minute/2 minutes.
However I am so hung up on cardio numbers and even though I am doing 3 sessions of pretty intense ( for me) WL a week, I feel I should be doing an hour a day of cardio on my 3 cardio days.
But since I am not going for any more weight loss, I am going to try cutting back on the cardio even though I love it:(.

If it's something that you love, why cut back?

This is pretty annoying. 2 of the treadmills in my gym enable you to key the in speed and hit 'enter' rather than pushing the arrow key repeatedly, so I use those treadmills when doing HIIT. The college gym, which I do NOT go to, has these fancy treadmills with programmable 'walk', 'jog' and 'run' buttons. So you get on the treadmill, enter your speeds for walk and run, and then all you need to do is tap the right button when you are ready to change intervals. So cool. I wish my gym would get treadmills like that. :(

Btw, does anyone else see people doing intervals in their gym? I am literally the only person I have ever seen doing HIIT in mine.

.

Treadmill: 2minutes at 3-4mph, varying incline from 0-5 alternating with 6.0-7.30mph varying the incline, going for 10-20 minutes

Arc: Hill Interval, level 5-7, varying stride per minute at 110-180, 2 minutes low, 1 minute high, 10-20 minutes

Row: varying strokes per minute from 29-42 2minutes slow, 1-2 minutes fast, for 10 minutes

AMT: 1 minute strides, 1 minute steps

I don't see a lot of folks doing HIIT either.

But I want to bow to Meg for doing intervals backwards - yikes! Of course, I've just recently tried doing any length of time backwards, or without any holding on....

My max theoretical heartrate is only 157, and I regulary hit 150 - hence the exploding heart statement above. :)

Depalma I don't want to cut it back, but I just posted in a new thread that the back of my knees ache--that's what made me think I should cut back --now I'm wondering if I should stop for a few days.
I HATE stopping but I'm afraid of making it worse.:(
This all started with HIIT sprinting and I know I am not going that fast even.
I never had any problems power walking.
But when I started the sprinting my calves hurt; I stopped for a few days and they got better.
Now 12 days later I've got this achy feeling behind my knees --it's not the knee joint but the muscle, tendon or ligament? Not sure which.
I took a day off HIIT and then did UBWL though I warm up on the TM.
Today is my regular day off, but the knee ache is back.
I'm supposed to do HIIT tomorrow and then LBWL with squats, lunges and deadlifts but I'm afraid to make it worse.
Should I just stop till the ache is gone?

Pat, I've got that incredible, exploding heart thing going on too. :lol: My max is supposedly 167 (so I guess I'm exactly ten years younger than you!) and I typically get to 163 - 165. I've gone over my max doing squats. :strong:

As for doing intervals backwards, don't give me too much credit. I only switch and go backwards so my legs don't fall off. If I had to keep going forward all the time, I'd simply collapse. Shifting and going backwards gets a whole new set of muscles involved and I get a bit of a breather. Typically I do as many minutes backwards as forwards.

My gym is famous for cardio done either talking on the cell phone or reading a magazine. I'll see people get on the elliptical next to me, set the resistance on "1", and s-l-o-w-l-y move their feet around. Flick through a magazine, chit chat with the person next to them, and check out the TV. And never break a sweat. I read an article recently (can't remember where) that says it doesn't count as a workout unless you're sweating in the first five minutes -- I like that. :D

I understand. If you really like cardio and want to rest that area, try a rowing machine. If you don't have access to one or find it unpleasurable, then give your knees a bit of time to feel better and when you are able to go again, try a few different things like the elliptical, bike, stairclimber, or whatever else you have available. See if the problem reoccurs with other modes of exercise after it heals.

Hi Depalma,
Unfortunately I work out at home and only have access to a treadmill.
I work out around 5 am and don't belong to a gym.
It's clear to me now that I have to not do fast walking or running or even LBWL till my knee is better.
I always do yoga after my workouts too so it can't be that I don't stretch enough.
I want to do my UBWL workouts though and I usually warm up for 5/6 min on the treadmill.
Any ideas for warming up before the UB workouts that don't involve walking on the tm or using my knees?

I do a dynamic warmup. Dynamic mobility drills to warm up and activate certain muscles.

Currently, I'll do:
1. Shoulder dislocates with a broomstick ( I do 10, then shorten up the grip and do 10 more)

2. Scapular wall-slides (sometimes called stickups) 10

3. Leg swings (10 each side)

4. Ankle mobility (knee to wall) 10 each side

5. Swiss ball upper body russian twists (for thoracic spine mobility. Make sure to keep lumbar spine and hips straight) 10

6. Hip bridges (10)

7. Bird dogs (10 each side)

8. Lateral lunges (10 each side) leave out if your knees are hurting right now.

9. Band walks (10 lateral steps in each direction x2)

Do all unweighted in one big circuit. Should take 5-10 minutes tops. Depending on how fast you transition between exercises.

Thanks Depalma --you are the Best!!!
I confess I'm going to have to look up most of the exercises you mention because I am not familiar with some of them but they will make a good ( not exercising) project tomorrow and I'll do UBWL Tuesday.:)

baff - I know there's no right or wrong way to do this, and I'm still new to the HIIT but I wonder if I should slow down on the "recovery" speed. I was doing 7.0 mph as my sprint, for one minute, and then 5.0 as my recovery speed for a minute and a half. Maybe I could increase the sprint speed if I decreased the recovery speed, but I'm really afraid of losing my footing on the treadmill. I can't wait for it to be warmer so I can try this outside. I see people beside me running at 8.0 or higher and it looks like a jog to me but when I try 7.0, it's like I can barely get my legs to keep up!

I'm sure it gets better with time because I remember when I thought 5.5 was fast and now it's just a leisurely pace for me. :)

Elisa, I just had visual of you doing a face plant on the TM - oops! :) I know what you mean though. I constantly have to remind myself that I have very short legs and those people going at 8 or 9 are way taller than me with much longer legs. Plus I wear petite/short pants, with about a 28" inseam. I see you're only 5'4" too, so that may be part of it.

I always make sure that my shoes are tightly tied! My sprints aren't superfast either, but they kick my butt, which is the point. :)

To answer your question, there was a Craig Ballantyne video in circulation (I think on YouTube) explaining HIIT. He insisted that if you do high-intensity intervals you should really use the minute in between to fully recover. I used to walk briskly and feel lazy for not jogging during the recovery intervals, but that video accorded with my preferences so I've gone with it. 3.5 is a moderately paced walk for me and my HR drops all the way back down during the recovery minute. OTOH, our Meg seems to stay at a relatively high level of intensity during her recovery minutes as well. :shrug:

ETA: Here's the Ballantyne video I mentioned.

Pat - yeah, I should try to remember my short legs! I hadn't really thought of height being the difference but it certainly makes sense.

baff - thanks for the link. It's interesting and while I feel sometimes like I'm getting information overload, this was simple and easy to remember. What the heck, I can give that a try! I like that he explained the need to go down to a walking pace and that 6 intervals is a decent amount. I had no idea how long a good session of HIIT would be.

I still want to do my 5k's but I think that they can each be a part of the whole fitness program. Doing something a little different all the time is what keeps me going back.

:D

Yes, I NEVER see people doing anything BUT steady state at the Y when I'm there - or any other club I've been in. Or people walking or running on the street that I see daily. Hmm, are we on to some secret club, the HIITY club??? lol

I haven't researched it a ton, one reason for doing this thread, but it seems logical to need to recover and literally just get your breath back and feeling like you can breathe w/o pain during the recovery - at whatever rate that needs to be for you. For me, walking at 3.5 for 4 mins is what that takes. And 5.0 is a good run for me at this point & one that I think I can keep up and not get wiped out from, so that's why I thought I needed to start at this point. Off to watch the YouTube video.

OK, see, now THIS I get! That's a great video and exactly what I've been doing! How cool - it's as if I watched it before I started my hiit, but I didn't. Gosh, so nice after all that NROL confusion.

" :dizzy: no more!! "

Great video. I'm guilty of perhaps not going light enough in the recovery. But I can work on that......

Pat, don't feel guilty about how you do HIIT. There are dozens of HIIT schemes out there. Some of the more advanced ones use a moderate/moderate-high intensity recovery instead of the low intensity that Craig B is advocating in the video. I like one from an old Muscle and Fitness that increases the intensity of each interval and recovery during the workout. :)

Thanks again Depalma!
I was able to google all the warm up exercises you suggested, and bookmarked some great sites in the process.

After reading about the all the benefits of HIIT, I have been trying this too. I currently do 2 mins at 6 mph and then 2 minutes walking at 3.5 mph. Is that too much at either intensities? I see from the information above that the intervals are much smaller.

You're my hero. Hahaha. I just started throwing in HIIT on the treadmill these last couple weeks and I can barely hold my sprints at 9.0mph for 30 seconds...I feel like my legs won't ever go much faster than that! And then forcing myself to only take one minute recovery is the other challenge, haha.

I never see anyone else doing HIIT either. People look at me like I'm crazy. LOL. It's brutal, but it's a great way to mix it up. I do circuit training for my resistance exercise which has a lot of high intensity cardio intervals in it and then once a week I throw in the treadmill sprints to break up my ss runs. The one thing I love about the sprints is that it's not even remotely boring ever...sometimes during ss my head is just not into running for 30+ minutes.

Right now I do all my intervals on the treadmill. I alternate between 1 min 15 sec sprinting and 45 sec recovery. The extra 15 sec on the sprint is to give the treadmill time to get up to speed so that I'm sprinting for a full minute. My recovery pace is 4 mph, which is a brisk walk for me. For the intervals, I start at around 8 mph and then increase the speed of each sprint until I'm going as fast as I can. I complete 8 to 10 sprints, depending on how much time I have and how good I feel. Last time I got up to 10 mph. I try to run intervals three times a week but I have an ongoing knee problem and if it is bothering me then I can't run.

I need to figure out an interval routine on the elliptical so that I can still do some intervals on the days that I can't run, but I'm really intimidated by the idea. I do steady state cardio on the elliptical but I just dread the idea of doing intervals on it. It just seems so hard to keep up the pace.

My trainer sometimes has his clients run intervals (he's the one that first introduced me to it). He teaches a class on Thursdays; if the class is unusually small and the gym is unusually empty, he'll have us all run intervals for 5 min or so. But other than that, I never see any one else running intervals. There are some people that put in a good run and occasionally I'll see some guy get on the treadmill and run all out as fast as he can for a couple of minutes then quit (once I saw a guy do this in heavy workboots :crazy:) but no one seems to do intervals.

It took me six months to figure out that I could do this with the treadmills at my gym! :frypan:

Wow! That is really cool! I wish the treadmills at my gym had that too! Then again, maybe they do and I just haven't figured it out yet. :dizzy:

Interesting. I see quite a few people doing it at my gym. I usually notice it when they are on the treadmill because of the sound of the treadmill revving, but I do notice people next to me on ellipticals doing it also. Because of my weight and knees, I do not do it on the treadmill. I use the elliptical or the step mill. The step mill KILLS me - if I kick it up to level 10-15 for 30 seconds I'm feeling like I am most certainly going to die and meet my Maker in 2 more seconds!

My trainer had me do intervals on the stepmill once and I was absolutely certain I was going to die--and it was only like 3 intervals. :faint: I haven't been able to motivate myself to try again. I think about and then I think, nah, I'll just do the treadmill. ;)

I use the elliptical and the treadmill for intervals. I like doing them more on the elliptical because my back and knees hurt if I do HIIT more than once a week on a treadmill.

I have a lot of different interval programs that I use for myself and clients with the treadmill. Most are combinations of incline work and speed. I have affectionately called "Bust-a-Lung" during which you steadily increase speed and incline until it feels like you are running up a cliff, then back it to level and start again with 2 minutes of treadmill lunges.

Bust-A-Lung

Treadmill

Warm Up- 10 Min on recumbent bike or elliptical, moderate pace.

Set the treadmill at a 2% incline at a speed of 3.6+ and walk for two minutes. Back the speed down to 2.0 or less and lunge on the treadmill for one minute. Immediately up the speed to 6.0+ and run for two minutes. At the conclusion of the run up the incline by 2-3% and repeat the cycle adjusting the speeds for each section the same.

Interval Time
Adjust Incline to 2%
Walk 0-2
Lunge 2-3
Run 3-5
Adjust Incline to 5%
Walk 5-7
Lunge 7-8
Run 8-10
Adjust Incline to 8%
Walk 10-12
Lunge 12-13
Run 13-15
Adjust Incline to 10%
Walk 15-17
Lunge 17-18
Run 18-20
Adjust Incline to 12%
Walk 20-22
Lunge 22-23
Run 23-25
Adjust Incline to 0%
Cool Down- Walking cool down at 3.6 speed for 10 minutes, 0% incline.


Have fun!

Mel

I'm starting to think Mel has a lot in common with Jillian..... :devil:

Speaking of which, a few of us were chatting on the show thread, about how Jillian makes them do an all out sprint on treadmill setting speed of 14 for 30 seconds (who knows, that's my guess, but maybe we only see the end and it's really a full minute) and then jump off to the rails (they may jump on too to start, not sure). We were all thinking that was asking for a suicidal face plant to make someone run that hard, but what do you trainers think about that jump on/jump off technique. Is it less dangerous than it looks?

Not a trainer, obviously. But, quite a few people who do HITT at my gym do the "jump off" technique. I've never seen them jump back on though. They just start to run at a normal speed and then up the speed manually till they appear to be running for their lives.

In the Ballantyne HIIT video, he says to do the hight interval for 45 secs or so then back down to a 3.5mph walk but he doesn't say how long to stay at the walking pace. Anyone have an answer? One min, two min? Thanks.

Stay at a walk until you are breathing more or less normally again. It depends on your fitness level. 1-2 minutes is fine.

Jumping onto the rails is safe if you are used to it. start at a jog to practice. I have one interval program where after a sprint, you jump into the rails, then off the treadmill and do one minute of pop squats, then get back on at a walk.:devil::devil: Don't get back on at a full sprint!

Mel

Hey thanks. I just did an HIIT on the TM the way Ballantyne suggested (vs. my abstract, sporadic, not bringing it down enough in the walking part) version. Did the 6 rounds, 45 secs starting at 7.0 up to 7.5, 1 min at 3.5mph betwn each. Of course, had to add two 20 sec HIIs at 8.2 - - just because why would I ever follow the rules completely? :D With a 3 min w.up and a 2 min or so c.down, done in 20 mins. Will have to incorporate this true HIIT - increasing the speed and playing w/the incline as well - more than what I've been doing.

Jumping off and on the rails? :eek: :fr: :eek: Truth be told, I hold onto the rails on anything above 6.5 mph for total and complete fear of doing a waaa-thump right into the shelving that's in back of my TM. Seriously concerned that I will trip on my feet and go flying. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough -- but for now, I'll play it safe. :yes::yes::yes: