HIIT it!

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

HIIT is the answer for all of you out there looking to drop some unwanted fat pounds on the cardio machines. I see so many people in the gyms getting on a treadmill or a stationary bike and doing long bouts of cardio at a steady pace. If your goal is to be an endurance athlete that's fine, but if your looking to burn some serious calories then you've got to try HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). This type of training shakes up your metabolism and promotes a higher post workout fat burn then doing steady state heart rate training.

There are two ways to do cardio intervals. The first way, timed intervals, is easier to measure because it doesn't require a heart rate monitor or knowledge of your max heart rate. Once you've warmed up you simply increase the speed or resistance for a set period of time, it could be a minute or it could be more. Then you work at that higher intensity for your designated period of time, after which you decrease the intensity and work at a recovery level for a set period of time. Some examples would be one min. on and two minutes off, or 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. A general rule of thumb would be the higher the intensity for the work interval, the longer the recovery should be, unless you are doing a more advanced program.

The second cardio interval method is to do heart rate intervals. For this you need to have a heart rate monitor or be on a machine with a heart rate display. You also want to calculate your resting heart rate. There are many was to do this, the most widely used is 220 minus your age. Then use that number to calculate your theoretical 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% heart rate zones. Once you've warmed up you increase the pace or resistance for a short period of time until you reach a desired high end heart rate (usually 80-90% of your max heart rate) then you reduce the speed or intensity until you've recovered to a desired low end heart rate (usually 65-75% of your max heart rate). When you've recovered to that heart rate zone you then go right back to increasing the intensity until you reach the high end again.

Another benefit to HIIT is that you don't need to spend as long doing it. 30 min. is usually considered to be a long training time for intervals. You can get a good calorie burn doing only 15-20min. Be sure to take a few minutes to cool down afterwards because intervals will create a greater lactic acid production.

[sergey]

HIIT vs long duration cardio debate has been raging on for a while now. The way I see it, it is much simpler and flexibility is the key. Both cardio choices are ways to burn extra calories but neither is "THE WAY". At the end, the only thing that matters is calories in vs calories out, HIIT may burn more calories per unit of time, but it is much harder on the body (may not be for someone with bad knees), long duration cardio accomplishes the same calorie burn it just takes longer.

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

I agree that there are conditions that would make HIIT less desirable, knee or joint issues being one. Also people with conditions like heart disease and COPD would want to avoid the higher intensity cardio training. Even someone on a heavy strength training cycle may not want to do HIIT because it would impede their recovery and impact their lifting.

However, those conditions aside, you said the interval style cardio training burns a higher amount of calories per unit of time, and for the most part people tend to have limited time to train and are looking to get the most bang for their buck. Not only that but the metabolic adaptation response from doing interval training is closer to strength training than steady state cardio. Which means that your body expends more calories beyond the time that you are actually doing the cardio work.

The truth is that strength training is the most effective use of time if your goal is fat loss because of the metabolic response to gaining lean tissue. But, if you're going to do cardio and you don't have any medical restrictions, my vote is for interval training.

[sergey]

Oct 25, 2008 12:13:24 GMT -5 Brian Ayers, CSCS said:

But, if you're going to do cardio and you don't have any medical restrictions, my vote is for interval training.

My vote is for flexibility and options. I think both can and should be incorporated into a program as the body will adopt to either type of cardio.

[lost180]

Is HIIT all you do for cardio? I upped my intensity today. I went from 7mph springs to 8 but I only did 4 intervals tonight.