HIIT: The Ultimate Workout

Posted November 27, 2007 at 03:00 PM by Mark Scott

Section: His Fitness, Cardio Training

If you aren’t a stranger to the gym, you’ve likely already heard of something called high intensity interval training (HIIT).  Whether it was between two trainers discussing their training techniques or someone complaining about the brutality of the workout, it may be something you’ve avoided up until now.

There is no doubt that high intensity interval training (HIIT) is something that will give you a run for your money. It definitely is not - by any means - easy, but it will get you results.

Not only is it more conducive to retaining your current muscle mass then longer cardio sessions, but it is also far better (in most cases) in terms of promoting fat loss and increasing the metabolism.  The thing about HIIT is that it does not expend an extremely large amount of calories while you are performing it. However, it will cause a great increase in your metabolism for many hours following the session. For this reason, if fat loss is a primary goal of yours, it’s a worthy investment of your time.

To perform HIIT, you will want to pick a time when you are fairly fresh, as HIIT is very much an energy demanding workout. Furthermore, be sure you are eating carbohydrates and protein before attempting this workout as it is not smart to do on an empty stomach (or while on a very low carbohydrate plan).

Start by doing a five minute warm-up at a pace that’s comfortable for you. Most people will perform HIIT through the mode of running, however if you would really prefer biking or some other form of cardio, you can do that as well. Uphill running, however, is usually the gold standard for what will be the absolute hardest HIIT workout.

After your five minute warm-up is complete, then you will begin the intervals.  A good time to work with is intervals that are between fifteen and forty-five seconds; the most common probably being 20 seconds long. During this time you are to go all out.  And by all out, I mean if you think you could go longer after the interval is done, you aren’t going hard enough. These are meant to be intense - hence their name.

Then you will implement your ‘rest interval’. During this time, you will slow to a very comfortable place. Usually it’s not advised to stop entirely as that could cause a pooling of the blood or other negative side effects, but you should not be feeling like you are working at all during this time.  The interval ratio should be 1:3, so if you used a work interval time of 20 seconds, your rest time becomes 60 seconds.

You will repeat this work-rest scenario for a total time of about 15 to 20 minutes.  The longer your intervals are, the fewer of them you will likely do.

If at first you can only manage four intervals of two minutes in duration (so 30 sec : 90 sec), don’t worry. Work with what you can do and then try and improve the number of reps you can perform over time.

It is far better to reduce your total time performing the session than to start reducing intensity.

If you begin to reduce the intensity, then you are performing more of a simple interval session than a HIIT session.

Also be sure to balance out these workouts with the rest of your training. Since they are so intense you do not want to be doing them any more than two or three times per week and still need to be making sure you are getting at least one day off per week that does not include lifting or HIIT.

So next time you are formatting a new workout schedule, make HIIT part of the plan.