HIIT, how to measure i you are doing it right ?

Ok, I have been doing what I believe is HIIT training for a few weeks and the last two sessions have got up to where I think I need to be to see the losses.

Q1.
On the cross trainer I am doing 2min warmup, 30s level 20 & 1min recovery on level 10 for a total of 15 minutes then 3 minutes cool down.
My heart rate goes to 170bpm and recovers by -10 bpm in the 1min recovery period.
By the end I look like I have been in a rain shower, sweat is running freely and around the 170BPM stage I get a chilled feeling.

Does it sound about right for doing it correctly at the right intensity ?

Q2.
How often should I be doing it (max 2 times a week) ?
I had read that only once a week was advisable due to the recharge period required. I goto the gym Mon - Fri with weights MWT and HIIT on T&T.

Q3.
How long to wait before seeing reasonible results in weight loss if it is working (my diet is ok and below maintenance) ?

Many thanks
RB

I was doing it between 2-3 times a week, but I was doing 30 sec intense, 30 recovery, and a lot of the time I didn't actually reach 15 mins workout.

But I saw results in just over a month.

1. The sweat doesn't really indicate your exercise level. You may find it a bit easy. Try 30/45 rather than 30/60, you may not be able to do 15mins straight away, but when you can comfortably do 15mins, lower the recovery period.

2. 1-3 times I'd say, but I rarely do it 3 times, leave minimum one day between workouts.

3. depending on your diet, a month or two.

keep drinking loads of water throughout the day, I cannot stress this enough. Also, make sure you have had something with carbohydrates before your workout, as you need plenty of glycogen to burn fat rather than muscle (thanks to sh4rk for telling me )


Good luck

Thanks for the quick reply.

After two + weeks of trying I have only just got up to that level and my heart rate is hitting 170+- which is about 92% of my Max recommended heartrate.

I will decrease the recovery when the heart rate reduces for the last set and 30/45 sounds like a good next stage to go to when that happens, thanks.

I mentioned sweat as being an indicator of internal heat in this case generated by hard exercise. Higher the heart rate the more sweat in my case anyway.

At this point, walking up / down stairs becomes difficult after the HIIT and in the last couple of cycles my legs feel like they have very little power.

Thanks for the info, I will keep an eye out over the next month or two for the weight loss .

Cheers
RB

yeah, in the first couple of weeks my legs killed me, but after a while I got used to it. Also, it'll hurt less if you recover properly with post workout nutrition.

At times, according to the cycling machine, my hear rate was getting in to the 190s

and even at that point, imo, i didn't sweat an overly excessive amount

Wow, 190s. What is your calculated max ?

Coming from the UK and now living here, I sweat anywhere without aricon..... it really is a pain and even after 3 years it is still not changing .

Doing the last few cycles on the HIIT and having the sweat running down my face is pretty irritating especially as I wear glasses and have both my hands on the cross trainer poles. At 170bpm I get cold shivers which I believe is an overheating effect as I get the same syntoms in a very hot sauna after some time.

I will see how it goes but it seems like I am in the right sort of area of effort to get results.

Many thanks again
RB

Oh and Sweating does not equal stinking to those sniggering in the back .

If you are feeling like you are going to throw up afterwards, you are doing it right.

I have no idea what my max heart rate is, I just exercise until I feel like like I'm about to die (max 15mins)

Ok, I think I am there more or less.

What sort of heart rate recovery do you all get in the recovery period. I have no idea if -10BPM is good, ok, bad or awfull........

Cheers
RB

Not sure, I haven't really been measuring tbh.

Obv it depends on your fitness level, but I imagine that the more you do, the quicker you will recover and the fitter you'll become.

Another workout I've done is on the treadmill

1.5 min @ 6.5
1min @ 8.0
1.5 @ 6.5
1min @10.0

x4 for a solid 20 min workout. not quite as intense as a hard 15 min HIIT workout, but still pretty good