HIIT

Doing some exercise is better than none. But when you do some at least do enough to get out of breath and make it a challenge. far too many people just go for a light jog or a bit of bike ride instead of actually sweating.
 
Started doing it about 15 years ago and have been doing it ever since. But o do it along side other exercises. However it's great if done properly.
 
I use it, Tabata regimen, but as others said, you still need to do something else alongside it. There is no one HIIT regimen and what will you be doing and what is your goal? Doing medium level activities aids to weight lose, lower heart rate than just doing HIIT.
 
Thinking further, if you are struggling with the amount of days you are exercising, have you considered "fartlek" which is a mix...kinda. But depends on what you are exercising for as this is pretty much leg based, running, cycling, skiing etc.
 
Been doing this a couple of times a week since I started gym training which was beginning of June. I use 'Seconds Pro' on the phone to give me the schedule and lead me into the intervals/cool down periods. Generally I do 5 mins warm up followed by 45 seconds hard, 20 seconds rest and repeat 7 or 10 times depending on how much i've been doing prior to it, then a 5 minute cool down.

I'll do the HIIT towards the end of my gym session on either stationary cycle, cross trainer or rower depending on my mood. My heart rate on cross trainer gets highest, followed by the bike then the rower.

You'll find that during the rest periods, time actually speeds up so,say 20 seconds feels like 5 seconds :D
 
Running is out unfortunately, my knee's knackered. It's mainly to improve my fitness levels, and hopefully lose some weight (combined with a big change in diet)
Thanks for the tip about the interval timer Hamster, found a free one on the play store which will suit my needs!
 
Uther said:
Running is out unfortunately, my knee's knackered. It's mainly to improve my fitness levels, and hopefully lose some weight (combined with a big change in diet)
Thanks for the tip about the interval timer Hamster, found a free one on the play store which will suit my needs!
Click to expand...

Definitely keep an eye on diet, yes. I find the exercise and monitoring the estimated calorie burn helps more psychologically for me as I look at foods now and estimate how long it'd take me to burn it off before deciding on portion size!!

Rather than a drastic change i tried to make one small difference a week. One week - no more biscuits with tea, next - half the amount of bread i eat per week, next - orange juice in smaller glasses rather than large etc. It all added up to a big change over time that i found easy to cope with.

At our gym they recently had a Mars bar challenge where you'd have to run 3.2k and they'd stick your times on a chart if you wanted to take part. That's approximately how far you'd have to run to burn the calories from a Mars bar off. I could quite easily munch through one of those in less than a minute. Weight loss is far more achievable without that Mars bar than eating it and compensating via exercise :D

That app is pretty good, as I'm sure many others are - functionality is very simple. It has audio cues which lead you into the sections which is great as I can have music playing via spotify/poweramp and not have to look at the phone but you can use it visually too if you wish :) Though having said that, when interval training, music in the background is nice but you won't really be able to focus on it as you're either going for it or wishing the rest periods were longer :D
 
Last edited:
as above - works well.

5 min warm up on the bike/treadmill/cross trainer

30 seconds on as hard as you can/30 seconds off gentle and slow x 20.

5 min cool down.

3 or 4 times a week - simple cardio with a good diet and it works great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom