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High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Often called HIIT, for short, High Intensity Interval Training has become known as one of the most effective methods of bodyfat loss, as well as one of the most efficient ways to develop the cardiovascular and circulatory systems. What is High Intensity Interval Training?
Basically, HIIT is a method of cardiovascular training that involves continually changing the intensity of the cardio workout, while maintaining a reasonable baseline of effort. Basically, you exercise at your normal intensity level for a certain number of minutes, then for 1 or 2 minutes, you blast WAY out of the training zone that you were in previously. On a treadmill or running, this might mean cranking the speed up by 2 - 3 mph and/or bringing the incline or resistance level up by several notches. On an elliptical, crosstrainer, or bicycle, this could mean speeding up your revolutions per minute by 20 - 30 rpm's and/or turning up the resistance level. The key is to basically crank your heart rate up much higher than where it normally gets to when you are doing cardio, hold it there for a minute or two, then go back down to your original intensity level for 3 or 4 minutes, then repeat keep repeating that process. This has the effect of confusing your body about the amount of oxygen and nutrients that you need for the activity, so your body is unable to adapt. In laymen's terms, you are trying to keep your body from knowing which way is up!
This type of confusion causes you to not only burn more calories during the cardiovascular event, but even for hours afterwards! By confusing your body, you have taken it outside of its "comfort zone", and even the act of recovery from exercise will take longer, and will burn through more calories in the process.
In addition, High Intensity Interval Training is GREAT for your heart! Instead of exercising in one specific training zone, i.e. 4 mph, you are forcing your heart to perform at many different levels of effort, which makes your heart stronger, and better able to handle the stress of everyday life, as well as unexpected stresses. After all, unless you plan to only use your heart to walk on the treadmill at 4 mph, you are going to need to exercise it in different ways than that!
In addition to the calorie burning benefit, and the positive effects on the heart and circulatory system, HIIT causes your body to burn more actual bodyfat per minute than any other form of cardiovascular training.
How To Do It:
Interval training is based on a very simple concept: go fast then go slow. Repeat. It sounds easy, but within this simple formula lies a tremendous number of possible variations and strategies you can employ to take full advantage of the power available to you.
Interval training can be performed on almost any cardiovascular machine (including the treadmill, stair machine, stationary bike, elliptical trainer, etc.) as well as almost any type of cardiovascular exercise (such as cycling, swimming, running, etc.).
Though the examples I will go through below use time as a measure for intervals, you can also very easily use distance as your guide. For example, you can sprint between two telephone poles then walk to the next one. You can sprint the length of a football field then walk the width. You can even run up a flight of stairs then walk back down. The variations you can do are truly endless!
Here are a number of different types of interval training you can use:
1. Aerobic Interval Training
Aerobic Interval Training is very beneficial for rapidly improving your aerobic conditioning as well as burning fat. It will even help you build up your endurance faster than long-duration cardio! It is also a very good introductory format for starting interval training. If you are new to interval training, I highly recommend beginning with Aerobic Intervals.
This type of interval training involves relatively long work periods and shorter rest periods. Work periods are generally 2 to 5 minutes long in this type of training. The idea is not to take it easy for that work time but to work at a speed that challenges you to be able to make it to the end of that work interval. Your 2 minute interval pace is, therefore, going to be significantly faster than your 5 minute interval pace.
The rest interval for this type of training is between 30 seconds to a minute. Naturally, the shorter the rest period, the tougher the training will be. Too much rest will allow your body to recover too much, lessening the overall training effect of the exercise.
Here are some examples of a number of different intervals you can use in your training:
Work ---- Rest
2 min. -- 30 sec.
5 min. -- 1 min.
3 min. -- 45 sec.
2 min. -- 1 min.
5 min. -- 30 sec.
When using these intervals, you can choose to stick to the same time intervals (e.g. do 2 minutes hard and 30 seconds slow for the duration of the workout) or mix it up with different time intervals as you go through your session. This type of training can generally be done for about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Maximal High-Intensity Intervals
This type of interval training is VERY high intensity and is VERY effective for fat loss and cardio training. You essentially push yourself to the maximum on every single work interval you do! This type of training is extremely effective when training for sports that require all-out repeated efforts, such as football, soccer, hockey, etc. If you want to get faster and recover faster, this is the type of training for you.
This type of training sends very powerful signals to the body and the metabolism. In addition to dramatically ratcheting up the body's metabolism, maximal-effort training also causes large amounts of Growth Hormone, one of your body's primary fat burning hormones (the Fountain of Youth Hormone, as it's sometimes referred to) to be released into the bloodstream. This two-pronged effect is very powerful for fat-burning.
Maximal Intervals are much shorter than Aerobic Intervals. Generally, the longest you'll be able to perform a maximal effort is around 30 seconds so all the work intervals are 30 seconds or less.
Rest periods can be short or long, depending how good of shape a person is in and/or how much they want to recover inbetween intervals. Shorter rest periods make the work intervals more challenging but the speed of the work will also drop quickly after a few intervals. Longer rest periods will allow the body to recover a little more, allowing faster speeds on more intervals. Rest periods should always be at least as long as the work periods. This is to allow enough recovery to be able to perform well on the next work period.
Here are some examples of Maximal work and rest intervals you can use in your training. As I mentioned above, you can stick with one time period through the whole session, or vary your intervals you go through the workout.
Work ---- Rest
30 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 1 min.
20 sec. -- 1 min.
10 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 2 min.
Since Maximal Intervals are so challenging, a person should not expect or try to be able to jump right in at a high level for a large number of intervals. It is very important to build yourself up gradually.
Start by performing five Maximal Intervals the first two sessions you do the training. The next two sessions, do six Maximal Intervals. Continue adding intervals in this step-up fashion until you are doing intervals for a maximum of 15 minutes straight. The exact number of intervals you do in a session will depend on the times you're using in your work and rest intervals.
Because Maximal Intervals are so challenging, you may find yourself getting too fatigued to perform at a fast pace as you get towards the end. When this happens, try doing Reverse Pyramid intervals. Instead of keeping your work interval the same, reduce it by 5 seconds every couple of intervals.
Here's a sample of how to do it:
Interval 1 - 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 2 - 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 3 - 25 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 4 - 25 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 5 - 20 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 6 - 20 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 7 - 15 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 7 - 15 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
3. Sub-Maximal High Intensity Intervals
Sub-Maximal intervals are excellent for burning fat and for building up your cardiovascular conditioning. This type of training will do each of these fat better than continuous-tempo, lower-intensity training.
This type of interval training is very similar in concept and execution to the Maximal interval style. The difference is, instead of pushing yourself as hard as you can on each work interval, you work at a pace that is somewhat below your max. This allows you to do more total work intervals during the session while still keeping your intensity levels high.
Most Interval programs on cardio machines follow this principle. The resistance/speed is increased to a higher level for a set period of time then reduced for a set period of time. The level is not so high that you must put your maximum effort into each work interval, but it is at a level you could not keep up for long periods.
This type of training is also very effective for fat loss and increasing the metabolism.
Intervals in this style can be longer, since you're not working at maximum speed, but not much longer. Work periods of 30 seconds to a minute and rest periods of 30 seconds to a minute work well for it. Here are some sample intervals you can use in your training:
Work ---- Rest
30 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 1 min.
1 min. -- 1 min.
1 min. -- 30 sec.
45 sec. -- 45 sec.
This type of training can be done for about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the intensity level of the work.
4. Near-Maximal Aerobic Intervals
This is a unique form of interval training that I've been working with that basically combines Aerobic Interval Training with Maximal Interval Training to allow you to work at near-peak levels for long periods of time. This has the benefit of burning a tremendous amount of calories for longer periods of work time than is possible with normal intervals.
The work intervals themselves are short but the rest periods are much shorter! Instead of pushing yourself to the max on every interval, you work at a pace somewhat short of your max. This type of training allows you to perform near your max for longer periods of time. It is a very challenging and unique form of interval training.
Here's how it works:
Start with a work interval of 20 seconds and a rest interval of 5 seconds. Your pace should be one that you would only be able to keep up steady for about 1 to 2 minutes before having to stop. Do that pace for 20 seconds then go very slow for 5 seconds. Jump right back in and do that same pace for another 20 seconds then very slow for 5 seconds. Keep this cycle repeating for a designated period of time, e.g. 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes.
Here are some sample intervals you can use with this training style:
Work ---- Rest
20 sec. -- 5 sec.
25 sec. -- 5 sec.
30 sec. -- 10 sec.
15 sec. -- 7 sec.
40 sec. -- 10 sec.
This type of training works very well with cardio machines that allow you to switch resistance instantly or very quickly (stationary bikes, stair machines or elliptical trainers often allow this). Machines that must cycle slowly through their speeds as they change do not work well for this (treadmills fall into this category). It can also be done with running then walking, cycling then pedalling slowly, or even swimming hard then stroking lazily. You'll find it very challenging to be having to constantly restart your momentum from almost scratch on every interval!
Please note: it's very important that you don't stop completely when you take your short rest period. Keep yourself moving during this time even if you're just moving very slowly!
5. Fartlek Training
No discussion of Interval Training would be complete with a reference to Fartlek Training. Translated from Swedish, "Fartlek" literally means "speed play." What is it? It's simple - Fartlek training is every type of interval rolled into one workout!
You can start by jogging for 5 minutes then walk for 30 seconds then sprint for 30 seconds then walk again then run fast for 2 minutes and so on. The idea is to train at a wide variety of speeds, distances and times in order to hit the widest variety of training parameters.
This type of training is an excellent way to keep your cardio interesting. You never have to do the same thing twice! This workout can last anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the intensity at which you are working.
In conclusion, Interval Training is not a hard concept to wrap your head around: go fast then go slow! The various types of interval training I've explained above will definitely help you achieve your goals, whether they be rapid fat loss, high-powered sports performance or amazing cardiovascular capacity!
Often called HIIT, for short, High Intensity Interval Training has become known as one of the most effective methods of bodyfat loss, as well as one of the most efficient ways to develop the cardiovascular and circulatory systems. What is High Intensity Interval Training?
Basically, HIIT is a method of cardiovascular training that involves continually changing the intensity of the cardio workout, while maintaining a reasonable baseline of effort. Basically, you exercise at your normal intensity level for a certain number of minutes, then for 1 or 2 minutes, you blast WAY out of the training zone that you were in previously. On a treadmill or running, this might mean cranking the speed up by 2 - 3 mph and/or bringing the incline or resistance level up by several notches. On an elliptical, crosstrainer, or bicycle, this could mean speeding up your revolutions per minute by 20 - 30 rpm's and/or turning up the resistance level. The key is to basically crank your heart rate up much higher than where it normally gets to when you are doing cardio, hold it there for a minute or two, then go back down to your original intensity level for 3 or 4 minutes, then repeat keep repeating that process. This has the effect of confusing your body about the amount of oxygen and nutrients that you need for the activity, so your body is unable to adapt. In laymen's terms, you are trying to keep your body from knowing which way is up!
This type of confusion causes you to not only burn more calories during the cardiovascular event, but even for hours afterwards! By confusing your body, you have taken it outside of its "comfort zone", and even the act of recovery from exercise will take longer, and will burn through more calories in the process.
In addition, High Intensity Interval Training is GREAT for your heart! Instead of exercising in one specific training zone, i.e. 4 mph, you are forcing your heart to perform at many different levels of effort, which makes your heart stronger, and better able to handle the stress of everyday life, as well as unexpected stresses. After all, unless you plan to only use your heart to walk on the treadmill at 4 mph, you are going to need to exercise it in different ways than that!
In addition to the calorie burning benefit, and the positive effects on the heart and circulatory system, HIIT causes your body to burn more actual bodyfat per minute than any other form of cardiovascular training.
How To Do It:
Interval training is based on a very simple concept: go fast then go slow. Repeat. It sounds easy, but within this simple formula lies a tremendous number of possible variations and strategies you can employ to take full advantage of the power available to you.
Interval training can be performed on almost any cardiovascular machine (including the treadmill, stair machine, stationary bike, elliptical trainer, etc.) as well as almost any type of cardiovascular exercise (such as cycling, swimming, running, etc.).
Though the examples I will go through below use time as a measure for intervals, you can also very easily use distance as your guide. For example, you can sprint between two telephone poles then walk to the next one. You can sprint the length of a football field then walk the width. You can even run up a flight of stairs then walk back down. The variations you can do are truly endless!
Here are a number of different types of interval training you can use:
1. Aerobic Interval Training
Aerobic Interval Training is very beneficial for rapidly improving your aerobic conditioning as well as burning fat. It will even help you build up your endurance faster than long-duration cardio! It is also a very good introductory format for starting interval training. If you are new to interval training, I highly recommend beginning with Aerobic Intervals.
This type of interval training involves relatively long work periods and shorter rest periods. Work periods are generally 2 to 5 minutes long in this type of training. The idea is not to take it easy for that work time but to work at a speed that challenges you to be able to make it to the end of that work interval. Your 2 minute interval pace is, therefore, going to be significantly faster than your 5 minute interval pace.
The rest interval for this type of training is between 30 seconds to a minute. Naturally, the shorter the rest period, the tougher the training will be. Too much rest will allow your body to recover too much, lessening the overall training effect of the exercise.
Here are some examples of a number of different intervals you can use in your training:
Work ---- Rest
2 min. -- 30 sec.
5 min. -- 1 min.
3 min. -- 45 sec.
2 min. -- 1 min.
5 min. -- 30 sec.
When using these intervals, you can choose to stick to the same time intervals (e.g. do 2 minutes hard and 30 seconds slow for the duration of the workout) or mix it up with different time intervals as you go through your session. This type of training can generally be done for about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Maximal High-Intensity Intervals
This type of interval training is VERY high intensity and is VERY effective for fat loss and cardio training. You essentially push yourself to the maximum on every single work interval you do! This type of training is extremely effective when training for sports that require all-out repeated efforts, such as football, soccer, hockey, etc. If you want to get faster and recover faster, this is the type of training for you.
This type of training sends very powerful signals to the body and the metabolism. In addition to dramatically ratcheting up the body's metabolism, maximal-effort training also causes large amounts of Growth Hormone, one of your body's primary fat burning hormones (the Fountain of Youth Hormone, as it's sometimes referred to) to be released into the bloodstream. This two-pronged effect is very powerful for fat-burning.
Maximal Intervals are much shorter than Aerobic Intervals. Generally, the longest you'll be able to perform a maximal effort is around 30 seconds so all the work intervals are 30 seconds or less.
Rest periods can be short or long, depending how good of shape a person is in and/or how much they want to recover inbetween intervals. Shorter rest periods make the work intervals more challenging but the speed of the work will also drop quickly after a few intervals. Longer rest periods will allow the body to recover a little more, allowing faster speeds on more intervals. Rest periods should always be at least as long as the work periods. This is to allow enough recovery to be able to perform well on the next work period.
Here are some examples of Maximal work and rest intervals you can use in your training. As I mentioned above, you can stick with one time period through the whole session, or vary your intervals you go through the workout.
Work ---- Rest
30 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 1 min.
20 sec. -- 1 min.
10 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 2 min.
Since Maximal Intervals are so challenging, a person should not expect or try to be able to jump right in at a high level for a large number of intervals. It is very important to build yourself up gradually.
Start by performing five Maximal Intervals the first two sessions you do the training. The next two sessions, do six Maximal Intervals. Continue adding intervals in this step-up fashion until you are doing intervals for a maximum of 15 minutes straight. The exact number of intervals you do in a session will depend on the times you're using in your work and rest intervals.
Because Maximal Intervals are so challenging, you may find yourself getting too fatigued to perform at a fast pace as you get towards the end. When this happens, try doing Reverse Pyramid intervals. Instead of keeping your work interval the same, reduce it by 5 seconds every couple of intervals.
Here's a sample of how to do it:
Interval 1 - 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 2 - 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 3 - 25 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 4 - 25 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 5 - 20 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 6 - 20 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 7 - 15 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
Interval 7 - 15 seconds hard, 30 seconds rest.
3. Sub-Maximal High Intensity Intervals
Sub-Maximal intervals are excellent for burning fat and for building up your cardiovascular conditioning. This type of training will do each of these fat better than continuous-tempo, lower-intensity training.
This type of interval training is very similar in concept and execution to the Maximal interval style. The difference is, instead of pushing yourself as hard as you can on each work interval, you work at a pace that is somewhat below your max. This allows you to do more total work intervals during the session while still keeping your intensity levels high.
Most Interval programs on cardio machines follow this principle. The resistance/speed is increased to a higher level for a set period of time then reduced for a set period of time. The level is not so high that you must put your maximum effort into each work interval, but it is at a level you could not keep up for long periods.
This type of training is also very effective for fat loss and increasing the metabolism.
Intervals in this style can be longer, since you're not working at maximum speed, but not much longer. Work periods of 30 seconds to a minute and rest periods of 30 seconds to a minute work well for it. Here are some sample intervals you can use in your training:
Work ---- Rest
30 sec. -- 30 sec.
30 sec. -- 1 min.
1 min. -- 1 min.
1 min. -- 30 sec.
45 sec. -- 45 sec.
This type of training can be done for about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the intensity level of the work.
4. Near-Maximal Aerobic Intervals
This is a unique form of interval training that I've been working with that basically combines Aerobic Interval Training with Maximal Interval Training to allow you to work at near-peak levels for long periods of time. This has the benefit of burning a tremendous amount of calories for longer periods of work time than is possible with normal intervals.
The work intervals themselves are short but the rest periods are much shorter! Instead of pushing yourself to the max on every interval, you work at a pace somewhat short of your max. This type of training allows you to perform near your max for longer periods of time. It is a very challenging and unique form of interval training.
Here's how it works:
Start with a work interval of 20 seconds and a rest interval of 5 seconds. Your pace should be one that you would only be able to keep up steady for about 1 to 2 minutes before having to stop. Do that pace for 20 seconds then go very slow for 5 seconds. Jump right back in and do that same pace for another 20 seconds then very slow for 5 seconds. Keep this cycle repeating for a designated period of time, e.g. 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes.
Here are some sample intervals you can use with this training style:
Work ---- Rest
20 sec. -- 5 sec.
25 sec. -- 5 sec.
30 sec. -- 10 sec.
15 sec. -- 7 sec.
40 sec. -- 10 sec.
This type of training works very well with cardio machines that allow you to switch resistance instantly or very quickly (stationary bikes, stair machines or elliptical trainers often allow this). Machines that must cycle slowly through their speeds as they change do not work well for this (treadmills fall into this category). It can also be done with running then walking, cycling then pedalling slowly, or even swimming hard then stroking lazily. You'll find it very challenging to be having to constantly restart your momentum from almost scratch on every interval!
Please note: it's very important that you don't stop completely when you take your short rest period. Keep yourself moving during this time even if you're just moving very slowly!
5. Fartlek Training
No discussion of Interval Training would be complete with a reference to Fartlek Training. Translated from Swedish, "Fartlek" literally means "speed play." What is it? It's simple - Fartlek training is every type of interval rolled into one workout!
You can start by jogging for 5 minutes then walk for 30 seconds then sprint for 30 seconds then walk again then run fast for 2 minutes and so on. The idea is to train at a wide variety of speeds, distances and times in order to hit the widest variety of training parameters.
This type of training is an excellent way to keep your cardio interesting. You never have to do the same thing twice! This workout can last anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the intensity at which you are working.
In conclusion, Interval Training is not a hard concept to wrap your head around: go fast then go slow! The various types of interval training I've explained above will definitely help you achieve your goals, whether they be rapid fat loss, high-powered sports performance or amazing cardiovascular capacity!
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