downside factors to HIIT?

C

ciqala

0
it seems suspicious, using up all your energy in a short significant time, and personally i don't care about the fat burn content since i don't need that, i care about the part of, is it truly healthy to over work your body?
this i would really like to know. Is there any bad things about pushing yourself in a small amount of time?

and what about endurance with HIIT?
it doesn't seem logical to me that it helps your endurance better than cardio at a rapid but not so extreme level for a LONG time would.
if i am running for my chest to literally explode and not caring for the breaths, how am i supposed to endure better? and what about strength? How would it help with strength?
i know it always ups my heart rate and body recovery time though.
when i do extreme rounds to the point of passing out, it only takes a few minutes to recover and less and less each time. But i still don't think its good for the body to get to the point of wanting to pass out, or inducing near heart attacks.

we do Puke Rounds at muay thai, extreme, extreme rounds of repeated punches, kicks, roundhouses, elbows, and believe me it wears you out doing round house kicks over 50 times as fast as a heart beat while trying to keep the proper stance, as soon as that's over you rest, doing the stance jog, then fast push ups, sit ups, then your back in for 3 more intervals, then you take a break, drink water and then 3 more puke rounds. They call it a puke round for a reason. Lots of people end up vomiting on the floor before they're even finished, or simply passing out. But this type of activity should only be for people who are committed to martial arts or planning on being in a major fight of death that will never freakin end. I seriously don't think the extremities are needed for anything else, because it's not healthy mentally at all, and im unsure if its healthy physically in the long run.
Okay, i really enjoyed the head rush, the adrenalin in all this, but it was my doctor who advised me that if you overdo it you might get less results, not to mention possible injuries, low blood pressure, dehydrated, muscle deterioration, fainting spells, heart problems, panic attacks, and blah blah blah.
I don't know, i'm just really suspicious, (i would love to get back into this but i don't know if i should because i do tend to get into over working out and i really just want to do what's healthy) so please, i would love for answers and someone to enlighten me on this.

Thanks,
Sabrina.
 
HIIT performed properly is very good for your health. Done properly a HIIT session should last no more than 20 minutes (a Tabata HIIT session only lasts 4 minutes), should have no more than 8 high intensity intervals lasting 10-30 seconds each and should be repeated no more than 2 times per week.

What you are describing sounds like circuit training designed to increase endurance, NOT cause a hormone response that signals the body to burn fat and build muscle. And without proper rest and recovery time between sessions the result will be overuse injuries and/or extreme fatigue in many individuals if continued for a long period of time.
 
Interval training has been shown in many studies to be better than long slow distance (at about 70%VO2max) in improving VO2max. One method that has been shown to be effective is 4x4 intervals. You do 4 4 min work bouts at about 85-95%of your max heart rate, separated by 3 min at about 70%

shorter intervals has also been shown to be effective, but with these you should make sure the recovery between the work bouts doesn't exceed the work bout itself.
 
The "puke rounds" you wrote about sound like a form of HIIT, though you'd need to watch the recovery time as Karky has already said.

Its the same with everything though- it all works in moderation.

HIIT probably wont help much with muscle growth or development. It may well do something but its not going to be the no.1 thing to get you a "cut" physique. What HIIT can help with though is weight loss and improving the quality of cardio exercise you can do. I have never done HIIT, but I do quite intense interval training. My HRM reads peaks of 175bpm (around 95% of my max) and drops to around 130bpm (around 70%) before I repeat, 1-2 mins on, 1-2mins off. Not HIIT but hard interval training.

As a result, I have noticed I have gotten better when I do longer forms of exercise, classes for example. Where before my spinning class would get me a calorie burn of around (and btw I don't believe these are correct, I don't trust any machine totals calories properly! but it does give me a bench mark to improve on) a year ago a 45min soinning class would read 300kcals on my HRM, now reads 375kcals and on one occasion, 400kcals. This I feel was a direct result of working at such extremes. There would be no way I could get to such extremes with my heart rate unless I had done it in quick short blasts like I do, now way. So I think HIIT must work that but more- get that much better results.

Its your heart that improves, and the rate at which oxygen is pumped through the body will affect how much oxygen is pumped through the muscles. The faster and more efficently blood is pumped through the muscles, the faster lactic acid is pumped out of the muscles, the more you can do, the harder you can go, the more calories you will burn and the more body fat you are able to use (as long as you don't go all out and stuff yourself with cake following!).

And with any other forms of exercise; the more you do it, the better you get at it, the more your body develops and can take on more work and get better results.

I would also day that people who have done HIIT report things like losing more weight yet spending less time in the gym, feeling far less hungry following workouts and feeling better as a result.

Guess it depends on what your looking for. I'd like to be able to do HIIT but just don't think I have it in me- I have a low pain threshold I think! What I do I manage on, but I worry myself that if I were to cut back on gym time I'd not be buring as many calories- I can see HIIT burns more calories in less time but I still don't think that would cover me. An HIIT session shouldn't be more then about 20-40 mins 2-3 times a week. I workout doing cardio alone for 1hr45mins to 2hrs a time, 5-6 days a week, I find it hard I would be burning the same or even more calories and I worry about weight gain, its hard enough to tollerate my weight at the weight I am at.

But if your open to change, I'd say go and do it- just report back! Its only through people who are willing to experiement and go against the grain that we find out new things.
 
dswithers said:
HIIT performed properly is very good for your health. Done properly a HIIT session should last no more than 20 minutes (a Tabata HIIT session only lasts 4 minutes), should have no more than 8 high intensity intervals lasting 10-30 seconds each and should be repeated no more than 2 times per week.

What you are describing sounds like circuit training designed to increase endurance, NOT cause a hormone response that signals the body to burn fat and build muscle. And without proper rest and recovery time between sessions the result will be overuse injuries and/or extreme fatigue in many individuals if continued for a long period of time.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the info.
I am going to give it a try. My tool of choice shall be a skipping rope, good idea or bad? I'm also going to try on treadmill to start, but I have a burning desire to try HIIT with skipping, and that's gonna be deadly :). First i want to make sure i do it properly.

Question: After the 20 mins of HIIT, can i workout more, or is it best to rest for the remainder of the day?


HIIT works by the constant switches in extreme levels of high intensity??

Is the plan from the top of the forum any good:

"intermediate - sprint, walk
warm up
r-2min
s-1min
w-1min
s-1min
w-1min .............continue 1min walk and 1min sprint for 20mins"

I would just substitute the sprint, for sprint jump, and so on.

Ok, well if Tabata is only 4 minutes long it has to be extreme. Is there a Tabata plan posted on this forum already? If not, can someone fill me in on the details.

Anyway thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.
 
^^

If you can do more after your 20-40 mins of HIIT, its not HIIT. It means you can work harder and what you have done has not pushed you hard enough, its interval stuff and not HIIT stuff. (This is where I am at!)

On your list above, I assume S= skipping but what is W=? If its standing still- you need to keep moving, on a treadmill this would be running (and not sprinting at 110%) on a bike this would be level 5 out of 10 (where 10 is the max and high point of the HIIT, speed being kept the same throughout.)

Have to be honest, not heard of Tabata before- it may be called something else where I am from but not heard of it as yet. Have you tried googling "HIIT and Tabata"?
 
summer123 said:
^^

If you can do more after your 20-40 mins of HIIT, its not HIIT. It means you can work harder and what you have done has not pushed you hard enough, its interval stuff and not HIIT stuff. (This is where I am at!)

On your list above, I assume S= skipping but what is W=? If its standing still- you need to keep moving, on a treadmill this would be running (and not sprinting at 110%) on a bike this would be level 5 out of 10 (where 10 is the max and high point of the HIIT, speed being kept the same throughout.)

Have to be honest, not heard of Tabata before- it may be called something else where I am from but not heard of it as yet. Have you tried googling "HIIT and Tabata"?
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks. Well i couldn't wait so i tried it anyway.

I tried it today, it was harsh but fun as hell. I think trying it with skipping was a bad idea to start with though, because jump rope takes ALOT out of me, i think it's more aggressive than running.
Anyway, i only made it to 5 minutes. ONLY 5 minutes! and i thought i was pretty fit lol.


AND to make things worse and more embarrassing for me, once i stopped i collapsed. A minute after i got the most painful huge stitch cramp thing in my side lol. It took me 5 minutes to recover from that annoying cramp thing.

Also, during this (really short) extreme jump rope session i wasn't paying attention to my breathing at all like i usually do for endurance activities. My breaths were everywhere, like freakin explosions and hindered me i think. Perhaps if i gain control of my breaths better at such high intensity i'll be able to stick through for longer.


Well, this is what i did.
Sprint = jump rope as fast as my heart beat.
Run = jump rope a bit slower than above.
Then i added in a "jog" ? = jump rope fast.
I did these for 30 seconds each. When i felt myself coming to the end, i switched them up to 10 seconds each for some reason, i don't know why, probably cuz i was panicking that i wouldn't fit in the rest for the 20 minutes which was my goal.
And yeah i only made it 5 minutes and pathetically collapsed. Thankfully it was at my home gym with no one around to laugh at me.

I didn't do any WALK which i should have but i pushed myself harder, but it might just equal to = jump rope at normal pace that everyone usually does.

But oh my god i feel so out of shape from that experience! I don't know how i thought i could easily get up to 20 minutes. I'm going to try and keep at it and see if next time i can up my time.
I think i'll be able to get around 10 with that high of intensity on a treadmill, but i want to keep at it with jump rope because its intenseeeee.

And what on earth causes side stitches? Is it the lack of breathing control?

I also had a coughing fit after. I really need to quit smoking before it takes a toll on my breathing ability, i notice it already makes me cough after i finish extreme cardio of any kind.

Yeah to tell you the truth, i think interval stuff is more to my liking and needs. I like to target endurance and strength in other ways. i also enjoy the circuit training type deal.
But i do enjoy trying out everything, and if it's advised to do HITT just 2 times a week, then i'm fine with doing that and interval training the rest of the time.
I also enjoy doing really LONG workouts for some reason. Suits me better. It just satisfies my need to work out a lot, because i like the part of working out long amounts of time.
With HIIT even though i'm physically exhausted, i still feel odd that 20, or in my case 5 minutes is it, ya know?
"Intense" for me is working out hard for eternity.
 
Tabata training is simply 20sec as fast as possible followed by 10sec rest, repeat 8 times. It can be done with typical cardio exercises, and even with lightweight resistance training exercises.

Just so you know, you can certainly do intense training that lasts more than 20 (or 5) min, it just won't be HIIT. If you did acceleration training, for example, it would all be high intensity, but the work:recovery ratio would usually be such that you'd still feel good to go after an hour of training.
 
Oh i'm also really really scared to attempt this on a treadmill. I don't trust my balance for those things. The fastest i ever go on a treadmill is 5 or 6, but 6 is not as fast as i can physically sprint. I'm just scared of tripping and killing myself if i up it to 10. Oh man, any hints on how to not kill yourself on the treadmill doing this? I think perhaps my fear could be illogical, but i'm a wuss.

I could try HIIT while running on real ground which i would feel safer, thing is, when i run i usually hit soft trails (bad knees from past sport injuries) and trails with obstacles aren't designed for extreme SPEED. I don't know much about tracks, are runners tracks designed to have shock absorb? I know we have one track here. Just worried about injuring my knees with running on hard surfaces, i need them for all my sports and muay thai.

My bike is a slope trail bike, not designed for speed, it's heavy as hell, but i could try it.
Exercise bike... well not my cup of tea.
Does anyone know of any other good cardio things for HIIT?
Will swimming laps work?
What if i do muay thai punches and kicks repeatedly? It's kind of more strength than cardio i guess.
 
Goldfish said:
Tabata training is simply 20sec as fast as possible followed by 10sec rest, repeat 8 times. It can be done with typical cardio exercises, and even with lightweight resistance training exercises.

Just so you know, you can certainly do intense training that lasts more than 20 (or 5) min, it just won't be HIIT. If you did acceleration training, for example, it would all be high intensity, but the work:recovery ratio would usually be such that you'd still feel good to go after an hour of training.
Click to expand...

Oh sweet thanks. I'm going to try the tabata.
Acceleration training sounds good, what would that look like?
 
Acceleration training is usually pretty straight forward. Could be as simple as 10x10-30m sprints, with an emphasis on learning good acceleration techniques with regards to your starting position, and resting as long as necesary to get good speed again between sprints. Not sure if there'd be much practical application for it in martial arts...power training would probably serve a more useful purpose. Either way, it is an example of how you can do intense training for a long session time without even coming close to throwing up. If you'd like to know more about acceleration training, here's a good link But again, I only brought it up as an example, not necessarily something that would meet your personal needs.
 
Well I appreciate the example, always up to finding more training ideas, so thanks for the info and links. :)
 
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