HITT vs. FARTLEK

C

corndogggy

0
HIIT vs. FARTLEK

For Steve and the other trainers - I would just like to know what is so new as compared to normal interval training in athletics, such as Fartlek. I know the goal of one is weight loss while the other is athletics, but still, the people writing about HIIT sometimes sound like interval training is an amazingly new breakthrough discovery, yet interval training such as Fartlek has been known to be highly effective for over 75 years. Why the sudden excitement? What is sooooo different?

Fartlek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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doesnt one train speed and one train more endurance? dont take that as an answer by the way because i am not sure about this one either. i would also like to know about this please :)?
 
IT and HIIT have been around forever. I have known this forever. I am not sure who was making it out to be something new and exciting.
 
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I remember when I was in high school (a little over 30 yrs. ago), and we did sprints on the soccer team. We did those every day. That, in essence, was HIIT. HIIT is just the reincarnation of something sports coaches have known for decades. That's why I don't think it's just another "fad". It's a proven way of building up your aerobic endurance.
 
TomO said:
I remember when I was in high school (a little over 30 yrs. ago), and we did sprints on the soccer team. We did those every day. That, in essence, was HIIT. HIIT is just the reincarnation of something sports coaches have known for decades. That's why I don't think it's just another "fad". It's a proven way of building up your aerobic endurance.
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Interval training has been called so for a very long time too. I am not quite sure where you guys are thinking that it is a new term from?

And HIIT is more anaerobic than aerobic.
 
Steve said:
IT and HIIT have been around forever. I have known this forever. I am not sure who was making it out to be something new and exciting.
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Just random stuff I saw on other web pages, not you or anybody else here. However I do see quite a surge in people talking about it though and just wonder if they are jumping on the bandwagon and think that it's something really new.
 
TomO said:
I remember when I was in high school (a little over 30 yrs. ago), and we did sprints on the soccer team. We did those every day. That, in essence, was HIIT. HIIT is just the reincarnation of something sports coaches have known for decades. That's why I don't think it's just another "fad". It's a proven way of building up your aerobic endurance.
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Pick up the latest Runner's World magazine. There's a good article that explains the benefits of intervals. Basically, as crazy as it sounds, you are training your body to buffer hydrogen ions, which are a byproduct of lactic acid. It doesn't have much of anything to do with aerobic capacity.
 
Sorry, I misspoke. What I meant to say was your general endurance, i.e. your ability to go after the ball even when you're already tired out.
 
It doesn't have much of anything to do with aerobic capacity.
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It has everything to do with increasing aerobic capacity because it increases your VO2 Max. If you are increasing you maximum oxygen uptake and consumption then you in turn increase you aerobic capacity.
 
Leigh P. said:
It has everything to do with increasing aerobic capacity because it increases your VO2 Max. If you are increasing you maximum oxygen uptake and consumption then you in turn increase you aerobic capacity.
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I kind of thought that at least with cycling, the whole point of intervals is to completely overload your body with lactic acid... and the way to do that is to go anaerobic... so how does going anaerobic improve aerobic capacity? Are there different results that intervals could provide?
 
HIIT increases both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

When you push towards your threshold of VO2 Max you are building up higher oxygen intake patterns per min. This increases your aerobic capacity. When you pass over that threshold into an anaerobic state that is when lactic acid levels build in your muscles. This is what increases your anaerobic capacity.

The two essentially go hand in hand.

HIIT isn't the only method of interval training but in my opinion it is the best at it serves both those purposes.
 
Leigh,
I'm no certified trainer, obviously, but I have to say that I have noticed a real uptick in my aerobic capacity since I started doing HIIT 3x / wk about a month ago. A month ago, 128-130 bpm was my "steady state" level; today it is more like 135 bpm. (I'm 58, so I figure my max hr is 168). And it has also increased my anaerobic capacity. A month ago, a minute at 150 bpm was about all I could do; now I'm able to handle 2 min. at 150, followed by 1 minute at 155-157 bpm.

I suppose the improvement in aerobic capacity comes from the fact that in an hour long workout, I spend only 20 min. of that above 140 bpm, and all the rest of it is around 135 bpm
 
That is great TomO.

If interested here is an abstract of one of the main significant studies done that lead to HIIT becoming what it is today.
 
Leigh,
So do you think a 1 hr long HIIT routine is too much? One of the ones I do, for example, consists of around 20 1 min. sprints at 85% to 95% of max hr, with the remainder at around 65% to 80% of max hr. Remember, I still have 60 lbs. left to lose, too!
 
You rock Leigh, that is all. I have been MIA, but I can see that this thread was left in good hands. ;)
 
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