HIIT: Not for the light-hearted

By: Josh Heob, STRONG Gym  Sponsored Athlete and Team Gorman Coach

 

Before we get deep into this I want to differentiate between people just doing higher intensity intervals and what I actually call “HIIT”. If you don’t feel like dying, puking or maybe your vision is getting a little dim and you think you might pass out during the middle of your intervals, not just by the end, then you aren’t doing it right. I do not care how good your conditioning and recovery is. HIIT is HIGH INTENSE and if you’re not ready to keel over then you need to be turning up the intensity or choosing a different form of HIIT to do the job. HIIT should be extremely uncomfortable and your heart rate should sky rocket as high as you can get it.  Again, if you don’t feel like this then simply put you’re doing it wrong. (More to explain a little later as to why you do this.)

 

Alright so back tracking a little and explaining exactly what HIIT is for those who don’t know. HIIT stands for High Intense Interval Training. Keeping it short and sweet HIIT intervals would be like doing 10 total intervals over the course of 10 minutes. Each minute is comprised of 15 seconds of ALL OUT WAR (sprint) and then 45 seconds at a regular/normal/resting pace without taking a second longer of rest and not cheating a second of your sprint. HIIT can come in a lot of different forms and types of exercise. Before listing some of the forms of HIIT if you’re conditioned and need more challenge to have the same effect from HIIT then I encourage you to think outside of the box and see how you can’t make it more difficult. HIIT can be as basic as sprints outside or even up a hill for added challenge. Inside a gym: I find a stationary bike with added resistance turns over fast enough to achieve “sprint” and you should always challenge yourself to keep the pace as fast as possible or keep the RPM’s as high as possible. Barbell complexes can be used or if your gym has the equipment then tractor tire flips, battling ropes and prowlers are awesome choices as well.

 

Now a little bit of WHY we do things in this intense of a fashion because I don’t like to leave things at: “Do it because I told you to do that way.” There’s a large debate of whether or not steady state cardio is more efficient or whether HIIT is more efficient. I say they both have their place but regardless I’ll list a couple more positive takes to HIIT over steady state.

 

First of all cardio is catabolic plain and simple. I suggest keeping proper nutrition close by like BCAA’s, glutamine, vitamins and more specifically vitamin C to keep cortisol levels low. Given the time frames that you spend doing steady state and HIIT, you’ll spend much less time doing HIIT making it way less catabolic and better for muscle preservation. Don’t be surprised if there is even growth to be had from HIIT given how fast and powerful the movements are.

 

People tend to question the total calorie output of the 2 forms of cardio. While steady state may burn actual fat calories DURING the session since you’re doing it over a longer period of time anyway and glycogen is not the fuel source, HIIT has a MUCH greater effect on fat loss and calorie burn even for as long as 38 hours after the session depending on how hard you get after it during the session. This lasting effect is known as EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). Some will call it “afterburn”. The body will do this to restore the ‘oxygen debt’ caused by the intense bout. Here is why intensity is SO important… THE MORE INTENSE THE EXERCISE, THE GREATER THE ‘OXYGEN DEBT’. Your body increases oxygen consumption to restore itself to a resting state because your HIIT session was extremely difficult. Going a little further, your body also will need to restore hormone balances, replenish phosphagen stores, repair cells and oxidize the built up lactic acid. It takes energy to do ALL of those internal tasks. Guess where that energy comes from?! Fatty acids 😉 . Your body will break down fat stores to release those fatty acids into the blood stream where they will provide the necessary energy to complete the tasks of returning your body to homeostasis….. Yes, a little ‘sciencey’ for a minute but I don’t like leaving people in the dark.

 

Personally my favorite form of HIIT training is using the prowler. I’ll occasionally use a stationary bike as well, but guess what? I’ve taken the liberty upon myself to making my HIIT harder as well because we all now know the more intense the HIIT, the better. I train my HIIT sessions wearing an elevation mask currently set to 6000ft altitude. I will gladly pass out before quitting knowing I gave each session my all. My fat loss results have been insane just over the course of a few weeks of training with it. The elevation mask in its own has immense benefits to add to your overall body conditioning and not just fat loss- but that’s for another day.

 

(Note from John Gorman:  as we have been doing Josh’s prep for the 2013 NPC Mo State Championships, his HIIT training, esp when using the elevation mask, has enabled us to keep his regular MISS cardio sessions to a minimum.  Some weeks we only do 2 HIIT a week and that’s it for cardio, and he’s dropping quite a bit of fat just from that.  When we prepped in 2012 he was doing 2 MISS sessions daily toward the end, this year it’s much different and we credit that with utilizing HIIT early in the prep phase and also his ability to push beyond pain to keep going to another level.  Here is a video we shot on 5-9-13 of his HIIT session with the prowler with 50 lbs and an elevation mask at STRONG Gym)