HIIT and Muscle gain

Well I am still new to weight training since I did not start that long ago but I do a fullbody workout 3 times a week and would also like to do some cardio once or twice on their own days and I wanted to do HIIT. I wanted to put on some muscle so I was wondering if I just did HIIT on a treadmill once or twice a week would I lose alot of muscle or would it slow down the process of building muscle?
 
Done properly (just enough to be effective and not too much to burn excessive calories and require significant recovery time) HIIT should help you build muscle in the long term. The purpose is to stimulate the release of hormones, particularly hgh, which signals the body to burn fat and grow muscle.
 
2-3 times a week of HIIT cardio is sufficient

and HIIT cardio is different from normal cardio, like dswithers says, it burns fat more efficiently and avoids burning muscle.
 
dswithers said:
Done properly (just enough to be effective and not too much to burn excessive calories and require significant recovery time) HIIT should help you build muscle in the long term. The purpose is to stimulate the release of hormones, particularly hgh, which signals the body to burn fat and grow muscle.

If I do it just enough how long do I have to do it for about 20-25 minutes?
 
TH1 said:
If I do it just enough how long do I have to do it for about 20-25 minutes?

depends on you

most people do it for 10-15 minutes , or up to 30 minutes.

the thing however is to note:

its intense, do it only 2-3 times a week. no more.
 
Would it be realistic to include just a normal 30 minute run on the days that you do not do HIIT (Provided there's not considerable soreness or injury)? Or would that be pushing the muscles too hard?
 
InfernoOSU said:
Would it be realistic to include just a normal 30 minute run on the days that you do not do HIIT (Provided there's not considerable soreness or injury)? Or would that be pushing the muscles too hard?

no not realistic at all because high intensity interval training is all the cardio you need :)
 
The difference between HIIT and running endurance-style is that the fat burn from HIIT is through the activation of hormones your metabolism increases alot, so from the 300-500 calories you burn from running 30 minutes you can burn about 1500 over 2 days from your metabolism, but the hormone activates so it only burns lipids (fat). Also endurance training makes your body go into a catabolic state and starts eating up muscle.
 
So how do people run marathons? If the muscle is getting broke down, wouldn't it be nearly impossible to run a marathon or especially train for a triathalon? The HIIT training makes sense to me I'm just curious how endurance training actually hurts you.
 
How many marathon runners do you see who have significant muscle mass? Most of them weight less than 150 pounds and have 10" arms! You can not run marathons or triathalons and gain muscle mass. And of course if you pound the pavement that much you will sooner or later develop severe damage to your joints (ankles, knees, hips, etc.).
 
dswithers said:
How many marathon runners do you see who have significant muscle mass? Most of them weight less than 150 pounds and have 10" arms! You can not run marathons or triathalons and gain muscle mass. And of course if you pound the pavement that much you will sooner or later develop severe damage to your joints (ankles, knees, hips, etc.).

yes. people who do marathons are often skinny/slender
 
as long as you take the correct nutrition (same as when you lift) there will be no problem with hiit.
the human body is very efficient it doesnt want to carry around heavy muscle for 26 miles thats why marathon runners are so slender it makes sense when you think about it.
 
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