HIIT for beginners

M

MadalynB

0
Due to college and having a desk job, I've pretty much been a couch potato for the past year and I'm REALLY out of shape, as well as super chubby. I want to try and get in shape and trim down, so I decided to try HIIT. Normal Cardio just doesn't work for me, it's just too hard for me to just do the same thing for an hour (yeah I know there's a ton of different ways to make it fun but I just can't exercise for long periods of time). I've read a lot of mixed reviews of HIIT, as well as a lot of stuff I don't understand, and frankly right now don't have the time to learn (optimal heart rate and stuff? I understand the concepts but it's all so confusing) so my HIIT wasn't very effective, however I found this article that makes it plain and I really understand it, but I want to know if what he's saying is true. Is his logic sound, or am I just wasting my time?



A short summary is basically, warm up for five minutes, then do 30 seconds of intense exercise, (basically push yourself as hard as you can go as fast as you can go) then 2 minutes of active rest (walking or light jogging) and then repeat that eight times, and cool down.

Am I on the right track, or wasting my time?
 
So, that's a total of 25 minutes.

Now, there are a lot of people who will argue HIIT against Cardio. I have had success with both, but some people will tell you that HIIT isn't going to do much for you seeing as you are only pushing yourself for 30 seconds at a time then walking for 2 minutes. My breaks were never that long, though. The longest break I've ever taken during a HIIT routine is 1 minute. Also, HIIT isn't supposed to burn many calories during the actual workout. HIIT is done to burn more calories during periods of rest(not at the gym) while most of the calories lost from cardio are lost during the exercise.

There are others who will argue that doing HIIT is very beneficial because it keeps your body from breaking down muscle. The "sprinter/runner" comparison is the best one. Look at a guy who runs marathons and a guy who runs sprints. The guy who runs sprints is typically going to be a more muscular guy, while the runner is going to be very thin and non muscular. This is "because" constant cardio can deplete your body's glycogen surplus and cause your body to start to break down muscle for nutrients, whereas HIIT doesn't last long enough to cause your body to need to do this. Now, in actuality, these two athletes train in completely different ways, so the comparison is kind of pointless, but it's still thrown around a lot.

A specific HIIT routine I will do is as follows...

-45 second sprint.
-1 minute shadow boxing in front of a mirror.
-Repeat 6x

This is about 10 minutes, so in your time frame, you could go through it 12 times with five minutes to spare and burn a decent amount of cals because you're, pretty much, constantly moving, and it won't wear you down as much as you think because you're rotating which parts of your body are being worked.

I'll do that(or something similiar) at the end of my weight routine.

Hope any of this helps, and good luck.
 
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How long have you been working out? I've never really been "in shape" so I'm starting from ZERO. While I understand the two minutes is less than ideal, I could barely complete the eight rounds. I finished, but was incredibly out of breath by the end of it. I'm extremely out of shape, and I'm not sure if I could finish what you described. The article is written specifically for "couch potatoes" and says that

"'This article is intended as a starter for people who have never worked out a day in their life or are extremely out of shape. If you’re already in decent shape but looking to take things to the next level, you will probably want to head over to a more advanced article on high intensity interval training."

Which definitely applies to me.
 
I've been lifting for about 5 years. I've been active for about 15. Two minutes would be fine starting out. I realize you're starting from the ground up. I was more or less providing points of argument from both sides of the cardio/HIIT discussion. Honestly, I think you should try cardio at first to build up your endurance enough to be able to do the HIIT without wanting to vomit everywhere lol, but that's just me. If you could barely breath by the end of it, then you know it did something. The guy that got me into lifting used to tell me that "If you can't wait to stop, then you're doing it right".
 
^ Makes me think of when I was put through lactic threshold training a few years back. We had 3 sets of 6 200m runs. Within each set, we started each run every 3min, on the min, and targeted about a 40sec run, if I recall correctly (gradually, our times all slowed down; no surprises there). Between each set was a longer rest period, I can't remember how long. By the end of the second set, I pretty certain I was going to throw up. Somehow I made it to the end of the session without vomiting.

I'd agree with starting with more moderate activity to accumulate to the workload and learn how to move your body before heading into HIIT.
 
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