I am currently half way through an 8 week programme of HIIT cardio. I started at 4 minutes total and am working my way up to 15 mins. My intervals are 30 seconds active rest and 30 seconds of intensity.
I recently read a post on another website that said it is more to do with heart rate rather than speeds and time of intervals. Basically it seemed to say that that you focus on getting your heart rate up to 90% of max and then back to about 60-70% of max. This got me wondering if my approach is wrong? Any thoughts? Maybe if I increased my active rest to 1 minute rathr than 30 seconds I would be able to get my heart rate down furthur/recover more so that I could go really hard again on the intensity burst. Maybe my 30 secs on and 30 secs off is hindering my level of intensity throughout the duration of my cardio.
Any thoughts/experiences/opinions on this would be grateful
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(stu1508 @ Apr. 03 2008,09:37)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I am currently half way through an 8 week programme of HIIT cardio. I started at 4 minutes total and am working my way up to 15 mins. My intervals are 30 seconds active rest and 30 seconds of intensity.
I recently read a post on another website that said it is more to do with heart rate rather than speeds and time of intervals. Basically it seemed to say that that you focus on getting your heart rate up to 90% of max and then back to about 60-70% of max. This got me wondering if my approach is wrong? Any thoughts? Maybe if I increased my active rest to 1 minute rathr than 30 seconds I would be able to get my heart rate down furthur/recover more so that I could go really hard again on the intensity burst. Maybe my 30 secs on and 30 secs off is hindering my level of intensity throughout the duration of my cardio.
Any thoughts/experiences/opinions on this would be grateful</div>
I claim no particular expertise on this subject. However, when I run HIIT sprints, I usually sprint for 30 seconds, then walk for 60 seconds. That gives my heart a chance to slow down a bit (and lets me keep at it for 12 -- 15 minutes).
Many thanks for taking the time to reply. The more and more I think about it this is the approach I think I should take. The thing is I am not sure how I could then make this a progressive programme. I want it to be that over time (maybe on a weekly basis) that the intensity increases. With the way I had my original programme set up I was increasing the about of intervals on a weekly basis. Once I had got to 15 minutes I was going to run the programme for a couple more weeks and then go back to 4 minutes but increase the resistance levels on the sprints. How could I progressively increase the intensity if I stick with 1 minute active rest and 30 seconds sprints??
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(stu1508 @ Apr. 03 2008,19:03)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Many thanks for taking the time to reply. The more and more I think about it this is the approach I think I should take. The thing is I am not sure how I could then make this a progressive programme. I want it to be that over time (maybe on a weekly basis) that the intensity increases. With the way I had my original programme set up I was increasing the about of intervals on a weekly basis. Once I had got to 15 minutes I was going to run the programme for a couple more weeks and then go back to 4 minutes but increase the resistance levels on the sprints. How could I progressively increase the intensity if I stick with 1 minute active rest and 30 seconds sprints??</div>
just run as fast and all out as you can for the 30secs recover and go again as many times as you can,you might start at 10 times so to improve that you need to go 11 times etc.
but if i have set my amount of time for hiit as 15 minutes, how can I increase intensity over time(weekly/monthly) try to increase my speed on my sprint intervals every couple of weeks? I want to be able to measure improvement so the workout doesn't become stale
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(stu1508 @ Apr. 03 2008,20:19)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">but if i have set my amount of time for hiit as 15 minutes, how can I increase intensity over time(weekly/monthly) try to increase my speed on my sprint intervals every couple of weeks? I want to be able to measure improvement so the workout doesn't become stale</div>
if you run full out for 30secs as your fitness gets better your distance for the 30 secs will get longer,you could put markers down,TBH as long as you run all out then there is no need to keep tabs,all out is all out.
