HIIT: Am I doing it right?

[annettemarie]

I'm meeting with the personal trainer tomorrow morning, but I really don't know how good he is; he's on the staff at Planet Fitness.

Anyway... I found this article and chart:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/...les.asp?id=621

And I'm on week one, so it looks like this:

Get on the bike. Warm up until my heart rate is around 120-130 (I'm 37 if that makes a difference in figuring things out). I do that for 5 minutes. Then I just go crazy for a minute, which takes my heart rate up around 155-165. Then I get it back down to 130-140 for 4 minutes. Then I go crazy again for 1 minute. Then I bring it back down to 130-140 for a minute. Then I cool down for 5 minutes.

It all seems too easy.

And should I be doing this every day or mixing it up with something else? And what? My goal is to lose the other 40 pounds (last year I lost 30).

[bronxmom]

I'd do shorter but better recoveries and push harder on your sprints. For me, I do 2 min recovery, 1 min sprint for 5 cycles. For the sprint, my heart rate hits 170-180. In my recovery I try to get it back down to the 120's or at least 130's. On the treadmill (for me), this translates to: recoveries at 3mph and 2% incline, sprints at 2% incline that are 7.8mph, 7.9mph, 8mph for the last 3. Each time I try to go just a little bit harder on the sprints. It's REALLY hard. If you feel like it's too easy then you probably aren't pushing hard enough. The keys are to go as hard as you can on the sprints and to really allow your body to recover (go super easy) on the recoveries. This has really increased my aerobic capacity.

New Rules of Lifting for Women also has a strategy for doing this, stopping altogether for 5 minutes and then doing whatever steady state cardio you might want if you really want to log more cardio time. Not sure how it works but I'm doing HIIT, lifting and some much slower, longer, low-level cardio and am losing fairly steadily (and I don't do great on the diet front).

[425lisamarie]

Well I do NOT run, so I do them on the eliptical or the climber, and I don't always do it the same. You want to ease in to it increasing your time. 15 minutes or so at first is PLENTY hard. RIght now I am doing a short warm up, then 3 minutes hard, then about 2 min slow. It's really not totally rocket science, like I've had trainers tell me all sorts of different time ratios, and heart rates, but basically I just go with my body. I don't check my heart rate, I just hall ass for a few minutes, then slow it down. If you are dizzy and pass out, you went to hard, and if you find it easy to speak a sentence you're not workin hard enough . If you have 3 days to work out, I'd do 2 HIIT and maybe a third, and if you REALLY want to burn some fat do about 20 minutes of HIIT, then 20 minutes of slow cardio after like maybe once a week if you have time. You would be suprised how EASY it is to do the slower cardio AFTER 20 minutes of HIIT it just feels like a really long cool down.

[annettemarie]

Thanks! I'm comfortable just following the chart for now, and I'll print it out and see what the trainer says. My biggest concern is that I'm hitting the right targets. It's really confusing to me, and it doesn't help that the gym heart rate sensors seem wonky to me.

I was also wondering how often to do it and what to do on off days, so the slow cardio tip is great.

At the gym, I have access to treadmills, recumbant bikes, and regular bikes. They have ellipticals and something like it but different but they kill my knees. They have free weights, but that area scares me. It's where all the jocks hang out. They have machines, but a lot of what I've read says the machines are pretty worthless. There's also a 30 minute circuit, but people don't use it right and you can never just go through smoothly.

Running outside kills my asthma, and I'm not doing it in the cold anyway. At home, I have a bunch of Biggest Loser DVDs (30 Day Shred, Yoga for Weight Loss and maybe one or two others), and for Wii: My Fitness Coach, Biggest Loser, and Wii Fit. I also have 2 and 3 pound weights.

I also have the book 8 Minutes in the Morning and like to start my day with that. I can get to the gym at least 3 days a week, but often 2 of those days are in a row (Friday and Saturday) and can work out at home every day.

I'm just really having a tough time sifting through all the info out there and working out an exercise routine that's going to really help me start burning through the fat. The best support and advice I've gotten has been here on MDC!

[MsVyky]

If you need 5 minutes of recovery now, so be it, but bronxmom is right- you have to give those intervals 1000%.


Don't be afraid of free weights or the jocks near them- people in the gym are too into themselves and their workouts to notice you, I promise


(except maybe the muscle dummies who only bench and work bis and go to the gym to flex their stupid biceps and check out women)

[425lisamarie]

i only use free weights and I am very muscly and in a gym and I notice people Like if someone needs help i'm not flexing my stupid muscles I always offer a big smile and a "hello" as if to say "i'll help if you need...."

It's suprising because I go to a pretty mainstream big gym and there are very few people who are that "dumb muscle head" type. I think people just assume. Just like people assume if you are a fitness/figure competitor you are obsessed with your looks and don't eat.


but back on topic how did your workout go?

[annettemarie]

Just to clarify, I wasn't calling anyone dumb or anything else. They scare me because they know what they're doing and I very obviously don't. Also, the free weight area tends to be a very male area of the gym, and I don't like to be the short pushing-40 fat chick among all the young sweaty boys.

[JTA Mom]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Just to clarify, I wasn't calling anyone dumb or anything else. They scare me because they know what they're doing and I very obviously don't. Also, the free weight area tends to be a very male area of the gym, and I don't like to be the short pushing-40 fat chick among all the young sweaty boys.

Don't worry about it. I've been to a few different gyms, and while it is a very male area of the gym, they are actually pretty nice. The 'looks' I've gotten are more like 'awe' type looks. I can see them thinking 'wow, finally a chick who 'gets' it'. They are also really helpful if you ask them (once I couldn't find a pin for a machine), but for the most part, they leave you alone. It takes some focus to lift weights, so they won't be oogling you, unless you have really bad form, in which case they will let you know in a usually nice, non-embarrassing way.

ETA: I'm younger, but I'm fat. I'm also short. (5'3'', 195lbs). So I totally get the feeling of uncomfortableness that can go along with it.

After getting the weights, you don't need to sit right next to them working out. You can take them elsewhere in the gym, work out there, and bring them back. At least, that's what I do in the gym I'm at right now. It's too crowded by the free weights.

[425lisamarie]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Just to clarify, I wasn't calling anyone dumb or anything else. They scare me because they know what they're doing and I very obviously don't. Also, the free weight area tends to be a very male area of the gym, and I don't like to be the short pushing-40 fat chick among all the young sweaty boys.

Oh I know you weren't you are always mindful! I was only responding to the sarcastic notion about self absorbd-ness and muscle dummies . A purely emotional response and I sould ignore!

[Penelope]

Annette, how are you treating your asthma? I find that my doctor always wants to over treat mine, but I do use an albuterol inhaler before I run and on longer runs (ie, exercise of more than an hour) I take it with me.

[annettemarie]

I don't treat it at all, really. I was pregnant and then not pregnant and then pregnant and then not pregnant and it just went by the wayside. Before I was running it was only ever an issue on really cold winter nights if I was out after dark. Inside running, it's not an issue, just outside, and I really have zero desire to run outside right now. It's freaking freezing.

I talked with the personal trainer. They finally hired a woman, which was nice. Anyway, she said I'm doing it right, although she thought the chart I linked too started out too easy and I should skip ahead, LOL! She suggested a 5-10 minute warm up on any of the cardio machines, than gave me 5 machines to do 2 sets of 12 reps (legs and belly mostly I think) but to only do that every other day. She said to then do the HIIT every day I could get to the gym. So we'll see how it goes. I'm really going to try to better at tracking calories as well. I think I can just sort of wing it, and I"m pretty sure that's what's killing me.