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7:52 pm
May 28, 2010
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gregsfc
| | Rickman, Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 145 | |
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I have a small build and have trouble adding muscle. Staying lean, however, is not a problem for me. So my purpose for doing cardio is to stay heart healthy; not for fat loss, however, HIIT, while recommended for folks like me, has been kicking my butt. I have been lifting 4 days out of 9 and HIIT only twice every 9, but I feel like this program is causing me to overtrain. I usually follow a full-body routine, but lately I've been on a upper-body, lower-body split.
Day 1 – Upper body
Day 2 – HIIT
Day 3 – Lower Body
Day 4 – Rest
Day 5 Upper body
Day 6 HIIT
Day 7 Lower Body
Day 8 Rest
Day 9 Rest
From what I've read about HIIT, one must really go pretty instense from 15 sec. burst to 45 sec., followed by walk or jog, but those 30 sec. sprints tire me out just about as bad as doing a set of squats, even though the entire workout is only 15-16 minutes. After HIIT, I'm doing lower body the next day. If I try to do HIIT on any other day, I'll either be too sore from lower body day, or I'll be on a resistance-training day. I can't see reducing cardio to less than twice per nine days.
For now, I've gone back to just slow, 21 minute jogs. I don't see how this could prevent hypertrophy more than going to near maximum heart rate seven times in 16 minutes.
Anyway, I'm starting my 4th, nine day cycle soon, and I'll go back to some sort of full body routine.
Any comments, questions or suggestions?
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7:43 pm
May 31, 2010
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gregsfc
| | Rickman, Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 145 | |
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Let me try again. Anyone have any comments or experiences with HIIT training? It's supposed to be more muscle saving that aerobic training.
I've tried it and don't like it. It's too intense for me; feels like another workout day, and I feel like I would need to take another day off in my program for each day of HIIT I perform. On the other hand, a nice, slow run for 21-22 minutes seems not to derail me whatsoever. In fact, during only my second, nine-day cycle (fourth HIIT session), I had to take an extra day off, because HIIT had so worn me out.
How badly can 2, twenty-two minute jogs every nine days burn up muscle for someone that has trouble gaining and keeping muscle; versus a 16-min., high-intensity program that puts you at near max heart rate six or seven times?
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7:56 pm
May 31, 2010
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Cameron
| | Greensboro, NC | |
| Member | posts 250 | 
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2 times isn't really that big of a deal to worry about. Just make sure you have your carbs beforehand. It takes you body lnger than that to use up it's stores…
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2:18 pm
June 2, 2010
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Darrin
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Funny thing Greg – I've actually been putting together a routine almost exactly like what you are talking about. I call it the URL workout – Upper, Run, Lower, then recovery day, repeat. I'll be talking more about about it once I find the time to actually finish it and get some testers…
Anyway, in terms of burning muscle, 2 times in 9 days will not burn any muscle. However, if you are truly a person who has trouble gaining muscle, the running will consume calories that won't be available for muscle growth. To grow, muscles need stimulus, nutrients/calories [fuel], and rest. You are not over-training (over stimulating). You "might" be limiting the fuel if you are one of the rare types, but that's not really because of the HIIT – it would be because you aren't (possibly) eating enough. The final component – rest – is probably not a problem either because of the sequence. If you were doing HIIT the day after lower body, I'd be nervous. But you aren't, so I'm not.
And in a practical sense, if you did 30 minutes of steady state running instead of HIIT, that probably won't change the above paragraph because you are only talking 2 days every 9. So if you feel better doing steady state, do that.
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10:21 pm
June 2, 2010
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Cameron
| | Greensboro, NC | |
| Member | posts 250 |
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Adding on to Darrin:
It may not be you are eating too little, it can also be that you are not eating the right foods and the right time…
Just a suggestion.
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7:00 pm
June 3, 2010
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gregsfc
| | Rickman, Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 145 | |
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I'll post an example of a day of meals in the eating forum. Of course, you'll not be able to tell if I'm eating enough (because we all have different caloric needs), but you can tell if I'm mixing the macronutrients correctly.
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11:07 pm
June 3, 2010
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Cameron
| | Greensboro, NC | |
| Member | posts 250 |
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Posting the percentage of your daily intake too might help as well. Both in Calories, and the macro….
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12:54 pm
July 2, 2010
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Darrin
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Anybody ever try – for an extended period of several weeks to a few months – doing steady state cardio and then, at the end, doing 10 minutes or so of HIIT? I've been trying it for the past 2 weeks, because my knee is now healthy enough and after 3 or 4 miles of steady state running my mind and heart want more but I don't want to kill my knee.
I'm asking because I'm wondering what the joint impacts are. If your knees have just been pounded at low intensity for 30 minutes, and then you subject them to high intensity intervals, is that good/bad/neutral?
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1:49 pm
July 2, 2010
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Cameron
| | Greensboro, NC | |
| Member | posts 250 |
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I've never heard of a healthy person having a real issue with it, but i've never tried it.. so I can't say either ways.
Knowing a slight bit about your routines though, I don't think it'd be an issue for you since you do inculde some olympic, high-impact lifts into your routines.
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3:35 pm
July 2, 2010
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gregsfc
| | Rickman, Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 145 | |
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I've done sprints at the end of steady state, but in the last couple of years, this seems to affect my recovery time for resistance training; but it's also the same for me with just straight HIIT.
I've noticed that when I was having problems with my left knee, fast running caused pain more than anthing else. Even more than a hard leg workout, but the pain always let me know not to do it, or to slow down.
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5:28 pm
July 3, 2010
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Darrin
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thanks guys. so far it's working well for me – my knee is 100% now and adding in HIIT and plyometrics after steady state running doesn't seem to be aggrevating it. i will say though that doing hiit after steady state is tough. I've not been timing my sprints but they are not as fast as when I do them fresh. But metabolically, I'm still giving it my full effort so the result on VO2 and fat burning should be solid.
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1:54 am
July 4, 2010
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Cameron
| | Greensboro, NC | |
| Member | posts 250 |
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EPOC is a great thing. :) Go Darrin.
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