I have been reading several of your post and a lot of you mention HIIT training when talking about cardio. Could someone please explain what it is or post the workout. Right now I am doing 25 min on the stair climber and 25 min on the treadmill. I start out with a w/u at level 3 and then bump up to 8 for 1 min and then back to 3 and then up to 8 for 2 min and so on and so on. The treadmill I w/u and then go to a 5% incline and speed of 6 and jog for 2 min, walk for 1 min, runn for 2, etc. I hate did I mention hate cardio. So anything to keep it quick and interesting would help.
thanks Lil' red

"Faith is not believing God can, it is knowing he will."

You are already describing HIIT cardio (high intensity interval training). Varying the intensity within your cardio sessions has been shown to be the best form of cardio for a couple reasons. First, the fat-burning effect from HIIT continues for a longer period of time after the session is complete than conventional (low intensity) cardio. Secondly, HIIT is thought to cause less muscle catabolism than conventional cardio.

There are a myriad of ways to create an effective HIIT program. You describe a perfectly acceptable method. HIIT can also be performed outdoors. As the weather gets a little warmer here in Ohio, i'll start doing my HIIT cardio on the track and stadium stairs. On the track, i'll sprint straightaways and jog the turns. For stadium cardio, i'll run up and jog down the stairs. All of my HIIT sessions are 20 minutes. When done correctly, 20-30 minutes is all one needs for an effective HIIT session.

"Recipe for Success: Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing."

DeWayde,

When doing HIIT on a track by sprinting the straights and jogging the corners, how many laps do you usually do? Just curious...

Shorty hit it on the head. I head to the track for HIIT. When you do HIIT at a hight school there are so many different things you can do. Stairs, box sprints, suicides, agility drills etc. Do not discount different types other than straight running. I will sometimes do footwork drills, which is not spinting but if you do them in succession long enough they will get you. Not to mention they will work your legs in a different way.

Kevin F

thank you for your input. I thought what I had described might be a hiit workout but wanted to make sure. thank you for the ideas.
l'r

"Faith is not believing God can, it is knowing he will."

Mike,

When i do HIIT on the track, i actually dont count the number of laps. I simply sprint and jog as hard as i can for the 20 minutes.

I also run up and down a mountain (literally) that has stairs going up its side. I run up and down for 20 minutes, but i try to increase the number of cycles each time i run the mountain. I counted the number of steps last year and i think it was 180 steps.

When i run stadium stairs, i also try to increase the number of "up and down" cycles i perform in 20 minutes.

"Recipe for Success: Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing."

KEWL !!

As long as this weather continues here in Ohio I am off the treadmill and headed to the high school track. We have a huge hill\mountain behind the hill that we call AGONY HILL... I'll incorporate it, sprints and all my other old football drills. Now that I am training some high school guys I can drag them along with me. Nothing like some 15 and 16 year olds to push me...lol

I would probably need about 3 or 4 high school kids....to carry me up that hill !! HA!!

No way Dwayne...can't let these lil punks beat me...lol I push them on the weights and they trash me on the speed and conditioning drills. Of course right now most of them are about 6ft tall and weigh all of 160...lol. I think I am gonna hook a few of them up on a US IV at night...

Shorty-

Where do you live??

Kevin

Chillicothe...just up the road from you.