Hi,

The more thought I have put into how I should be working out on the elliptical, the more confused I feel. Can someone please give me an example of an effective HIIT and LISS program that I can use on the elliptical. (Time, RPM, and resistance). My elliptical does not have an incline setting, just a resistance and I can adjust the strides. I have the stride set on the highest which is more a cycle than a ski.

Thanks
Lisa

It's really pretty easy. But the key is to get yourself a heart rate monitor. Without it you won't be able to keep in the LISS range. Ok, here it is in a nutshell:

LISS - slow and steady as it implies. Keep heartrate between 95 - 110 bpm. You may not even work up a sweat but are in the optimum fat burning range. Do this first thing in the a.m. right out of bed on an empty stomach and/or immediately following your weight trng. Start out with 20 minutes and increase in 10 minute increments as fat loss stalls.

HIIT - warmup up with a LISS pace. Do intervals of 20 seconds all out pace with an increased resistance of say 4 or 5 levels from your LISS. Do 40 seconds of recovery at your LISS pace. Do another 20 seconds all out, 40 seconds recovery. Five minute cooldown. Start with 10 intervals and increase over the period of a few weeks as needed when fat loss stalls. I never did more than 25 intervals during my competition prep. Total of 35 minutes on the piece of equipment.

This should give you a good start.

Af Chiq,

Thank you, that information was helpful. For LISS, should the reistance be set really low or should there be any resistance?


And for HIIT, for the 20 seconds all out, am I going as fast as possible at a high resistance?

Thanks
Lisa

LISS resistance all depends on your HR. If you can't get it up into the 95-110 BPM, increase the resistance. You'll just have to adjust it as needed when you first start doing it until you figure out what puts you in the range. Once I got the hang of it and tuned into my body, I didn't wear the heart rate monitor every session.

HIIT, for the 20 seconds all out, go as fast as you possible can with an increased resistance. Not so much that you can't move the pedals, just 4 or 5 levels above your LISS resistance.

Am I making sense here? Sometimes it looks good to us when we write it but confuses the person asking the question. LOL.

AF Chiq is right - resistance level doesn't really matter, it's dependent on the individual. With LISS you really just have to monitor your heart rate. For example, I know now that in the morning I don't need much resistance at all to get my heart rate to that 110ish zone - but after a workout I need to crank up the resistance to a 5 or 6 to get there. Plus you can get the desired heart rate with different combos - like really low resistance with high RPMs, or higher resistance with really low RPMS... some of it is a preference thing. The key really is just monitoring your heart rate.

For HIIT - during the intervals your heart rate should easily be around 140-150 bpm.

Get a HR monitor girlie! That is the best investment. I've become dependent on it for my training. It makes a big difference in effective training, I think.

Thanks everyone for your responses. This all makes more sense now. I actually do have a HR monitor and I have been going way too fast. So this morning I did the ellitical on a resistance of 4 and my heart rate was at 104. I'm stuck on this resistance issue because I see my butt and thighs getting bigger. My size 2's fit in the waist but my legs are just thick and I had a guy tell me that my legs are too muscular for a woman. That hurt because I work really hard. I feel I need to lean my lower body out. Should I stop doing squats since I carry most of my weight in my lower body?

Thanks
Lisa

quote:

Originally posted by LAW:
Thanks everyone for your responses. This all makes more sense now. I actually do have a HR monitor and I have been going way too fast. So this morning I did the ellitical on a resistance of 4 and my heart rate was at 104. I'm stuck on this resistance issue because I see my butt and thighs getting bigger. My size 2's fit in the waist but my legs are just thick and I had a guy tell me that my legs are too muscular for a woman. That hurt because I work really hard. I feel I need to lean my lower body out. Should I stop doing squats since I carry most of my weight in my lower body?

Thanks
Lisa

Consider the source, lol. What is "too big?"

Dont quit squatting altogether. Perhaps squat every other workout. But, if you want smaller legs keep that diet on track, the cario rocking and training hard, stripping that fat is what will make them appear sleek.

Don't quit squats. When I switched over to LISS I lost my ass completely.