The FastDay Forum

Member # 8 reporting in.
I did my 3rd HIT session of the week this morning, and this time I remembered about the Heart Rate Monitor thingy BEFORE I started. It's still pretty tough and my HR peaked at 168. I did notice that doing intervals it actually dipped in the hard work and rose in the intervals, I found that counter-intuitive, but put it down to a delay in monitoring.

I think the sprints are performed anaerobically, or should be, so breathing/HR do not get raised until several seconds later, then they continue to rise whilst easing off in an effort to repay the oxygen debt that has been created. Well, it makes sense to me...

I completed my third and last hit of this week today. Now I can rest for the weekend . Not that I'm there yet, but when this gets much easier, do I increase the duration of the high intensity sets at the number d sets I do?

Ok, I'll try it. Went on the treadmill again today and varied my speed between 2.8 and 3.6, 2 minutes at each for 18 mins plus cool down.
I need to spend time getting fitter before attempting HIT in the manner explained by MM.
Fitbit gave a disappointing step count, but that's still better than nursing a black coffee over my laptop!
I used to do a lot of mountain biking before I had 3 knee ops then a new knee. I'd like some semblance of fitness back.

Once again, Thank You @CreakyPete when put like that it makes sense

Just finished my third session of the week, too. It should have been yesterday but I ran out of time! 2008 metres with 3 x 30 seconds bursts of faster pace, interspersed with cool downs. I am intending to do another session tomorrow so that I can get back on track. I can't believe that I have been doing this for two weeks now - me, the hardened couch potato!

oh, @Julieathome, I do hope you didn't hurt yourself! Can you do your warmup/cooldown on the crosstrainer in future? I think it's a good thing to do your intervals on a really low resistance, Steve Boutcher reckons speed is much more important than resistance in getting the desired effect, so you need to go fast, but not hard.

@MLCDz, I guess that's kinda good news that it's working then? Not good to be having hypos, though - I think you're on insulin, aren't you - do you have the ability to decrease it yourself?

so, #26 reporting in on my 8th HIIT session - everything is pretty much ISQ, as they say - saw a fleeting 162 on my heart rate monitor today. But I didn't have as much fear & apprehension getting on today, I'm still saying to myself that I can get off at the 15 minute mark if I'm struggling, although I haven't had to. Today I pretty much went full-pelt, certainly for the first 10 minutes, then cut it back about 5% for the second ten. Starting to feel better afterwards too - which means I can go on & do other things soon afterwards, instead of needing to collapse! I hope "Squeaky" my cross-trainer will last the distance, I discovered a washer & bolt on the carpet today! Just can't work out where it came from...

Can anyone tell me if I' on the right lines, please?

I've done my 3rd day on the treadmill (taken @Sians's advice and given it a name) and this morning I did 20 mins (I am 'working up to it gently) at between 2.8 and 3.2, with some short bursts (30seconds or so) at 4/4.2. Do you think this is right to be starting with?
I can feel I've done some exercise, but am not aching. In the past, I've gone at things like the proverbial bull in a china shop, but I'd rather take it gently and be in it for the duration of my active life.

If I'm on the right track, I'll join up @Juliana.rivers

I'm just back from my third HIIT session this week, so I've done what I set out to do, yay!

This week I've done one cardio session where I ran, one stregth training, and today's cardio which was a combination of running and jumping up the steps and running (I did two sets, I'm very surprised I managed!)

Only issue is that I've been trying to do tabata intervals, and today though I really thought the stair climbing was working me hard I had to leave longer than 10 secs rest as I am literally running up steps outside and so I need the time to get back down before I start again...I also ran out of steps the first two times but then I obviously got slower so it was OK.

What do we think, is it still going to work if I have say 20 secs rest rather than 10?

Hi, PennyForthem. I am a total novice at this, too, and I'm using a rowing machine (it means that I can sit down!) not a treadmill, but my understanding of MM's 'Fast Exercise' book is that one only 'needs' to do 10 minutes, three times a week.

This involves a warm up period, then 2 or 3 short, fast bursts of 20 to 30 seconds with recovery periods in between, then followed by a cool down at a slower pace. He recommends that these sessions are alternated with strength exercises but I'm not even considering doing those yet!

He actually suggests that there is evidence that doing more than three times a week produces no further benefits - so that was music to my ears! Being a (very) reluctant exerciser, I can encourage myself by saying'It's only ten minutes!' If I had to commit to thirty minutes a day, I know that I would already have given up!

By the way, he doesn't in any way imply that one shouldn't do any more/other exercise but his HIT regime is only as outlined above. Please understand that this is only my interpretation of his book and there are lots of other variations on the HIT theme out there, as can be seen on this thread!

Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of all of this exercise stuff will be along soon to give us more information!

Only issue is that I've been trying to do tabata intervals, and today though I really thought the stair climbing was working me hard I had to leave longer than 10 secs rest as I am literally running up steps outside and so I need the time to get back down before I start again...I also ran out of steps the first two times but then I obviously got slower so it was OK.

What do we think, is it still going to work if I have say 20 secs rest rather than 10?

Tabata is one of the few intervals, actually, where up-time is greater than down-time. Some others are doing 8s-up/12s-down, 30s-up/60s-down, etc.

Any interval, actually, should work just fine. If you can monitor your heart rate in the 15-30 seconds after the end your last up-time interval that will tell you a lot.

Certainly with steps you are probably better off with more down-time than up-time. The extra resting seconds shouldn't give you too much recovery and your heart rate should still be ratcheting up.

Thanks @BruceE, heart rate was certainly through the roof throughout and I was panting like crazy after the second set, so the intervals are probably fine. I'll monitor my heart rate next time like you suggest and see where I am

Hi Folks,

#28 checking-in.

I completed my 8th HIT session on Thursday, using an elliptical trainer. This is now 7 x 45 secs at level 16 with 2 mins warm-up and 4 mins recovery for 31 minutes in total. Maximum pulse 167.

Today I took my blood pressure and it's improved greatly during the last 3 weeks as has the resting pulse.

I see the last few weeks as a HIT "Induction" course and haven't done any other exercise. So today I went to the gym and did the usual Low/moderate intensity sessions on 4 cardio machines (exercise bike, cross-trainer, treadmill and elliptical trainer) for calorie burn targets of 225,225, 350 and 200 (1000 cals total). Also 10 fixed weight machines between the first few cardio sets. I was interested to see whether there was any improvement...

Here's the key findings: The first three cardio were all done at higher levels, but with lower average and maximum heart rates!! So this is a "quantum leap" type improvement! At the end, I lost the will-power to just dawdle along on the cross-trainer and ended up doing 4 x 30 seconds HIT (total gym time 2.5 hours)

Hi Folks,

#28 checking-in.

I completed my 8th HIT session on Thursday, using an elliptical trainer. This is now 7 x 45 secs at level 16 with 2 mins warm-up and 4 mins recovery for 31 minutes in total. Maximum pulse 167.

Today I took my blood pressure and it's improved greatly during the last 3 weeks as has the resting pulse.

I see the last few weeks as a HIT "Induction" course and haven't done any other exercise. So today I went to the gym and did the usual Low/moderate intensity sessions on 4 cardio machines (exercise bike, cross-trainer, treadmill and elliptical trainer) for calorie burn targets of 225,225, 350 and 200 (1000 cals total). Also 10 fixed weight machines between the first few cardio sets. I was interested to see whether there was any improvement...

Here's the key findings: The first three cardio were all done at higher levels, but with lower average and maximum heart rates!! So this is a "quantum leap" type improvement! At the end, I lost the will-power to just dawdle along on the cross-trainer and ended up doing 4 x 30 seconds HIT (total gym time 2.5 hours)

Thank you for sharing your experiences

Oh god I am so confused. I've been travelling with work and on a skiing holiday so no fasts but stuck to 16:8 for a lot. Not long til the valenitine goal but might as well start now. However, I've read all posts and I'm confused. I'm still travelling with work and not back home til end of next week. I have a hotel room - that is my only place I can exercise as didn't bring runners or gym gear. From what I can gather you do 3 short aerobic days and 2 strength days? However I'm confused by 40 up and 20 down and all this malarky. Every time I look it up on the internet it is asking me to pay for the plan. I would consider myself fairly fit but quite soft so really want to know what I should do. What are MM's recommendations for strength training and is it possible to do all of this with no gym eqipment and essentially using your own body weight. Some people seem to do 10 mins and others up to 20mins -I'm just really confused and I'm already reading a paleo book and 5:2 book so don't have time to start another book. If someone could give me a plan or a good website I'd very much appreciate it