The FastDay Forum

Hello, HIITers!

Well, I am delighted to report I've just finished my first HIT session in around 5-6 weeks - and it was actually easy, which is bizarre. I gave myself permission again to go at less than full-on pace (only needed to do that for 3 ish intervals out of 60) AND to stop at the 10 and/or the 15 minute mark if I needed to, but I didn't. HR up to 163 by 15 mins, but feeling just fine. I can only imagine that my body and/or my brain are still somehow used to those huge adrenaline surges that HIT brings. Well, they're possibly not that huge - Steve Boutcher has a graph in his "20 x 3" book, that seems to show that the noradrenaline surge with HIT is "only"(my quotes) 4-5 times resting levels - that's one if the main things that builds the growth of muscle & muscle mitochondria. I used to say 15-20 times, maybe I was wrong.

And I'm also chuffed because, weighing less now than I did before I got pregnant with my first son 24 years ago, I have finally been able to buy a proper sports bra for the first time in my life - ta-da!! Whatever my inner social activist thinks about how wrong that is that sports bras aren't available in larger sizes, it still feels like a big achievement!

Happy HITing, everyone!

[janeg]

Great news on all fronts @jools7
Good for you

Hello All

I've not been around here for a while but I'm still keen on 5:2 and HIIT. Having put on a bit of weight over Christmas, then loosing it during January we went on holiday to South Africa for February. The food and wine are excellent there and are really cheap for those of us from the UK so needless to say the weight went on again, I never stick to 5:2 on holiday and this time I didn't get a lot of exercise.
I put on 5lb and since then have been working to remove it and just have 2lb to go. My main point though is that whilst the lay of affected my weight lifting badly, I had to get lower with the weights, my running which is how I do HIIT has improved no end I run on a treadmill which is how I can tell the HI sections of my run are faster and longer than before. I have no idea why this is other than the fact that I didn't run at all for for 4 weeks. My swim speed has also improved as has my stamina. Perhaps a rest is needed to consolidate gains. Any ideas?

Great work, @garnet25, who cares why?? But maybe there's a sort of honeymoon period when you start again, like nature's way of getting you back in? We can see how we go over the next 2-3 sessions, though.

Is it too late to join in?

For the last couple of weeks I had been trying out different types of HIIT on the treadmill. My favourite had been 30 seconds sprinting, 30 secs off treadmill, repeat for 10 minutes. I could do two sprints at speed 12 kph, then two at 11.5kph and so on. After reading some more bits and pieces this morning I did 30 secs on, 90 secs off. The plan was to do eight sets, however I only made seven before I needed to stop to avoid passing out/puking all over my treadmill . BUT I did all seven at 12kph! I was stoked at that, which may mean I need to increase the speed to start with slightly next time? I'm not really sure.

I am loving HIIT and love that I can slip it in, even on days when I really just don't want to work out.

Great to see you here, @mia87. Yes there are many different ways to do HIT, just fine one that suits you, and a few weeks later you will be reaping the mental & physical rewards. Sounds like you've made a great start, well done!

Must start HIITing again, I've had about 6 weeks off because work got a bit crazy, but I must make it a priority to find time to HIIT, plus now the days have got longer I've no excuse! I'll be back later after my first session back...

Hi there, I haven't read MM:s book, but this HIT thing seems worth doing.

About half a year ago I tried the Tabata protocol, once, doing Burpees. 20 seconds of maximum intensity, 10 seconds of rest, repeat eight times, a total of 4 minutes. Incredibly gruesome, pure torture, and I thought it might be a bit too dangerous for a man my age.

Anyhow, now I've had my cholesterol levels and all checked up and everything seemed fine, there should be no risk for cardiac arrest or a stroke, so I figured I might just as well start doing some high intensity training 2-3 times a week.

Today had a Tabata session at a rowing machine at the gym, I couldn't reach the same level of exhaustion and oxygen deficit as with burpees no matter how hard I tried, but those four minutes most definately had a strong effect on me for hours afterwards. I'll try the other cardio machines as well, but the Tabata protocol feels right for me so far.

I just started exercising again two weeks ago, I delude myself I'm going there just to "take a shower" before work every morning, when I'm there I can just as well lift a few weights for 5-10 minutes. I won't even try to do more for fear of building up too much of a resistance to the whole thing.

Hopefully it'll develop into a full blown exercise habit given enough time. This 4 minutes of Tabata seems to fit into this scheme really well, so count me in.

First HIIT since my injury. I managed 15 mins. It felt better than my 6k run yesterday.

HIT Club Member #27 checking in after no rowing since March 8th - apart from one session in April when I was trying to get going again. I genuinely hadn't realised that it had been a break of eight weeks!

However, I did my first session this morning and all was well. I managed to get my heart rate up to it's recommended maximum, without the scary fibrillation this time,so that was comforting.

@Michael H, I think that @janegand I are the only rowers here, although to call myself a 'rower' is rather excessive - I mean that I have access to a Concept 2 rowing machine at home, which doesn't actually make me a rower at all! I think that I have read somewhere that it is difficult to achieve the same level of exhaustion on a rower but that it is still effective used within the HIT protocol. However, don't take my word for it, you may need to do more research into it.

Good luck to all HIT-ers, whatever your chosen form of torture! Oops - sorry that should read exercise!

haha @StowgateResident. It felt a bit like torture today. I decided to double the times for both up and down intervals in my session today, so 16s full on followed by 24s slow (as opposed to 8s/12s like I usually do). I couldn't keep that up for long. I extended the rest period out to 44s so my heart rate didn't shoot through the roof, and even then I only kept it up for about 15 minutes!

Hi, @MaryAnn! Fifteen minutes sounds like torture to me! My HIT sessions are considerably more sedate - and shorter! But, as my osteopath says, 'Any exercise is better than no exercise!'

Hello HIITers!

Well, I've finally managed to find the time & space during my travels to try some HIIT in a gym setting, yay for me! I normally don't do the gym thing, a bit too daunting, the public exposure. But since I am staying in the most expensive building in the world (marina bay sands in Singapore - 5.5 billion dollars' worth!! - but that's another story). Did it on the cross-trainer yesterday, unfortunately, it's really not designed to go that fast for the sprint sections, and hasa fair bit of momentum, but I did manage to getting HR up nicely to around 163, my usual. Tried the bikes, but unfortunately they're the annoying kind that the faster you go, the less resistance, so that didn't work at all. Then a swim on the rooftop infinity pool on the 57th floor overlooking Singapore - well, not really a swim, too warm & too shallow & too many people to swim - not really an aussie's idea of a pool! But a nice reward nevertheless. Another HIT session tomorrow.

Happy HITing, everyone!

Wow, @jools7, you're really living the 'high' life, aren't you? It makes my Concept 2 rower, in one of the guest beedrooms, sound very humble! As long as we keep on HIT-ing, I guess that it doesn't really matter where we are, or what we use! Enjoy your travels!

Hello everyone - Found this article today and gleaned a few golden nuggets from it. Interested in your thoughts, some of what he says is not what I remember from MM's book. I'll have to go back to double check. In any case, I hope it gets me re-motivated to get moving, can't seem to find the energy lately...

http://www.stack.com/2014/05/08/how-muc ... ld-you-do/