HIIT: What It Is, Benefits, How and When to Do It

In this article I am going to focus HIIT on running, although in a way there is some controversy about what is considered HIIT and what is not…

What is HIIT?

HIIT stands for «High Intensity Interval Training», that is, High-Intensity Interval Training.

A training system based on short but very intense aerobic routines, with incomplete recoveries.

Maximum-intensity efforts for a brief moment in time… want to give it a try?

How does it work?

It is based on pushing our energy capacity through the phosphagen system and the lactic glycolytic system.

Our body uses these pathways during maximum or higher-intensity efforts of very short duration.

Do not confuse HIIT with…

What benefits does it have?

Talking about the benefits of HIIT is essentially talking about high-intensity exercise.

The chronic adaptations we will experience will be related to:

HIIT exercises

Any type of aerobic exercise could be developed using this methodology, including:

HIIT training routine

Whenever we are going to perform HIIT or High-Intensity Training, it is highly advisable to follow this scheme made up of 3 phases:

Phase 1 or Warm-up

This is the warm-up, moving from “rest mode” to gradually activating the body: increasing heart rate, blood and oxygen flow to the muscles, and body temperature.

We will also help avoid possible injuries such as muscle tears.

Here is a video with a series of guidelines on “warming up” to adapt our body for the next effort:

Phase 2 or Active Phase

This is the effective time or actual work period, when we perform the HIIT itself.

It has a series of preset intervals where the training paces are observed:

Phase 3 or Cool-down

Cool-down, very important, and sometimes overlooked.

It usually has a duration similar to phase 1, and its objective is the opposite.

We aim to progressively reduce blood pressure as well as return the heart to rates close to baseline, and promote the mobilisation and excretion of substances resulting from energy metabolism.

What is a HIIT workout like?

The intensity of the exercise is inversely proportional to its duration.

The better athletes we are, in a way, the longer we will be able to maintain exercise intensity, although it is also possible that this intensity may also be higher…

In this regard, before starting the training itself, we should plan according to our condition the duration and the way in which we will perform HIIT:

Can I do a HIIT workout at home?

Yes, of course.

However, you will need to have some “accessories”: a bike, punching bag, skipping rope…, although it is also possible to do it using your own body weight.

Recommendations for doing HIIT

Lastly, I want to leave you with a series of tips about this training:

When should you do HIIT?

Any exercise that has a certain intensity will place stress on the body.

With this kind of activity, we are also looking for a result. In this case, we could talk about improving performance, boosting fat burning…

We can plan it within our routine, on the days when we are not going to lift weights or within the same upper-body training day.

For this reason, it is a training session like the one we might perform at the gym.

Combining HIIT and Weights

A well-performed HIIT workout can be comparable to a leg training session, such as squats.

Fasted HIIT?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions.

Can you train HIIT while fasted? The answer, in principle, is yes.

Our body is perfectly capable of exercising while fasted, even at high intensity.

Cardio or HIIT?

In my view, the best thing is to maintain the maximum variety of stimuli within our routine.

I am not at all in favour of limiting myself to a single type (or strategy) of training, since we should train to develop the greatest number of adaptations, taking advantage of the impressive capacity we can obtain from our body.

Remember that the higher the intensity, the greater the stress generated and, therefore, the result may also be more productive.

This includes integrating HIIT sessions, fartlek, intervals or steady-state cardio at medium (MISS) or low (LISS) intensity.

Sources

1. Stephen H. Boutcher. High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss
2. Little JP, Safdar A, Bishop D, Tarnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ. An acute bout of high-intensity interval training increases the nuclear abundance of PGC-1α and activates mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle.
3. Zhaowei Kong, Xitao Fan, Shengyan Sun, Lili Song, Qingde Shi, and Jinlei Nie. Comparison of High-Intensity Interval Training and Moderate-to-Vigorous Continuous Training for Cardiometabolic Health and Exercise Enjoyment in Obese Young Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial
4. Carl Foster, Courtney V. Farland, Flavia Guidotti, Michelle Harbin, Brianna Roberts, Jeff Schuette, Andrew Tuuri, Scott T. Doberstein, and John P. Porcari. The Effects of High Intensity Interval Training vs Steady State Training on Aerobic and Anaerobic Capacity
5. Milanović Z, Sporiš G, Weston M. Effectiveness of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIT) and Continuous Endurance Training for VO2max Improvements: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials.
6. Haifeng Zhang, Tom K. Tong, Weifeng Qiu, Xu Zhang, Shi Zhou, Yang Liu, and Yuxiu He. Comparable Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training and Prolonged Continuous Exercise Training on Abdominal Visceral Fat Reduction in Obese Young Women
7. Macpherson RE, Hazell TJ, Olver TD, Paterson DH, Lemon PW. Run sprint interval training improves aerobic performance but not maximal cardiac output.
8. M. Heydari, J. Freund, and S. H. Boutcher. The Effect of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise on Body Composition of Overweight Young Males

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