Hiit effectiveness

[Teaman1]

Any one here strictly do hiit for cardio training? I’m curious on you’re results once you get to the mountains?

 

[Brendan]

Biggest problem for me when I get to the mountains is not the cardio. It's my knees, lower legs, ankles, feet, and pack carrying muscles being up to the task.

So, you'll be fine with HIIT for cardio, but that isn't going to help the other stuff....

 

[JohnnyB]

I’ve felt better mixing long slow distance in with the HIIT. Using HIIT twice a week seems right for me but you may need more or less. This is separate from the weight training.

Once the season starts and I am hunting a lot I tend to drop down to one or two HIIT sessions a week and drop the distance.

 

[Teaman1]

I’ve been working on my weight training and recently started a 20 min hiit workout for after my full body days. I’m trying to run 2 miles with my dog 2-3 times a week depending on how my legs feel. Last year was my first year training with a pack which worked well and I’ll start 8 weeks prior to my hunt. I’m working to become as physically well rounded as possible because my first couple hunts were hard on me haha.
I’m hoping to see anyone has benefitted by just doing hiit training

 

[Teaman1]

My biggest problem has just been endurance

 

[jmez]

I did it. I took a year and did nothing but HIIT work outs. Was fine in the mountains. Had no issues with strength or endurance.

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[KSadventures80]

Tried HIIT only and felt I couldn't maintain through a long day. Plus has more injury problems. I've found mixing in some steady state cardio 3-8 miles has really boosted my overall ability to maintain pace.

 

[Teaman1]

Nice. That’s what I’m looking for

 

[Teaman1]

I did it. I took a year and did nothing but HIIT work outs. Was fine in the mountains. Had no issues with strength or endurance.

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[/QUOTE
How long were you’re hiit workouts and how many times a week? If you don’t mind me asking?

 

[*zap*]

I am pretty sure the reality of things is that complete body strength training, longer distance constant tempo cardio, high intensity interval and regular rucking for both endurance and high weight is the best overall training program. Posterior chain strength cannot be beat for hauling weight in a pack.

 

[jmez]

5 days a week. The workouts varied between 4 minutes and an hour. The longer ones really wouldn't be HIIT workouts, Most of those involved heavy weights so would be more of a mix of strength/steady state type cardio.

The bulk of the workouts would be 12-20 minute.

 

[Outlaw99]

One of my favorite 10 min workouts. If you force yourself to push it, it will literally kick your ass every time. Good all around workout that burns your lungs as well

 

[LostArra]

I've wondered if the 20 Rep Squat program would qualify as a short HIIT workout.

Mark Rippetoe says, "Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in."

 

[Teaman1]

I’ve wondered the same about high rep squats with a good load of weight. You would think there would be some benefit there for heavy packers

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I’ve had good luck with shorter more intense cardio workouts in the 30-45 minute range. When I do longer cardio sessions it’s usually hiking with my pack on. During the week and especially in the winter when I’m training indoors there’s no way I’m doing longer cardio sessions on an indoor bike or a treadmill so I’ll do something like hit the rower or use a weighted jump rope and do intervals.

I’ve found that 3-5 of those sessions a week along with some kettlebell work and just a few (2) heavy gym sessions keeps me where I like to be.

 

[*zap*]

"The essential framework of high-intensity interval training is always the same: Brief, all-out work periods, separated by rest periods that you wish were just a little longer. The work-to-rest ratio can vary from 1:1 (for example, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off) to 1:4 or more, and the rounds can be just a few or 15 or more. But no matter how long you rest, the key is that you bring everything you've got to your intervals."

Complete article:

What Is The Best HIIT Workout?

No matter if your goal is fat loss, muscle gain, or athletic performance, high-intensity interval training can help you nail it. Here are complete workout programs for each goal!

www.bodybuilding.com

Along with a pretty comprehensive strength training program I do lower intensity, longer duration and lighter trail rucks pushing around 2.5-3 mph. Higher intensity a bit heavier treadmill rucks pushing around 4 mph. Heavier interval treadmill rucks with 5 minutes rest between intervals @3.5mph. Swim days are right now @ 20 minutes of steady moderate intensity and then 10 all out lengths with 1-2 minute rest in between.
So, I guess the all out lengths swimming would qualify as HIIT because I am spent when I get to the other side of the pool....but I do not believe I would be seeing the same results if that was all I did....The rucking/swimming regularly is a newer addition to the strength training and it has taken a while to integrate it into my training cycle but I am seeing pretty good results in a fairly short time.

I would say that rucking is by far the most debilitating exercise that I do, especially the treadmill rucks at a higher mph and just increasing the constant mph from 3.5 to 4 mph changes the dynamics quite a bit. I am looking forward to increasing the duration and loads of the rucks over time but with incremental increases it takes a while. I believe my body handles smaller (10% at a time, one thing at a time) incremental increases in duration, speed and load...I hope to double the swimming workout in the coming months via incremental increases.

The key for me has been to train hard but also manage things to avoid burnout and have shorter recovery periods so I can effectively train daily. A well thought out plan that is patiently implemented on a regular basis has been a very good approach and yielded good results. Then I needed to find the right nutrition program and what macro %'s were the best for my fitness program and the results that I wanted too see.....that in itself is a pretty important component.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I swapped to a crossfit gym a little over a year ago. Almost all hiit stuff. Dropped 15# and 4 beats off my resting heart rate, getting stronger, enhanced a lot of mobility and stability issues, got rid of some knee pain and all I do is talk about crossfit.

I also slacked on what I had been doing for longer, less intense cardio.

In the mountains, my legs and back were absolutely stronger this year. Squats, lunges, wall balls (have I told you about crossfit?) were all helping me make the miles. Uphill in particular was easier than I can recall in a while. I can’t say the flats were much easier. Downhill feels better as my legs are stronger.

I am mixing back in some longer, lower intensity cardio sessions on a weekly basis. 30 mins to 1.5 hours of cycling or rowing. That is on top of the hiking I do and ruck training that I do with greater frequency as I get closer to trips.

I think hiit training is a great way to boast fitness. Really fast and solid results and trains your energy system well. However, it isn’t the only answer and I think layering in long, lower intensity cardio that really stretches your oxidative system is important for long mountian adventures as well as overall health.

 

[Hot_Rod51]

One of my favorite 10 min workouts. If you force yourself to push it, it will literally kick your ass every time. Good all around workout that burns your lungs as well

Well, an hour ago I was thumbing through here looking for some inspiration to break up my lifting routine. I just lifted heavy yesterday and wanted to just stretch and get my heart rate up a little today. Your link inspired me to try it. I figured it looked simple enough, quick, and maybe it'll kick my ass in a different way...

Oh boy.

I pushed myself to work to the buzzer every time. 30 seconds on, 30 off. 1 minute break between each round. 4 rounds.

By mid round 3, I was wishing I had kettlebells smaller than 35 lbs.

This is officially my new "quick hit" workout on non lift days. Lungs and heart will thank me later.


Thanks for the link.



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[Leroy91]

Hiit all the way

 

[Poser]

I’ve wondered the same about high rep squats with a good load of weight. You would think there would be some benefit there for heavy packers

20 rep squat cycles seem to work really well for some people and just ok for most people. The general consensus that I have gathered is that all in all, the results don’t justify the effort. Keep in mind that going in and squatting 20 reps twice a week and adding 5# to the bar each time will get brutally taxing very quickly. It may start to impact progress on your other lifts, especially deadlifts. You may even regress. You usually start a 20 rep cycle right around 50% of your 1 rep max. If you run it for 6 weeks, you’ll be 60# heavier than when you started. Some young, genetic outliers will take it all the way to the former 1 rep max over the course of 10, 12, 16+ weeks.

The problem is, you can’t expect to start adding in a bunch of conditioning volume, LSD or HIIT, on top of this 20 rep cycle and still make progress, especially if you are older than ~35 or so. While there is certainly appeal to it because 20 rep squat cycles involve a lot of suffering, I think most average joes are going to benefit more from squatting increasingly heavy sets of 5 + some conditioning. If you want to move heavy weight for conditioning, pushing a sled for short intervals is productive. Then, of course, you’re going to need to do some rucking as you get close to hunting season.

In the end, it’s not so much that the program is ineffective or not time efficient, it’s just that most people aren’t going to be able to do a whole lot of anything else and still benefit from 20 rep squat cycles because after about 3 weeks in, you’re going to be tired and sore and need almost all of your recovery resources to continue to benefit. Also, my personal observation from these cycles back when I did Crossfit was that most people will drop out after 3 weeks. (In the case of Crossfit, that involves conveniently not showing up on the two nights a week where 20 reps are programmed after the first 2-3 weeks, but also, most people would just fizz out entirely because of the amount of random junk conditioning thrown on top of a 20 rep squat cycle that requires the vast majority of your recovery resources). Also, you’re not doing a program if you are throwing in a bunch of random volume just to do it. There’s a reason 20 rep squat cycles are minimalistic.

Some people just want to complete a marathon, other people just want to squat 405# for 20 reps. Both of those are fine, possibly even noble goals unto themselves that require discipline and hard work, but that doesn’t make either efficient training methodology for other goals like being in shape for elk hunting.

All that being said, I’m not sure we have seen actual true to form attempt at a 20 rep squat cycle as it relates to training for the outcome of of being in shape to hunt, so, if there are some willing guinea pigs, take a stab at it and log your workouts on here because the process and the end results would possibly be beneficial for the sake of posterity.