Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but all of the recent articles on HIIT seem so odd to me. I feel like a lot of these articles are geared for people to read and go 'Finally! I can get my entire workout done in one minute' and that's kind of missing the point. There's not really a way to cheat your body or find an easy way out of a workout. It's supposed to hurt and be hard, that's the idea. I don't think a lot of people truly understand what 'max effort' is and how hard HIIT actually is. I ran in college and we would do workouts like this once or twice in a season because of how hard they are on you. Nothing about this type of workout is supposed to be a way to get a quick workout in. It is, however, a great way to feel like your lungs are going to explode and an even better way to forget how to walk normally. If that's your thing, great! I try and do a workout like this every week. I just think it's a little dangerous to be preaching this type of workout to people who can't find the motivation to do a 20 minute jog. I have a hard time believing they're going to suddenly find the motivation to do the hardest workout they've ever done in their life. Nothing wrong with having some inexperience with exercise, HIIT is just not the right way to help a beginner 'get into shape'.
I have mixed feelings. For some, the problem really is time. For these people, HIIT may be the right way to go. But you're right that people don't realize just hard a real HIIT workout is.
I have difficulty maintaining what is supposedly the proper level of intensity (according to my previous trainer) without throwing up afterwards. It's not exactly a fun and easy way to get in shape.
I completely agree with you there. HIIT is a great way to get a quick workout in. It is just not fun or easy (like you've said).
My problem is more with the tone of a lot of these articles. They come across like a bad advertisement for some new medication. 'Try HIIT and get in shape with only one minute of actual exercise'.
*With warmup and cool down real time is actually closer to 10 minutes. Side effects may include vomiting, crying, and a bad case of Edgar from Men in Black walk.
I remember another piece in the New York Times about two years ago that described the correct HIIT workout as "so intense you moan." That seems about right, in my experience. :)
I agree that many people don't understand what a 100% workout is, but "There's not really a way to cheat your body or find an easy way out of a workout" is unjustified by the evidence. It's suspiciously close to appealing to justice, e.g., "You won't get fit without hard work because you won't deserve it."
People have swore by all sorts of unpleasant fitness regimes in the past which are later shown to be unproductive. Now, we have good reason to believe that you can't be an elite athlete without putting in lots of time, simply because elite athletes can be easily identified; we'd see more elite athlete with short training regimes if it was possible. But, like the incredibly muddied literature on nutrition, it's not at all clear how to optimize moderate (non-elite) exercise for long-term health benefits. We really don't know where the low-hanging fruit is, and its entirely possible that most people are wasting their time.
I think you're being a little nitpicky with my language here. And I in no way implied, "You won't get fit without hard work because you won't deserve it." Going for a short walk is still exercise and isn't all that hard. I suppose I'm a little unclear as to what exercises exist that you can put little effort in and get a lot out of.
With regards to HIIT, it's been pitched as 'get fit quick', but without proper training in how to actually push yourself, it's kind of a moot point. My only real argument against any of this is that almost every article focuses on the time of the workout instead of the intensity of it and I think it misleads people who are looking for a more efficient way to get a workout in. The time of the workout is really irrelevant, the intensity involved is what makes it so effective. When people see these quick workouts and attempt to implement them, but don't see these amazing results that are promised, I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating. That could all be avoided by stating 'Hey, these workouts are really, really, really hard and they will be uncomfortable and you will be gasping for air'.
>Finally! I can get my entire workout done in one minute' and that's kind of missing the point.
I can't agree with you more. However, I think this shows the importance of going hard. When I am at the gym and I see these people leisure peddling a bike while reading a book or a magazine, I just don't get it, why bother at all? Peddling slowly for 40 minuets isn't going to do jack. If you go to the gym go all out, push yourself as hard as you can until you body fails. Then rest and push until it fails again. Work through the failure. If you aren't wobbling out of the gym then you failed.
Perhaps (and saying this with a big caveat) that's exactly why we need better research and more subtle research into the subject. Plus didn't the research say that the HIIT group had the same increases as the 45 minute 'leisurely' group? So it did work equally well, just slower.
If you aren't wobbling when you leave the gym.... why? Masochism and absolutism around exercise is one of the strangest things to me. What if you need to walk properly the next day because looking like a weirdo at work will get you demoted. Maybe your work demands that you be physically coordinated and not broken, like factory work. Maybe you have kids and need to relax, not destroy yourself. Maybe you're 50 and want to get exercise in but don't want a heart attack. Maybe your knee joints are screwed. Maybe exercise should be fun, or skills based rather than 'exercise until you fall over is the only way'.
I completely agree. I was going to post the same thing until I saw your comment. The inexperience with exercise causes people to not know how hard they can push their body and still be fine. When I bring a friend to the gym or something, they stop lifting for the set when they feel slightly tired. I can't imagine their pushing themselves to where there's phlegm in their lungs and still going.
I am often hit by "sickness" when pushing very hard while lifting weights in the next 2-3 days after exercise, e.g. I do 30,000lbs dumbbell press volume and in 2 days I fall sick. So it might be wise not to overdo things, maybe some poeple's immunity gets compromised if they push too much and it takes very long until their immunity improves? And I did all kinds of immunity-boosting things like daily 5-minute cold showers etc.
You should know what your limit is to not get sick if that is a recurring problem. What I was referring to is some people stopping a set right when they feel slightly fatigued or feel the burn. I was referring to people who smile and talk as they are lifting or working out.
I've had something similar happen with my girlfriend and it can be a tough balance. She has just recently taken an interest in working out more and teaching her how to push herself more has been just as important as actually teaching her how to do specific lifts.
I'm in the exact same boat. My feeling is that as they workout more they will realize how much more they can do as well as just getting used to the fatigue.
