High Intensity Interval Training

It is not for the beginner, but a reasonably fit person who has been doing steady paced cardio for several weeks or months could benefit from the change in exercise intensity and duration that hiit offers.

The gym equipment is lower impact and less likely to cause injury than charging up the bitumen, down a mountain or through the park, but the mental benefits of outdoor exercise sometimes outway the risk of a rolled ankle.

Whatever works best for you.

A high intensity training workout should involve stretches and a short warm up. 5 minutes or so.

Then alternate your high/low intensity bursts to suit you. 30 seconds to 1 minute high then 30 seconds to 1 minute low.

You may want to start with 30 seconds high and 90 seconds low to ease into it. Either vary your speed or the resistance of the machinery you use (or even both, if you are up to it).

You will recover during the low intensity phase, but by the end of 10 minutes or less of hiit, your body should free pretty well worked.

Give yourself a cool down time and some stretches to finish and there you have your basic high intensity interval training, cutting down your usual 45 minute to 1 hour cardio routine to just 15-20 minutes.

A high intensity training workout means you can raise your heartrate, boost your metabolism and burn more fat both during and following your exercise.

If you intend to do a resistance workout on the same day as your hiit cardio routine, consider completing the weights first.

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You will have more energy for your high intensity interval training if you start on the weights. You would not do your best resistance routine after an exhaustive session of cardio interval training. If your chosen sport is an endurance sport such as long distance running or ocean swimming, you do still need to condition your body and mind with long sessions of steady state cardio, but the high intensity interval training is still a useful tool to employ from time to time to shake up your workout routine.

Your body gets used to your habits reasonably quickly and will resist dropping fat unless you mix things up a bit.

These changes in pace may be due to changes in the natural terrain or deliberate increases and decreases in speed for a few minutes.

As with other forms of high intensity training, Fartlek means you are exercising both aerobically and anaerobically. The bottom line is better metabolism and more fat burned even at rest.

Fartlek generally alternates aerobic walking and anaerobic running. It was developed in the 1930s to increase the speed and endurance of cross country skiers, but it would benefit all types of field athletes.

A session may last for around 45 minutes, so like other forms of hiit it is not for the beginner.

A basic Fartlek workout could consist of

Warm up – jog 5 to 10 minutes.

Steady, hard run 1.5-2 km

Rapid walking 5 minutes – recovery.

Easy running interspersed with sprints of about 50 – 60m, Easy running with three or four "quick steps" now and then (simulating suddenly speeding up to avoid being overtaken by another runner).

Flat out up hill for 175 – 200 m.

Fast run 1 minute.

Repeat until time is up

Or to make it easier, warm up, pick a landmark and run flat out toward it, then jog till you recover and then move at reasonable pace. Pick another landmark and go flat out again.

You don't have to have pinpoint time accuracy, but you do need to listen to your body or the intensity part of high intensity interval training may wear you out or even knock you over.

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