HIT (high intensity interval training) - anyone getting benefits?

hi, currently no, but my personal trainer once suggested it then tried it with me when my weight loss had stalled, it was incredible, i started losing weight again instantly, hard bloody work though

vit90 said:

Great weight loss and BMI figures in your sig by the way! Similar to the way I was and where I need to end up

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Thanks

my trainer (ex) said she could never understand why people went to the gym for 2 hour sessions when they could do the same amount of good in 20 minutes

i later found the answer to her question, on lonnnng runs, it stops being about the health benefits, endurance becomes a reward all by itself

but I'm a big fan of HITT

you will I'm sure get your numbers where you want them best of luck

Michael Mosley was on TV showing the benefits of H.I.T.

He does have a website and the answers to questions that people have asked.

http://www.fast-exercises.com/michael-answers-frequently-asked-questions/

Depends which studies you look at. Most of them don't look over a long enough duration.

HIIT has a role, but not all it's made out to be. It tends to give very rapid improvement in untrained people then plateaus whereas endurance training keeps those improvements going. Most studies have shown that a mix of strength adn endurance benefits everyone, particularly as we age.

To be honest it really depends what you want to do, if you are just trying to improve overall fitness adn it gets you off the couch, it won't hurt. But if you are training like Andy for a marathon, HIIT alone will not get you there. To be able to compete at endurance events you need to train at endurance events, but you'll still find endurance athletes doing strength and interval work as well. . Problem is most people do not know how to train and try too hard at their easy sessions which then compromises their ability to go hard at their hard sessions.

vit90 said:

I was actually more interested in the potential for improving insulin sensitivity which has been documented. But on a personal level I see it as an extreme way of achieving the aim of getting out of breath and your heart going every week. So I aim to do HIT at least three days a week and some brisk walking for at least 45 minutes a day on weekdays, which for me is to the town centre and back. I have no intention of doing any marathons I was always the type to do short sprints rather than endurance events anyway. Am also doing daily sessions using dumbbells (currently 4kg each) to tone up arms, chest and shoulders. I did none of this until a month ago!

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You've made my own point very well there, that any training plan needs to be specific to the individual, their aims and their current level of fitness.

In your case starting from nothing, what you are doing is entirely appropriate and I'd expect you to see rapid improvements from both your endurance exercise (the walking) and the HIIT and yes, your insulin sensitivity should increase as well.

Personally I also do HIIT, once a week or so and I've fund it beneficial in a coupel of ways myself, both in lactate tolerance, strength and also in taking the pressure off a fragile achilles so that the fewer running sessions i'm now doing are actually better.

here's my experience:
during the week I usually do a couple of HIIT-ish trainings (on the treadmill, 15 mins warm up, 20 mins HIIT - 1,5 mins walking\slow run, 2 mins sprint - followed by ten mins slow run)
three times strength training with weights (low reps high weight)
one\two times endurance-ish training (trail running for more than one hour at a time)

in terms of diabetes management I get the best results from endurance training: my bg goes down and stays nice and low for at least one day. I have to be very careful of what I eat though. If I eat consistently a zero-ish carb high fat diet, than BG remains stable, if for some reason I had CHO's in the previous days than BG tends to sway very much and give me nasty hipos while I'm running so I have to correct with some sugar.

When I strength train with weights I always do 1-3 IU beforehand or else my BG would rise. When I go really heavy (>350 lbs squat or deadlift) afterwards I feel like I've burned up all my glycogen stores and feel "empty" which is very nice. BG goes down anyway after a couple hours.

HIIT works a bit like strenght training. BG goes up immediately after exercise if I have some glycogen left then diminishes. If I'm ketotic than BG is far more stable and low.

So in my experience even more important than the type of exercise is the diet you follow. the less CHO's the lower and more stable the BG during and immediately after exercise. I have to say that while my running performances don't change much if I low carb or not, I am stronger at lifting weights if I eat some carbs the night before.

"So in my experience even more important than the type of exercise is the diet you follow. the less CHO's the lower and more stable the BG during and immediately after exercise. I have to say that while my running performances don't change much if I low carb or not, I am stronger at lifting weights if I eat some carbs the night before."

I'd agree entirely with that, but more the insulin on board rather than carbs. Lower insulin=less sharp BG drop=less carbs needed

Depends on the distance/duration as to how much carbs impact on endurance performance for me, anything less than 10km/1hr and I think carbs are unnecessary, and I'm soemtimes able to get my BG/insulin right to mean the same for me. More than that and I think you need to start taking in carbs, even though ironically you are moving more towards a fat metabolism. I don't fully understand that bit but I believbe you need soem level of carbs going in for the fat metabolism to function.

But that's got little to do with HIIT. I think the other important thing you've said there is the mix of training you do, unless you are specifically training for one thing, then a mix is very important to keep up. Personally I'm doing at least one yoga session, one endurance weights (HIIT style) and three-four endurance sessions a week

I dot HIT ALOT!!! Love it and have seen results throughout my life because of it! I stopped before and when I was diagnosed with Type1, and saw the change when I started back at it again! Its magic, DO IT! X

ElyDave said:

Depends on the distance/duration as to how much carbs impact on endurance performance for me, anything less than 10km/1hr and I think carbs are unnecessary, and I'm soemtimes able to get my BG/insulin right to mean the same for me. More than that and I think you need to start taking in carbs, even though ironically you are moving more towards a fat metabolism. I don't fully understand that bit but I believbe you need soem level of carbs going in for the fat metabolism to function.

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That's interesting. In my case it works a bit differently: when I am in a decent shape and zero carboing I can run to my limit (let's say four hours) without any CHO's, I just prepare myself a mixture of coconut flour\coconut oil\almonds and eat some of that every hour or so but I can do without carbs at all. This only if I've been consistently extremely low carbing, if I'm in a "cheat period" than it's all another story.
I have to say I am an extremely slow runner due to my mediocre VO2max and heavy built so probably it has to do with that as well.

emiliano said:

That's interesting. In my case it works a bit differently: when I am in a decent shape and zero carboing I can run to my limit (let's say four hours) without any CHO's, I just prepare myself a mixture of coconut flour\coconut oil\almonds and eat some of that every hour or so but I can do without carbs at all. This only if I've been consistently extremely low carbing, if I'm in a "cheat period" than it's all another story.
I have to say I am an extremely slow runner due to my mediocre VO2max and heavy built so probably it has to do with that as well.

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I've never experimented with low carbing to that extreme, but I've read that that's the case for those who can go into nutritional ketosis as well.
If you look up any tables of CHO needs vs pace, they would suggest I should be on twice the level of carbs I generaly need.

My best so far in that respect has been two hours on the bike on just three Fig Roll biscuits (36g CHO), but generally more than that. Typically I'm on 80-100g carb a day, but a three hour ride would double that, so about 25g-40g an hour. A recent ride had me taking in 90g over 2hr 15 as an example.

Most of the textbooks would put my needs at way more than that. Take Pumping Insulin, that gives a guide for a 150lb person cycling at 18mph needing 130g/hr, their table for running at my pace gives a similar need.

I think what this shows is that it is very possible to train yourself to utilise predominantly the fat-burning mechanisms if you want.

ElyDave said:

I think what this shows is that it is very possible to train yourself to utilise predominantly the fat-burning mechanisms if you want.

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yes, only thing I'm not sure about is the quality of the performance. As I said I am very slow and have a "tourist" attitude towards running, I don't even have a watch to keep my time. Probably this radical zero carbs approach couldn't work in competitive running or for somebody who's working to better his performance.
the only thing I'm positive about is that if I keep my diet correct I feel way less exhausted after exercise and I recover much quicker.