High-intensity interval training (HIIT) was the number one fitness trend of 2017 (according to the American College of Sports Medicine). Over a year later HIIT seems to be as popular as ever, reducing low-intensity, steady/sustained state training (LISS) to a mere inconvenience. Is HIIT better than LISS? Let’s find out.

What Is HIIT?

HIIT is a training protocol involving repeated bouts of medium to high-intensity work broken up with periods of low-intensity work or complete rest. It is a clever way of substituting regular, disorganized, and purposeless cardio with something less boring.

Numerous studies suggest that HIIT is excellent at developing both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. But when something seems to be too good to be true, it normally is. Calm down, sit back down, and carry on with this article before you go smashing another round of HIIT.

Too Much Isn’t Better

The last time I checked, more was simply more, not better. Problem with HIIT is that you keep going harder, digging deeper, and resting less. As impressive as it may seem, your body doesn’t appreciate it as much as you do.

Especially if you’ve already done 3-4 weight sessions that week, and worked 40 hours, and had a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Remember, exercise still equals stress. If you keep adding more stress and under-recovering, even the toughest of you will eventually break.

Does this mean you should avoid HIIT completely? Hell no. Just be smart about it. First of all, even professional athletes wouldn’t use HIIT more than 2-3 times per week so why would you? And let me tell you, professional athletes have teams of people looking after their recovery. Having a protein shake post-workout does not qualify as a recovery tool. Sorry bros!

Second of all, use appropriate rest periods. Working constantly at a very high intensity with minimal rest overstimulates your central nervous system. This can lead to high levels of cortisol as well as a lot of muscle damage.

Anaerobic style HIIT sessions heavily tax the body and can result in long-lasting muscular and neural fatigue. By keeping the working intervals between 30-60 seconds and the work to rest ratio between 1:1 and 1:2, you will tap into both the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. The body can recover far quicker when it utilizes aerobic pathways.

What Is LISS?

LISS is about keeping your heart rate at a relatively low level (50-60%) and staying in the aerobic zone, meaning you can easily breathe and utilize all that precious oxygen. Steady state cardio training is generally aerobic training that is low to medium in intensity and longer in duration.

While 30 minutes seems to be the average amount of time for this type of training, other people go for upwards of 60 minutes. This training protocol will help you build and develop aerobic capacity which will not only make you “fitter” but also supports overall recovery. It will help build your aerobic base and will get your body strong enough so you can withstand the more intense modes of cardio.

A very important feature of LISS is that it is not as taxing on your CNS. Aerobic training not only increases overall health markers but also aids in recovery from heavy weight training. An overactive sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode), a pitfall of shitty aerobic development, destroys your performance.

Therefore, steady state cardio can also be useful to add into your workout program if you need an easier day to recover between harder strength workouts or the more intense modes of conditioning.

HIIT and LISS Serve Different Purposes

It is unfair to say that either of the two is better or worse. They are just are different. Both have their own pros and cons. If you train with heavy weights 3-4 times per week, LISS can be a fantastic recovery tool as well as just another way of getting stronger.

If you’re stuck for time or looking to push your body to its limit, 2-3 HIIT sessions per week will do the job.

It’s like comparing Cristiano Ronaldo and Lewis Hamilton. Both are world class at what they do. The only issue is that one plays football, another one is a Formula One driver—two completely different sports, two completely different skill sets.

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In 2002, the same journal published more information by different researchers who looked at optimizing HIIT work-to-rest ratios – and came back with some impressive results. In the case of a 40km time trial, the average speed of study participants increased by five to six percent. That is about a three-minute difference on a 25-mile cycle course.

The 2002 Study

Rather than fixed work-to-rest ratios like in the 1999 study, the 2002 researchers let each athlete determine his or her own maximum threshold power from a ramp test. That is the power produced at maximum oxygen consumption (Pmax). Then, each athlete was asked to sustain that power for as long as possible to obtain an interval work duration (Tmax). This was then used as the basis of two study groups.

1. Group one undertook eight intervals at Pmax for a time of Tmax with a rest period twice as long.
2. Group two undertook eight intervals at Pmax for a time of Tmax with a rest period that extended until their heart rate had dropped to 65% of maximum.

Both groups increased performance significantly and more than the 1999 study protocol (thirty seconds with 4.5 minutes recovery), which was repeated in a third test group.

• VO2 peak increased to between 5-8%.
• 25-mile time trial speed increased to between 5-6%.

These impressive results were not obtained without a significant level of effort by the athletes concerned. In many cases, they were unable to complete the complete HIIT session. Sometimes only four or five of the eight intervals were completed, the athletes having become exhausted. This may not suit everyone as the test athletes were used to a level of training for some time prior to the study.

How to Do It

In addition to the HIIT workouts, the athletes performed low-intensity endurance sessions for two or three days between each one. This was the case for both studies.

If you wish to undertake this type of workout, you need to first find your Pmax and Tmax. To do this, you need a cycle trainer or cycle with some form of power measurement. Without access to expensive V02 measuring equipment, you can approximate the level of Pmax at the place where your heart rate starts to plateau on a ramp test. Ask a friend to monitor your heart rate as the power load is increased from 100 watts by fifteen watts every thirty seconds. Record the maximum power and your heart rate.

“The intensity of work was more important than completing the workout. If you are not able to perform this level of workout stress, HIIT may not be for you.”

After recovering, perform a test where you ride at the level of Pmax for as long as possible to obtain the value of Tmax. In the study, this varied from approximately from three to five minutes.

Your interval workout can now be designed.

The Takeaway

Both studies illustrate some important points.

• The level of work is extremely high and will be exhausting. The participants did not work a little bit hard. They worked extremely hard and often failed to complete the set. The intensity of work was more important than completing the workout. If you are not able to perform this level of workout stress, HIIT may not be for you.
• There were only two HIIT sessions in a week. The remainder of work was low intensity for the two or three days between each HIIT session. The combination of the two types of session gave the results, not one or the other.
• Some interval work-to-rest ratios work better than others. In the 1999 study, they used thirty-second intervals and four-minute intervals. In the 2002 study, intervals were based on measurements of each athlete’s response in a performance test (and were between three and five minutes).
• The studies used athletes who had been training for some time. They were still able to achieve significant improvements. If you have not been doing any training for some time, obtaining a good level of fitness first may be a more appropriate place to start.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Do Your Intervals Count? What Science Says About Work-to-Rest Ratios
• How to Choose the Proper Work and Rest Periods When Interval Training
• High-Intensity Workouts Help Less the Fitter You Are
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Paul B. Laursen et al., “Interval training program optimization in highly trained endurance cyclists,” Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, 2002.

2. Nigel K. Stepto et al., “Effects of different interval-training programs on cycling time-trial performance,” Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise Volume 31(5) May 1999 pp 736-741

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

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I was then fascinated to see how many published interval-training regimens are based upon the ratios that made little difference and which chose the more successful ratios. I like interval training, particularly in the winter when I am inside on the trainer. Intervals provide a great way of keeping your attention on the session as you count off the minutes and seconds. Studies have also shown that appropriate intervals have a benefit on endurance. So, it is not always necessary to go for lengthy rides to work on your endurance.

One research paper by Nigel Stepto and colleagues was written fourteen years ago in 1999, so interval training is hardly new. In this study, the cyclists performed sprint tests, measured peak power, and did a simulated 40km time trial before and after a 21-day training regimen. Test groups were allocated to different training regimens as shown in the table:

The peak power was measured in a ramp test with effort increasing every 150 seconds. Cyclists completed two days of base training and a third day of interval training. This pattern was repeated for twenty one days.

Now comes the really interesting bit:

• 40 km time trial speed: Significant improvements (2.5%) were found with intervals at 4 minutes and 85% of peak power. Thirty second intervals also increased this performance.
• Peak Power: Significant improvements were found with intervals at 4 minutes and 85% of the previous peak.
• Sprint Power: Did not seem to be significantly improved by any of the regimens tested.

This research made a real difference to my training. Having some evidence behind what I was doing added focus to what I was doing. A tool such as a power meter on a trainer or using the type of trainer that makes it possible to set the load makes this type of intervals training easy to incorporate.

Here is an example of a mixed session of 30-second and 4-minute intervals, set up using the software PerfPRO Studio to run on a CompuTrainer. This makes a nice workout of one hour and twelve minutes, including warm up and cool down. The original study did not include a mixed session exactly like this, but from my own experience it does make an effective session. (Thanks to Nigel Stepto and his colleagues.)

The second paper that I wish to review is by Martin Gibala and colleagues. I included this to support my opening statements about endurance training. In this research they directly compared performance after a routine of short thirty second high intensity intervals (all out) with more traditional long endurance rides. The two groups were:

Each training session was followed by one to two days of recovery. This study took place over a fourteen-day period.

The conclusion of the study can be summed up in this one statement: “The major novel finding from the present study was that six sessions of either low volume SIT or traditional high volume ET induced similar improvements in muscle oxidative capacity, muscle buffering capacity and exercise performance.” Both groups improved their 30km simulated time trial times by between 7.5% and 10.1%. The short time trail results both improved by between 3.1% and 4.5% and power by approximately four percent.

I found all these results fascinating. While the topic of interval training is now well known, I was not aware until reading these that there could be a difference in results depending upon the work and rest times. Indeed, some of my previous training regimens might be considered a waste of time in terms of improving my performance. The level of improvement experienced by the test subjects, who were already at a reasonable level of fitness, over a short period of time is also impressive.

The number of variables in work-to-rest ratios and intensities could be expanded further, and I expect they will, as the search for optimizing training continues. The thirty second routines at either 175% or 250% are quite hard and it is perhaps not apparent sometimes how hard interval training needs to be. High Intensity does mean high intensity and you should be at an appropriate level of health to take part in them.

As winter starts to creep into the Northern Hemisphere and indoor training seems more comfortable, these two papers provide some good science behind choosing two interval training regimes of thirty seconds and four minutes both to improve endurance and race performance.

References:

1. Martin J. Gibala et al., “Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance,” September 15, 2006 The Journal of Physiology, 575, 901-911.

2. Nigeel K. Stepto et al., “Effects of different interval-training programs on cycling time-trial performance,” Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise Volume 31(5) May 1999 pp 736-741

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A Tabata is a high-intensity workout protocol that has fitness and weight-loss benefits. It is also a very short workout. Is it like CrossFit? Is it like circuit training? It is a bit of both. Tabata training is attractive because it saves a lot of time for people. It offers the maximum benefit with the least amount of time used to get those results.

The name Tabata comes from the man who invented it – Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese physician and researcher. He conducted a study using an interval-based training model. His objective was to see if athletes would benefit from a 20/10 session repeated eight times. 20/10 means 20 seconds of all-out exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. This adds up to four minutes total.

Dr. Tabata took two groups and put them on an exercise program for six weeks. The control group did one hour of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week. The other group did the high-intensity Tabata-style training.

That adds up to 1,800 minutes of training for the control group versus 120 minutes of training for the Tabata group over the six-week period. The results speak for themselves.

The Tabata group improved both its aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. The anaerobic fitness level increased 28%.

Interval training is not new, but it has gained popularity in recent years. Intervals were originally designed for running. An example of Tabata training for runners is 20-second sprints and 10 seconds of rest.

This will improve cardiovascular fitness. The Tabata protocol can be used for core strength as well as weight training.

Tabata training raises metabolism and heart rate

Whatever exercise you use, Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate immediately. Since you are performing these exercises at a very high intensity, your body will have to work much harder to keep it up.

This will cause your heart to pump fast and your metabolism to jump, which you want if you are planning on losing fat. Your metabolism will stay at that high not only during the workout, but after the workout as well. This means that your body will be burning fat for hours after.

Many exercises and types of equipment can be incorporated into the Tabata protocol. You could use push ups, planks, squats, stability ball exercises, resistance bands, weights, or a bench. To start, use four exercises per Tabata.

Tabata Workout Example

1. Push Ups
2. Squats
3. Medicine Ball Slams
4. Jumping Rope

How to do it: Do 20 seconds of push ups, then rest 10 seconds. Do 20 seconds of squats, then rest 10 seconds. 20 seconds of ball slams, and rest. 20 seconds of skipping rope, and rest. And then do that whole cycle again – eight more times.

This would bring you to a total of approximately 16 minutes. Once you get the hang of things, you could create two or three different Tabata routines with up to twelve different exercises and run through two different routines a session.

With a five to eight minute warm up and cool down, you’ve got an effective workout. Those 20 second intervals may not seem very difficult but at your maximum capacity, those 20 seconds will seem like the longest 20 seconds of your life.

Warm up properly with dynamic exercises as opposed to static stretches. Be prepared to sweat! It’s effective, as Dr. Tabata’s study showed, and ultimately improves endurance.

It teaches your body to tolerate lactic acid. When you train in a high-intensity zone, your threshold becomes higher. It also keeps your metabolism running on high gear.

One of the greatest benefits of anaerobic training is that your body keeps burning fat for 24 hours after your workout.

So the amount of fat that can be burned using Tabata training is what draws many people to using it. As a weight loss tactic, Tabata is a great tool.

Cautions About Tabata Training

• Tabata training is not for beginners. Tabata training is best for advanced exercisers who are comfortable with high-intensity exercise. The intensity accumulates, peaking near the end. It’s easy for the intensity to become too challenging if you’re not used to this type of training.
• If you go all out during the high intensity intervals, the 4-minute cycle will feel like the longest, most uncomfortable 4 minutes of your life. It may be too intense for some people.
• There is always a greater risk of injury when you’re doing high-impact, high-intensity exercise. Minimize that risk by ensuring you’re fit enough for this type of training. This would include working your way up to the intensity and duration. Also make sure you completely warm up before you start into your Tabata routine.
• Four minutes of the same exercise, even with rests in between, can get monotonous and quickly fatigue your muscles. This can cause your form (and motivation) to suffer if you aren’t mentally prepared!

Here is a list of tabata exercises to try

• Mountain climber
• Burpees
• Sit ups
• Pull ups
• Squats
• Crunches
• Bicep curls
• Triceps dips
• Sprints
• Stairs
• Shoulder Press
• Flys
• Leg raises
• Calf raises
• Bench press
• Deadlifts

Whichever exercise you choose, your choices should use a large number of muscles to get maximum benefit.

It is normal to feel some soreness during the first week of Tabata training. However, your body will adjust and you will only feel slight to moderate soreness after the beginning.

Make sure to add a sound nutritional program into your Tabata routine for the best and fastest results possible if losing weight is your goal.

Nutrition is an important component of stay fit and being active. If you have poor nutrition, then your fitness goals will not be achieved. You will also not have the energy needed to workout at this level and intensity.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Tabata Revolution Explained: What, Why, and How to Tabata appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In a recent article I looked at the impacts over time of different types of workouts on metabolism. I concluded that for serious trainees, longer workouts were better for cardio. But some of us only have a short time available to workout and instead rely on the “after-burn” post-workout effect of increased metabolism. So, what impact does getting more fit have on this particular post-workout effect?

One way to study the metabolic cost of exercise over time is by measuring something called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). EPOC has been a bit of a buzz-term over the last few years, as proponents of high EPOC-inducing workouts have come out of the woodwork, exaggerating its benefits or confusing the bottom line. Basically, it’s a measure of how much energy your body uses through how much oxygen it needs to maintain metabolism. Higher oxygen consumption means higher metabolism.

A recent study published by BioMed Central looked at the EPOC of an exercise group doing various types of cardio workouts. They used a distance workout, an intense interval workout, and a medium intensity interval workout. They then compared the EPOC to the existing fitness levels of each participant and found that the more intense the workout, the more significant effect an athlete’s fitness level will have on their EPOC. And that is to say, the more fit the participant was, the less EPOC they experienced for intense workouts. There wasn’t a big difference with the less intense workouts, but as we have seen before, these workouts don’t have as high an EPOC anyway.

Of course this is probably just a nail in the coffin for those pushing intense interval training as a superior method for weight loss over long distance workouts. The big advantage for interval programs is simply time savings and that something is better than nothing. However, for those willing to put the time in, long distance workouts not only have a greater total calorie cost, but as you get more and more fit, the benefits of a post-exercise metabolic boost are reduced in interval training but unchanged in long distance work. If you’re serious about your cardio or weight loss results, in most situations you’ll be better off with a longer workout unless you need to develop your anaerobic system for your sport.

References:

Tomoaki Matsuo, et.al., “Cardiorespiratory fitness level correlates inversely with excess post-exercise oxygen consumption after aerobic-type interval training,” BMC Research Notes, 5:646 (2012)

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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