Hi there

I've been reading up on HIIT and it sounds awesome! This is what I've been doing...tell me if this works, if not let me know what I can do to improve.

I use the treadmill (or eliptical)

I go on the treadmill for a decent rate for first 5 min
At 5 min I will run my fastest for 1 minute
Then will continue normal pace for next 4 min (10 min)
Then at 10 min I'll do the running for 1 minute
Then normal for 4 min (15 min)
At 15 min do running again for 1 minute
Then my last 4 minutes finish at normal pace (20 min)

Do I have the right idea or am I way off? Thanks in advance for suggestions!

I am not TOO certain. I used to do what I thought was HIIT cardio when I was on trying to lose weight. I think what you're doing is interval training?

The way HIIT was explained to me is like this:

Warm up at a slow pace for a minute or two. Jog for 1 minute, then run for 1 minute, then sprint for 1 min, then you go back to jogging and rinse and repeat. Of course you can modify it to your own level. When I started, I was slow, but it got easier and easier, and I could get to the max speed on my treadmil (a little over 10mph).


Good luck!

Too much time at a slower pace. Part of the point is to keep heart rate high and if you're only doing 20 minutes, you need more sprinting intervals to get the benefits of HIIT. No more than 2 minutes at the slower pace (as mentioned), ideally only one.

I, too, am new to HIIT. Have been doing it for two weeks and have worked my way up to a 6 intervals of 30 sec/45 sec. The plan I am following suggests taking 8 weeks to work up to a 15 minute cycle, take two weeks off, and then start over. Is this in line with the thinking of this thread? Or is it better to maintain the 15 minute cycle once it's reached? I am doing this 3 days a week.

Stay with it at 15 minutes. There's no reason at all to start doing less time once you're fit enough to really hit the high intensity cycles for the full 15 - if you need a newer challenge try increasing the intensity of the high intensity cycles. However maybe one week off is a wise plan to allow the legs to recover some. Two is unnecessary (unless you would like to and just do standard cardio for a bit).