My first shot at HIIT

[Elwood83]

So I did roughly 25 minutes of sprint for a minute, walk for a minute, repeat. I wanted to do more but I was cut short by a bad headache I've been fighting since this morning. My question is, how many 1 minute bouts of sprinting should I be aiming for, and why is it that aside from my legs hurting like hell, I wasn't exhausted after the workout like I am after my 3 mile run. Is that normal or did I just cut things short too soon? Thanks!

[MarkVI]

25 minutes of true HIIT is quite a feat my friend, congrats.


I do 7 bouts of 30 second sprints and 7 bouts of 45 second jogs.

[90redlx]

Agreed 25min of 1min sprint/1min walk is impressive. You tend to not feel as exhausted afterwards, but you are getting better cardio benefits from it.

I tend to 2min walk/1min sprint/2min walk/2min jog repeat for about 15-20min.

[legends159]

Sprint harder?

[Elwood83]

Sprint harder?

I wasn't asking HOW to make myself exhausted. Any idiot can figure that one out. I wanted to know if it was normal that I wasn't as tired as I am after my usual 3 mile run as this was my first attempt at HIIT

[sbbc]

no it's not normal.. sprint harder

[Fire8085]

So I did roughly 25 minutes of sprint for a minute, walk for a minute, repeat. I wanted to do more but I was cut short by a bad headache I've been fighting since this morning. My question is, how many 1 minute bouts of sprinting should I be aiming for, and why is it that aside from my legs hurting like hell, I wasn't exhausted after the workout like I am after my 3 mile run. Is that normal or did I just cut things short too soon? Thanks!

Dude, if you are going 100% on sprinting for a minute straight, that's damn impressive. You're a little bit bigger than me so I'm going to assume you're pretty quick. I use to run track and even in my prime I doubt I could pump out 12-13 400 meters at 100%.

I would recommend doing a different routine as well. Try going to a track, running a 100 meter balls the wall, 200 same thing, 400 same thing. After the 100 walk back to start your 200, then once done on your 200, stretch for 20-30 seconds and take off onto the 400. Get a 2-3 minute rest and reverse the process and do 400>200>100 and make sure to give it your all on this set. I'm not an expert on running or lifting but I often find that people sometimes just don't know how to push themselves hard enough (yes including myself).

Figure out a way to test your heart rate and see where you're training:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Exercise_zones.png

If you're really up for a challenge, find a local track team and try to keep up with them =P

[MrSinister]

you only get out what you put in with hiit.. its all in the intensity, if you're going too casually then you're going to walk off feeling like you could of done more.. if you did it right then you're going to dread eveyr interval interval and after 10-15 minutes you will want to stop or your body will just stop
dont worry about distances, hiit might be shorter because of the rest intervals