a quick hiit question

**j407** · 29-Oct-05, 03:41 PM

i dont have much time through out the week to do cardio. so ive started doing 10 minutes of burpee's. or as many as i can do in 10 minutes (about 80). i do them in the morning 2 to 3 times a week. and it realy gets my heart rate going. my question is whould this be enough to be considerd hiit? its only 10 minutes. but it is intense. and i dont think i could go much further. am i doing enough??

tim_mcf · 30-Oct-05, 12:14 PM

Well, sure you could do burpees, and they're very beneficial. HIIT, however, stands for
high Intensity INTERVAL Training, not High Intensity Constantly. You should do 15 or so burpees, then some kind of active recovery - bodyweight squats or situps or something, then back to burpees. The idea isn't to get your heart rate up and keep it there, but rather to get it up, let it calm down, bring it up again, etc.

**j407** · 30-Oct-05, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim_mcf

Well, sure you could do burpees, and they're very beneficial. HIIT, however, stands for
high Intensity INTERVAL Training, not High Intensity Constantly. You should do 15 or so burpees, then some kind of active recovery - bodyweight squats or situps or something, then back to burpees. The idea isn't to get your heart rate up and keep it there, but rather to get it up, let it calm down, bring it up again, etc.

well what whould be more beneficial for burning fat? the way ive been doing it seems alot more intense then doing it in itervals. i know its alot harder. but does that mean better? i guess in a way its similer to max ot cardio.

**threenorns** · 30-Oct-05, 10:27 PM

interval is better.

31-Oct-05, 12:37 AM

Whatever you are able to do is best as long as you are doing something. Some have to walk for an hour, others have to run for 20 minutes.

I find that I burn fat fastest if I'm doing nonstop 15 minutes or so as hard as I can go. I just don't like doing it that way. Others burn it faster with interval training.

Now for the heart, it really doesn't matter just as long as you get the heart rate up there faster than sitting in front of the TV would do. So, do it how you like.

**j407** · 31-Oct-05, 06:07 AM

well. i guess i'll try it for awhile and see how it goes. thanx for the reply's

**maverick** · 31-Oct-05, 08:19 AM

Generally intervals are used because it gives time for a short period of recovery to allow to reach 100% capacity again. The idea is that you can't maintain 100% capacity for a solid 10 minutes, so breaking it into sections of reduced capacity and 100% capacity will ideadlly net the best results.

Oh, and I love guerilla cardio and the intervals in that only last 4 minutes. 10 minutes should be plenty if the intensity is right.

**j407** · 31-Oct-05, 04:19 PM

when i think about it. it does have some intervals. i mean i normaly start off with 2 sets of 10 burpees. then sets of 5 until i reach ten minutes. each set has very short breaks in between. each break varies. and like i said before it comes out to around 80 or so burpees, i try to out do my last number each time. it keeps my heart rate up pretty high. so with the expeption of sprints (guerilla) its been the most intense cardio ive ever done