Is it bad to do HIIT and then continue cardio afterwards? Sometimes I do a 2-3 minute warmup, then intervals until about 20 or 25 minutes total time, then keep going at a steady pace or whatever I can handle for another 10 or 15 minutes. Are there any disadvantages to that?

I know that a lot of people are going to be inclined to say "you're not doing HIIT if you can do that much," but let's just avoid that answer. I run/jog 1 minute intervals at 10.5+/7.2 mph, so I think that qualifies as HIIT. If not, then maybe it's just intense intervals, but even still, I can continue after that sometimes, so is it good or bad to do so?

bump for some help

I do the same thing. Usually switch up the type of cardio tho. I will do my HIIT on the bike, then switch over to the treadmill for an additional 20 minutes at a lower intensity. I dont think it hurts...

yeah I don't really see why it would hurt really, just making sure. the added cardio isn't effecting the HIIT elevated metabolism levels from then or throughout the rest of the day (or however long it lasts), right

I'm often tempted to do additional cardio after doing my HIIT session, but I hold myself back thinking that I might over train myself. Coz after a 20minute rest, i feel like i still have enough energy to do more cardio. I know i'm doing HIIT right coz I get totally exhausted after my sessions.

Yeah I know EXACTLY what you mean. However, I think that if you're eating properly, it's pretty hard to actually truly over train your body. I mean I've been doing research and dieting, working out, running, eating healthy, the whole 9 yards, for about 2 years now. I know that's not a long time, but it has really made me think about a lot of things.

I think if you can really handle what you're doing and it's not to the point of like total exhaustion, you probably aren't over training. Think about it, even if you did 75 minutes of cardio, whether it be HIIT then regular or just all steady state, that's only about 5% of your day. The remaining 95% (22 hours and 15 minutes) your body is in a more resting state, and for about 30% of the day, your body is in total rest.

Conclusion: You should just do what you can handle. This is why people say that nutrition is so important and that you do your growing AFTER the gym and not while you are there. It's really a very minimal portion of your life

You have a good point there. I'll be keeping that in mind. Thanks! I guess I just have to trust my body to do it's thing after my sessions. Haha! I just started doing HIIT for a week now after months of 30min steady-state cardio. Just can't wait to see results. Trying to lose some body fat here.

I do 20mins HIIT sessions but I base my intervals on my hear rate. I sprint till i get to 95% of my MaxHR then rest till it goes down to 70%. I do this cycle for 7-8 times. You think this is a good way to go about my HIIT sessions? I find it difficult to keep track of the time of my intervals since I run on a track oval and just use a simple stop watch, that's why I chose to base it on my heart rate instead since I use a heart rate monitor and I know that HIITs are based on how much you increase and decrease your heart rate in your workout session. What do you think?

Yes, that's a good way to approach it. However, if you're using a track, you could just try sprinting half a lap then jogging half a lap, or even a quarter lap. That should be about 35-45 seconds sprint and about the same for jog if you do quarter lap (half lap if you need more rest).

But if you can really track your heart rate efficiently, then that's probably an even better way to do it. And I can tell you from experience, you're gonna love the results . Keep workin

Thanks Roadrunner52. What I do is I walk half of the curve then sprint the other half plus the straight (I hope you can visualize what I'm trying to say. Hehe! ). I do this to make sure that I'm spending more time sprinting than resting. It's pretty exhausting for me when I do 8 cycles. I'm still on my second week now (3x per week) and I think I'm getting some results.

I do have another question though. How do I track my progress when I'm doing cardio and weight training at the same time. Coz the last time I weighed myself, it showed that I actually gained 2-3 pounds since my last weigh-in. I'm guessing, though, that it's all muscle weight. Is there any other way I can track my progress aside from the weighing scale? My goal is to lose weight and get muscle definition.

Another option would be to simply ignore your HR during your sprint interval altogether - simply go ' as hard as you can ' instead.

Another option is to simply buy a cheap digital wrist watch with a timer - go ' as hard as you can ' for 1 minute and then recover while running for 2 minutes...simply set the timer to beep every minute.

Of course there is. And the scale should NOT be your method of progress measurement. The real progress is measured by both your experience of gains in the weight room (and the track) and your body fat, not your weight. Get yourself some calipers and track your bodyfat, because that's what you want to be losing. If your weight goes up and bodyfat stays the same or lowers, then you're obviously gaining muscle

Are you a race car driver. I often have this problem with race car drivers - 'I'm going as fast as possible' they say to me - right out on the ragged edge. In reality, they are not. They wouldn't fail a polygraph, because they truly believe they're going their hardest, but they could go faster, harder, always

IMO if you can do more cardio after HIIT then you are not going hard enough.

You should feel like throwing up. Many people vomit. I once saw someone hanging by the treadmill handles.

" throwing up " isn't a requirement, and certainly isn't a litmus test as to whether you're doing HIIT or not.

When it comes to HIIT, " how to do it " isn't cast in stone IMO. Take the time of your work interval as an example. The work interval doesn't have to be 20 seconds or even even 30 seconds. The landmark study done up here in Canada ( Tremblay et. al ) that associated HIIT with optimal fat loss used rather short intervals ranging anywhere from 15- 30 seconds to much longer intervals ranging from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. Ditto for the rest interval. It can be 1 minute , or it can be longer ( depending on the work interval ). In the study I just mentioned, they let some rest intervals reach a lower threshold heart rate of 120 - 130 beats per minute. In this case, the rest interval lower threshold was the equivalent of about 65%MHR+/- for many of the subjects in the study.

In terms of time, getting to this 120-130 beats per minute lower threshold heart rate could easily take anywhere from 1, 2 or 3 minutes of recovery - it varies. So, there is nowhere near any need to be " throwing up " with reasonable rest intervals like that IMO.

Very well said