Hi. I would like to try HIIT in order to lose some body fat. I'm 19 years old, 6'0, 220-225LBS and i'm looking to go down to about 190lbs. I really want to achieve my goal by May 2008. I currently play hockey two days a week and its great cardio and i would like to doo HIIT about 3 times a week. I will probably not change my diet (i rarely eat junk food, just two-three square meals a day of pretty healthy food). I need a HIIT plan. im thinking of something like this: 5min jog(warmup)-->30sec sprint-->30sec jog-->30sec sprint-->30s jog (i continue to do this for about 5-8 times and then i end with a 5min cooldown). Will this HIIT work? I'm open to ideas and different HIIT programs. Will it be just as effective if i were to do this on an excerise bike? and is my goal realistic?

thanks a lot!

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to HIIT - except perhaps that your work interval should be very intense - and I will assume that's what 90 rpm represents for you. Times for work and rest intervals can vary quite a bit.

The norm for most is to simply make sure your work interval is one in which you are going ' flat out ' - i.e as hard as you can. And, that your rest interval is simply long enough allow you to recover comfortably - which for some is to get all your breath back ( full recovery ) and for others it is to simply be at a pre-determined lower training heart rate for recovery, but not one in which you get all your breath back.

I do know that there is a reputable trainer ( Alywn Cosgrove ) who advocates his own HIIT protocol to optimize fat loss. His protocol calls for 1 minute ' flat out ' as hard as you can stand followed by 2 minutes of active recovery - a 1:2 ratio. Actually, the ratio of 1:2 is the one I have seen used most often - for example, this is the ratio I used when training hockey players during lactate threshold training ( i.e bike, treadmill, elliptical trainer ) - but again, there is no hard and fast rule. Right now your work / rest ratio is 1:3. So, one thing you can try is to go from a 1:3 ratio down to a 1:2 ratio and see how that goes for awhile....again, just make sure your 1 minute work interval is ' flat out ' .

Again, with respect to hockey, the ' ideal ' length of a shift on the ice is about 45 seconds of flat out hard work - though most players stay on for 1 minute or more. This followed by around 2+ minutes sitting on the bench as the other lines take to the ice. So, in this context, the HIIT I noted above is a good fit to condition yourself for hockey.

That said, here is an example of when I used interval training - during hockey season - using a treadmill.

Set the treadmill mph at 10 ( or 12 ). Set the incline at 10 ( or 12 ). Get on, straddle it as it is running, then jump on as it is going at the 10/10 setting - essentially you are running " flat out ' at this point in time. Do the 10/10 run for a minute or so , or until your legs have some lactic acid feel - then quickly hop off. You should be gasping for air at this point and be at about 95%+ of your max heart rate. After you hop off the treadmill ( it is still running at 10/10 by the way ) walk around it and recover and check your pulse all the while. When your pulse rate drops to about 65% of your max +/- heart rate - hop back on the treadmill for your 10/10 run for a minute interval as before. I'd do a total of 12 or 15 of the 10/10 1 minute runs as a good workout to both burn calories and for a cardio conditioning workout.

In your case, you want to start with some form of easier variation of this by - for example - doing hard flat out intervals of 30 or 60 seconds at say 7 or 8 mph and then an easy interval of 120 seconds or more of jogging at 5 mph or less ...then repeat this cycle for 20-30 minutes. Or, eventually do as I did above but start lower at say an incline speed combo of 3/3, or 4/4 or 5/5 etc. etc. and do these cycles for 20-30 minutes.

You could do HIIT 2/3 times a week along with your hockey.

have you ever done it before because its damn harder then it sounds you have to be in pretty good shape to do sprint -jog sprint - jog etc...

good point lifeissoccer - I overlooked that point.

I agree.

I don't think people should tackle HIIT until they have established a solid aerobic base - i.e being able to do 30 minutes of steady cardio at a moderate to intermediate level of intensity.

thanks for the advice. i think i'll do the 1:3 ratio about 2 times a week and hopefully eventually bring it up to 3 times a week and moving up to a 1:2. thanks again for the advice. i really appreciate it.

Sounds like a good plan.

Good luck with your training.