Hi everyone, this is my first time posting, but I have an urgent question.

Basically I do HIIT on my stationary bike. Lately, when I increase the resistance from 2 to 3 for hitting max, my legs cramp up, and my knee starts hurting, and I have to stop.

Yesterday I decided to stay on a resistance level 2, for both max and recovery, but when I try my hardest I go even faster then level 3, and I still felt wiped out.

Is resistance level really important?? Should I stick with a level 2?? Or it doesn't matter, it's all about speed??

Welcome. Legs cramping up is an indication that your fitness is not ready for HIIT. Knee hurting is even more of a concern that should be checked out by a medical professional.

HIIT is all about heart rate, which is determined by the resistance level, regardless of speed. When I do HIIT, I start on level 2 out of 25 for 3 minutes warmup. Then, I go to the max level, 25, and hold this for 1 minutes, which is incredibly hard. I am breathing very, very heavy and cannot hold this for much more than a minute. Then, after 1 minute, I drop back to level 2 for 3 minutes or until my heart rate drops below 120, preferably 110 - 115. This is one cycle. I do 7 cycles in 30 minutes and am totally wiped out at the end.

I'm normally doing a level 9 1-hour exercise at 100 RPM. The heart rate monitor gives me readings between 160 and 180 BPM after the first 15 minutes on that and reaches the 190s if I try to do a minute on level 20 at 65 RPM which drops to 45 RPM by the end of the minute. I'm going to switch to do the stationary bike exclusively for HIIT now as well as the elliptical to work other muscles. Should I lower my cadence at level 9 to lower my heart rate or lower it all the way down to a level 1 crawl? The hill climb workout also burns me out, but I think it only peaks 4 times in a 20-minute session.

(I thought the idea of HIIT was to go as hard as you can with as little rest as possible, and whenever I continue my normal cadence after doing the level 20, I am still breathing heavily for about a minute or two following it if I'm at level 9 trying to keep at 100 RPM. I'm a bit uncertain about slowing down to the point where it has no effect on me since people advise doing a jog when they're on the treadmill for their resting period. What cadence do I pedal at during my rest period? If the most important thing is heart rate variation, then I will have to do that though, but my rest period may be as high as 5 minutes. My resting heart rate is 70 BPM, so it's not already high or irregular before I begin.)

How old are you? A heart rate of 190 is very high and dangerous for a 50yo but is probably okay for a 20yo. As with all high energy activities, you must be medically fit to undertake these activities.

That said, I adjust my HIIT sessions based on heart rate. I will go "all out" for 1 minute which for me is a starting heart rate of 140 and ending up at 155 - 160. I cannot hold a heart rate of 160 for more than about 10 seconds. Then I back off enough to lower my heart rate down to 120, which usually takes about 2 minutes. This 1:2 cycle works well for me, but others like a 1:1 or 1:3, depending on your existing fitness. With a resting heart rate of 70, you have decent aerobic fitness but have a lot of room for improvement. (My resting heart rate is in the low 50s.) So, you may need to go with a 1:3, 1:4 or even 1:5. Go with whatever rest period allows you to complete 5 cycles. As your fitness improves, you can lower your rest periods and watch your heart rate fall quickly after your intervals, which is a true sign of fitness.

So, I would not use cadence as my guide, but rather heart rate or, if your machine measures it, power (watts). Or, an alternative, is to try to maintain the same cadence, say 100, but modify the level.

Thanks for your quick and helpful response. I am 25, and I expect my heart rate to peak around 210 BPM, but I've never used the heart rate handlebars beyond level 10. I'm sure letting it over 200 for a minute won't do me any harm, and I often sprint for the last couple minutes at level 9(130 RPM) if my legs are too sore to handle a higher level. I never ever ever run or engage in anaerobic activity other than weight lifting and am not nearly out of breath when pedaling at level 9 130 RPM compared to a level 20 50 RPM. I can't imagine it would be any different from someone sprinting the last 200y of a mile run at a fast pace. I will let you know in my next response what my HR readings were. If 5 cycles is enough, would you recommend doing the 20-minute hill climb? That sounds like it simulates the goal of HIIT.

The 20-minute hill climb is great for developing your anaerobic threshold and lactate tolerance as you will be close to being anaerobic if you go hard enough. Nonetheless, you won't go as hard on a 20-minute hill climb as you would for 1-minute HIIT intervals.

I would definitely do the hill climbs but be aware that while it provides great physiological benefits, they are different than what HIIT provides.

I'm about to turn 52, and I've battled with excersising routinely for several years now. My most resent restart was approx 6 weeks ago, and I've been able to work out at least 4 - 5 times per week. Typical work out is 30 minutes on my stationary bike and 20 minutes of yoga. Some strength training with a Body Works 5000 but not enough yet.

I've read a little about the interval training on a bike and tried it for the firt time today and survived!!! Set my bike at 5 out of 10.

3 minutes of warm up
30 seconds at 100 rpm
30 seconds at 65 rpm
repeated until I had completed 4 minutes of interval
3 minutes of cool down.

I hope to add a minute per week until I get up to a solid work out.

My questions are: Does this replace my standard 30 minutes on the bike or should I do this as a second work out each day? How far should I extend this work out from 4 minutes to ???

Thanks in advance for your input.........shane

I would recommend doing a straight 30 minutes as my main workout and add the intervals as an extra.