Well I tried HIIT for the first time today. I used the stationary bike I have, but I also have a heavy bag and a jump rope so I plan to mix it up.

Anyways on the bike I did 45 seconds of medium speeds and then went all out for 15 seconds. I did this for 20 minutes. The only thing I'm really wondering about is I've read on some of the other posts that by the end of a HIIT session that you should be just about passing out and gasping for breath and "about to puke" (that last one sounds counterproductive but maybe not), but I didn't necessarily feel like I was going to pass out. I was sweating a lot and my heart rate was definitely up but again I didn't feel like I was going to pass out. I've been jumping rope and when it was warmer running 2-3 times a week though so I'm already in good cardio shape, so I'm hoping that's why. Maybe about 20-25 minutes later I felt I was back to normal breathing/not sweating.

It's a pretty old bike. I don't know how to explain it but sometimes I felt like my legs could've been going faster but you get that feeling where the bike can't keep up with how fast you're going and you just end up moving your legs faster. Like if you ride downhill and keep peddling. I don't know how to explain it but you'll probably know what I'm talking about if you've experienced it.

I kind of felt like I could be moving faster but I just wasn't able to. Don't know if that'll make sense either. Like my heart and lungs could've handled me going faster but I could move my body that fast. Hopefully that helps.

Any tips though or critiques would be welcome though--I just want to make sure I'm doing it right and am getting benefit from it. Thanks.

I suspect that the ' pass out ' reference was a figurative one - and not a literal one. - and not a description of the entire HIIT session.

However, if you do HIIT hard enough so that you go at 85% ++++ during your work intervals, depending on how many seconds you ' went all out ', you can very easily be ' gasping for breath ' and ( at least ) feel like you're going to die after each work interval. Do these sort of intervals a number of times with recovery intervals that aren't too forgiving and you'll see why most HIIT can only be done productively for 30 +/- minutes


Well, you could try going hard for 30 - 45 seconds ( instead of 15 ) and only be recovering for an equal amount of time ( 30 - 45 seconds ) or 2 X as long.

Try this for your next work interval on your bike.

- Up the resistance level on your bike by 15% - 25%.
- stand up on your bike ( if you don't have toe traps to stand up with .....duct tape your shoes to the peddles ) note your start time and close your eyes
- lean forward, eyes closed, and go as fast and as hard as you can till your legs start to burn so you can continue and or you have no more wind so you can't continue
- after you stop, sit down, open your eyes, put your resistance back to normal ( while you continue to pedal at no lower than 80 rpm ) and see how long it took you to get to ' failure '
- if it took much longer than 1 minute, bump up your resistance next work interval and do it again.

See my comments above

Thanks for the info. Sounds good.