Sincerely

Andreas

Raw Food Guys

1st: Insanity (Beachbody.com) – 60 day program that has a calendar for working out 6 days a week. This is intense

2nd: Cathe STS training set#3 has a series of plyo legs (4 total) that incorporate plyo and weight lifting – I love this series. (cathe.com)

3rd: Cathe HIIT training (3 training sessions) (Cathe.com)

4th: Jilllian Michaels: Banish fat boost metabolism and 30 day shred.
(amazon.com)

I hope this helps because all of these workouts will kick your butt and will be a wonderful addition to this program. I am just getting started with the eating part of this which is where I needed help.

HOWEVER, I think there is still some confusion around the topic.

Quick story:

Back in the day we sprinters basically did what a lot of people would call HIIT practically every day, constant sprinting at high speeds, short rest periods and going again.

Were we all super lean, in great shape and able to run with the competition?

Sure.

Did it increase our cardiovascular endurance?

No.

Every now and then coach would make us do some distance work with the distance people, especially in the fall, we had one workout a week with the cross-country team.

Well, the girl's cross country team

It was a hill workout, we'd sprint about 100M up a bill and jog down. In the beginning we'd beat the girls with our superior speed, but they never slowed down, in fact it was their EASY day so they would eventually run by us and laugh.

No seriously, they laughed at us.

Simply put: sprinters are doing intervals every day and don't have the endurance to keep up with their distance running teammates. In fact even athletes who say run cross-country in the fall or come from an endurance background, who do sprints in track find themselves less fit cardio wise after doing sprint workouts.

So why the results in the studies?

Simple: the people doing steady state cardio at your local gym are going at "lazy speeds", they're going at an easy pace they feel comfortable maintaining, and they're not pushing themselves on a regular basis. I.e. they don't train like endurance athletes AT ALL.

SO when they do intervals they're actually pushing themselves, so they get better results than the do from their lazy workouts.

The exercise isn't the problem, it's the 1/2-ass approach.

They're not building cardio capacity as they don't push themselves, unlike an endurance athlete who is pushing for personal bests at various distances, pushing themselves against teammates/training partners, etc.

No endurance athlete trains in that nonsensical 60-70% of max effort fat burning zone that someone came up, nor do they use machines in a gym. No, they're outside running, in a pool, riding a real bike, etc.

It's not comparable.

Trust me, give me 10 athletes that I train the traditional way for a 5k and have someone else train 10 athletes with HIIT and my guys will wipe the floor with them.

Ask anyone in the track, swimming or cycling worlds and they'll agree.

This is not to say intervals aren't of value to endurance athletes, they use them too, just differently. When I ran (and coached) the distance guys would run several miles, than do track work and then run some more. The track work developed their speed and ability to kick, whilst the endurance work developed, well, endurance.

-Markham

Your thighs won't get bigger at all from jumping rope. You should be fine with Crazy 8 Body Weight Circuit as well.

kristin,

You should experiment with the time ratios. Why don't you try 60 seconds of fast with 60 seconds of slow. Also…try incorporating body weight circuits.

myra,

I pay for my photos…that is why they look so sharp. It adds expense to running this blog, but I think it pays off. I am actually shocked that such a small percentage of people do HIIT. It works so well.

Jason the Chinese Guy,

I really like the elliptical after HIIT. If you want to lose fat it works very well, but probably isn't harsh enough to be able to do marathon cardio (to lose muscle mass on pupose). I feel the fast jogging that you are doing is the best way to lighten up and lose both fat and muscle (this is why boxers do "road work" and jog a lot when trying to make weight). What you are doing will work well…just don't do it long term. Get to the point where you are lean and slim, then drop that marathon cardio. Also…I think both ellipticals will work equally as well. I like to use the ellipticals without arm movement (I like the Precor model)…just resting my arms on stationary handles. As far as caffeine goes…I would take it before lifting. Your resistance training actually primes the body for fat buring as well, releases HGH, etc…in a way it works some of the same systems as your HIIT…so take your caffeine before lifting. You sound like you are doing the perfect routine to hit your goals. If you do decide to play basketball or swimming, then limit your HIIT to 10 minutes (8 total intervals)…don't go as hard and see if you can fit it in before basketball or swimming for maximum fat burning effect.

Kenny,

Yep…I've found the upright stationary bikes work extremely well for HIIT. I use those from time to time and experience a serious HGH Flush in about 15 minutes. You probably don't need to go for 25 minutes…but if you don't feel exhausted or totally burnt out, then give it a shot for 25 minutes.

Cheers,

Rusty