Hey guys,
I was just thinking about this because I have started doing HIIT-style cardio but sometimes it's tough to find time for HIIT workouts. Has anyone tried just doing a few sprints at totally random parts of the day, spaced apart? Like for instance, instead of doing 10 sprints in one discrete workout, maybe doing 2 in the morning when you wake up, 2 before lunch, 2 before dinner, etc. so that you would still end up doing 10 the whole day. This wouldn't really be inconvenient for me because I'm outside most of the day and usually wearing clothes/shoes that I can run in. I was just thinking that since the objective (I think) of HIIT is basically to jumpstart your metabolism, that doing it 5 times a day instead of all at once would be just as good and maybe even better for the metabolism (just like eating 5 meals a day vs. 1 huge meal). Also, more importantly, it would be a lot easier mentally to motivate myself and really go all out if I knew that I only had to do 2 sprints instead of ten. The only thing I'm concerned about is that maybe it would be too hard on the body (just as you wouldn't lift weights 5 times a day because it would overload the CNS). Anyone have any thoughts or try anything similar? If this just sounds really stupid and a horrible idea, please say so.

I would just do HIIT like it was originally designed. I don't believe you would get as great of a metabolism boost if you only did 2 sprints at different times in the day.

I would just do HIIT like it was originally designed. I don't believe you would get as great of a metabolism boost if you only did 2 sprints at different times in the day.

Where I can I find a good description of HIIT and how it's designed?

Where I can I find a good description of HIIT and how it's designed?



google is your friend.

Well obviously I could go to Google and find all sorts of sites that describe HIIT. But then I will have to read them all and then differentiate between the good sites and the bad sites. Instead, maybe somebody here could say,

"The best site bar none for HIIT is SuperHIIIT.com. Nothing even comes close."

Of course, if no one actually replies, that's okay. At that point I can go to Google and do my own research. But thanks for your reply. I never get tired of people saying, "Dude, Google it."

krackato:

There are about 5,000 HIIT articles on the web with miniscule differences in the numbers, but I think that the basic formula of an HIIT session looks undisputably like this:

Pick an exercise with fairly easy to monitor intensity--some pretty standard good choices are treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes and rowing machines. An interval is one part high intensity to three parts low intensity. I've seen programs where the high intensity lasts anywhere from 15 seconds to a full minute. You're going to have people arguing that intervals of length A are way more successful than intervals of length B, but I don't think the specific length matters so long as you're exerting yourself appropriately, meaning that by the end of your high-intensity period, you're pretty much out of gas. Follow with an interval at slightly more than half that intensity that lasts three times as long. Repeat the intervals until you've got a workout lasting 20-30 minutes. I think it's generally agreed upon that an HIIT session that goes longer than 30 minutes means you probably aren't working hard enough.

Thank you. I appreciate the info.