I have been thinking about starting a HIIT routine instead of my usually 30 minute jog. I just read about HIIT and how it may be more effective than just jogging. Mainly I'm looking to just control my fat % and not really cut.

Can some of you give me a break down on your HIIT routines and how long you go for total including warm up and cool down.

Thanks

There are honestly a million ways you can do it with time, distance, etc. Here are a few samples though. Feel free to ask questions.

1) Go to a track and sprint the straightways while walking or jogging along the curve (distance HIIT)

2) Get on the elliptical and go at 100% for 30 seconds, followed by 60% for 30 seconds.

3) Run for 20 seconds at 60%, followed by 20 seconds at 70%, followed by 20 seconds at 80%, walk for a minute, and repeat.

Obviously, the percents, times, distances, etc. can be adjusted based on your level of fitness and preferences. Additionally, HIIT usually includes a 5 minute warm up and cool down of light exercise.

Hope this clears things up. I can post up some articles if you wish for further clarification. Just let me know.

Thanks owoed. Anyone else have other routine ideas?

12% incline on treadmill..warmup at 4mph 2-3 minutes, then..10mph sprint for as long as possible (if you can do more than 30", it is probably too easy) drop down to 4mph till catch your breath...rinse, repeat. Do 5-6 sets starting out; add more as you improve every other workout till you can do 15 of these. You should feel totally exhausted and may feel like puking the first few times.

I've seen a study that stated that the high intensity interval should be approximately 15 seconds long, but this assumes an all-out maximum effort. So a good basic routine, which I've done on an eliptical and bike, is 15 seconds of 100% flat out sprinting, followed by 45 seconds of easy jogging/spinning. Repeat until you puke, pass out, or wish you were dead. Oh, and make sure you do this fueled!

I've seen a study that stated that the high intensity interval should be approximately 15 seconds long, but this assumes an all-out maximum effort. So a good basic routine, which I've done on an eliptical and bike, is 15 seconds of 100% flat out sprinting, followed by 45 seconds of easy jogging/spinning. Repeat until you puke, pass out, or wish you were dead. Oh, and make sure you do this fueled!
I think I've heard something similar. Hence, for many athletes HIIT on the treadmill is not very effective/does not work nearly as well. It's annoying too, always changing the speed and such manually. :D

I follow Johns HIIT routine on a cheap stationary bike. Start with one minute low pace, 15 seconds hard as I absolutely can, 1 minute slow pace, 15 seconds hard as I can, etc. In a month, I doubled how long I could do it (5 minutes at start, now doing 10 minutes with no problem), and lowered my resting heart rate by 10 bpm (high 40's now).

I think I've heard something similar. Hence, for many athletes HIIT on the treadmill is not very effective/does not work nearly as well. It's annoying too, always changing the speed and such manually. :D

Agreed. A treadmill would be my absolute last choice for HIIT. Frustrating at best, dangerous at worst. I think I've seen where some people here do it, and I've tried it, but its just a little too exciting for me, plus its very hard to get the right speed for each interval. I've found that either an eliptical or a bike and nice long gentle hill are great. I also use a recumbent stationary bike for variety.

As stated before, warm up and cool down for 5 minutes each. You'll probably be able to 8-10 intervals. The key is absolute 100% effort, nothing less. If you can do 15, increase the resitance. Anyway, you are looking at about 20-30 minutes per session.

Agreed. A treadmill would be my absolute last choice for HIIT. Frustrating at best, dangerous at worst. I think I've seen where some people here do it, and I've tried it, but its just a little too exciting for me, plus its very hard to get the right speed for each interval. I've found that either an eliptical or a bike and nice long gentle hill are great. I also use a recumbent stationary bike for variety.

As stated before, warm up and cool down for 5 minutes each. You'll probably be able to 8-10 intervals. The key is absolute 100% effort, nothing less. If you can do 15, increase the resitance. Anyway, you are looking at about 20-30 minutes per session.

I disagree on some points. Most peer-reviewed studies have used a varying degree of intervals for both aerobic and anaerobic interval training. 15 secs is only one way to perform it to get the benefits of increased EPOC. A typical HIIT routine would be:

5 min warmup
30 sec interval
90 sec slow pace
30 sec interval
etc, for 8-10 interval sessions

And you must include some type of progressive overload, either by increasing resistance, interval duration, etc.

I do agree that it must be 100% effort if you are performing anaerobic HIIT. But it can be done in a variety of ways- sprinting outside, running up hill, treadmill, stationary or road bike, bodyweight squats, etc.

Thanks for the responses everyone!

I have only done this 3 times. And I usually do run 1 minute, jog 1 minute. I think I need to bring it down a little. I go for 22 minutes or so. I think I should just run as fast as possible for 30-45 seconds. At least till I'm better at it.

I go by this. (http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp)

I like this site because it has a whole routine set out including stepping up the time each week. It starts out pretty easy but starts to get hard pretty quick on ya.

My current routine is a 2 min walk to warm up then I jog 4 mins and sprint 1 min, jog 4, sprint 1 for total of 30 mins. Would a HIIT routine be that much better than what I am doing now then?

I have been doing HIIT for the last month or so, and have been using my treadmill,..I guess I have a slight advantage, as I have a machine with "Motion detectors" on the side rails. All I have to do is put my hand over one of the "eyes" and the speed will increase, or over the other, and it will decrease. I can ramp up or down the speed pretty fast this way.
At a 3% incline, I have been doing 60sec. easy, 60 sec. hard, for 6 intervals. 5 min warm up and 5 min cool down. Seems to pretty much kick my butt,...I know what speeds to use so far, so to make things even harder, all I need to do is increase the incline.

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I have been doing HIIT for the last month or so, and have been using my treadmill,..I guess I have a slight advantage, as I have a machine with "Motion detectors" on the side rails. All I have to do is put my hand over one of the "eyes" and the speed will increase, or over the other, and it will decrease. I can ramp up or down the speed pretty fast this way.
At a 3% incline, I have been doing 60sec. easy, 60 sec. hard, for 6 intervals. 5 min warm up and 5 min cool down. Seems to pretty much kick my butt,...I know what speeds to use so far, so to make things even harder, all I need to do is increase the incline.

>>>--->
That's a pretty sick treadmill. I've never heard of that technology.