High intensity interval training full#

New studies on the benefits of HIIT make the news on a regular basis.

In other cases, such as high-intensity sprints, you want each effort to be done at max, so you need to let your body fully recover for four or five minutes between bouts. And because your heart rate stays elevated during the recovery periods, your aerobic energy system gets a training benefit, as well. Short intervals are usually paired with equally short or even shorter recovery periods so your body can adapt to repeated maximal efforts. How much recovery you take between intervals depends on your goals. If you’re doing longer, 3- to 5-minute intervals, you’re working in your VO2 max zone, or about 95 percent of your max heart rate (or a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10) for the duration of the interval.

High intensity interval training full#

So if you’re doing Tabatas (20 seconds of effort, followed by 10 seconds of recovery), you’re running full throttle for 20 seconds. How hard is hard? That depends on the interval length, but the key is to go as hard as you can for the duration of the effort. It’s comprised of short, hard bouts of cardio exercise-anywhere from 10 seconds to five minutes in length-broken up by brief recovery periods. HIIT sounds very scientific, but it’s really very simple.