HIIT you in the face

Cardiovascular conditioning is a strange beast. Some people love it. Some people hate it. Sometimes we love and hate it at the same time.

I have that love/hate thing with cardio. I get bored if I have to run a really long distance, because it means doing exactly the same thing for a really long time.

That said, I love running outside. I love swimming. I hate ellliptical machines. I thought I hated treadmills, too.

Until high intensity interval training happened to me. That's HIIT for short.
I like to think of HIIT as a way to make treadmills less boring. Kind of like alcoholic beverages make boring people somewhat more interesting. Or ugly people more attractive. On the flip side, HIIT will never be the reason you have sex with an uggo.

The idea is short bursts of maximal effort followed by periods of rest or recovery, like running sprints. This is a great way to blast fat and raise your metabolic rate for several hours. Unlike distance running, it breaks up your run into manageable chunks of time. As you progress through your run you see yourself achieving each of the smaller goals you have set for yourself.
At the end of the run you have an awesome feeling of accomplishment, which makes it easy to stay on track with your workouts and healthy eating.

Here is how to get a great HIIT workout:

Imagine a scale from 1 to 10. 1 is almost no effort at all and 10 is maximal effort. This scale is called rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Maximal effort is different for everyone because we all have different levels of conditioning.
A highly conditioned athlete can run at a 6 mph pace for 30 seconds with very little effort, translating to a 2 or 3 on the RPE scale. That athlete can probably run at 10 mph for 30 seconds at an 8 or 9 RPE.

A sedentary overweight individual might struggle to run 6 mph for 30 seconds. That would be that person's 10. Maybe that person can walk briskly for 30 seconds at 3.5 mph for 30 seconds. That might be a 2 or 3 for them. Making sense?

Here are two killer HIIT workouts for you to try:

5 minutes warmup begin at a fast walk and at 3 minutes begin an easy run RPE 2-4
1 minute sprint RPE 8-10
2 minute recovery RPE 2-4
Repeat sprint and recovery segments 5 times
5 minute cool down

or

3 minute brisk walk
30 seconds at a 9 RPE. Remember 9 RPE doe not mean 9 MPH. You may feel like you are going to die, but you will be OK.
30 seconds recover (jump your feet to either side of the belt) and catch your breath. It has never felt  so good to stand still.
Repeat the 30 on 30 off sequence 20 times.
3 minute cool down brisk walk.

The second workout is one that my boss at the gym showed me. He is completely insane.