Learn why HIIT is bad for you

read time 4 mins 30 secs

HIIT is the craze, touted for its crazy fat burning process & impressive results, it's here to stay like it or not. Everyone's in, but at the same time, everyone is out of it. Find out why HIIT may be doing you more harm than good. 

One of when you know a HIIT session is done

What is HIIT?

A short acronym for High-Intensity Interval Training(HIIT) is also known and High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise(HIIE). Before HIIT became full blown like how it is now, there was HIT(high-intensity training). HIT was popularised by Arthur Jones in 1970s, who is the founder of Nautilus. HIT is a form of strength training done with the focus of quality repetitions to the point of muscular fatigue/ failure. HIT is based on the principles of doing the exercises brief, infrequent and intense to "shock" them into growth.

​There are various kinds of HIIT, & one of the more known one is Tabata! There really isn't a definite formula for HIIT, but as long as you are doing a form of intervals which has these components below, you are doing a HIIT session(*or some sort of): 

• alternating short periods of intense anaerobic exercise
• followed by with less intense recovery periods(active recovery)
• repeat until exhaustion
• sessions are typically from 4 mins up to under 30mins

HIIT can also include an upper body, lower body, a full body workout. 

How to do HIIT correctly

Do it right first time, every time!

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"HIIT on the other hand, is just what the acronym suggests, high intensity interval training. When done right HIIT delivers only benefits, but when done the wrong way, it destroys your body faster than you realise, causing you more harm than good". ​

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More & more people are getting injured doing HIIT & the two highest fault lies in the inability of working at sub/ supra maximal effort whilst keeping the form consistent for most people. HIIT is done with the intent of moving with close to maximal effort for the amount prescribed in the session, & allow the rest time in between to recover & get oxygen flowing. When you do interval at a high intensity level, you produce a lot of lactic acid in your system to the working muscle making it severely hard to move them in the form that you desire to constantly throughout time, thus, working gradually is highly suggested instead of jumping into a HIIT session not having to do ONE proper HIIT session to work towards a longer duration. You leave your body sore for the next few days and experience DOMS(delayed onset muscles soreness) which if you're not mindful during the session & go beyond your capable work output, you may be injuring yourself & the soreness may last up to a week or so, leaving you hobbling wherever you go!

Top 3 things to look out for when doing HIIT

Form is key!

1. Progression
Progression is key to doing HIIT, never jump into a session that allows you to get to know what capacity your "engine" is. Always start with something that leaves you slightly exhausted but metabolically, you feel alive after the session, never drained or exhausted. This allows your mind(mental), body(muscles, cardiovascular system etc), & your brain(nervous system) to adapt for higher work output for extended period of time each session. ​

2. Form 
HIIT without form causes injury, period. Going through the time based movement(s) just for the sake of trying to burn more calories will do you more than those calories you wanted to burn. Sacrificing form for doing any type of high intensity work with complex movement(s) is never a good idea in any way. Your body will over compensate & have you work the wrong muscles, which will eventually lead to you having strained a muscle, even worse tear something. The injuries sustained by many is real in the context of a sports medicine centre seeing people with injuries walking in from other HIIT sessions. Unfortunately, not all HIIT session facilitators are made the same, but you can always gauge by how much correction(s), regression of movement(modifications), & how they make you flow through to have you go through progression as mentioned above to make it a great HIIT session with only benefits to follow. 

3. Movement capacity 
Movement capacity refers to you being able to move freely without pain or restriction(s). This is, if not, the most important factor to you successfully doing any HIIT without accumulating any injuries. A few movement to self-test yourself is doing an:

1. overhead squats
2. arm extension (arms up towards the sky)
3. full squats

If you can do the three self tests, and pass them by being able to them freely without the need to stabilise or gain balance, & do 3 easy repetition, then you got yourself a gold body

The benefits of HIIT

RBMR(resting basal metabolic rate)

• RBMR is when you rest and let the post metabolic process of doing HIIT do its thing. Increase in your resting metabolic rate means at rest, you burn more calories!

Cardiovascular strength 
The demands of a HIIT session will add strength to your cardiovascular(heart) health. Just like working out the muscles that you can physically see on the external value of your body, your heart will be stronger, pumping blood in & out with lesser effort. 

VO2 Max
The maximum amount(volume) of oxygen you are able to use whilst exercising. This increase will help you go for longer durations/ bouts of HIIT session or endurance work because more oxygen means less lactic acid buildup!

Mental clarity & awareness

• Training to increase your physical body has a by-product:
• Increase in blood flow
• Increase in feel-good hormones
• Increase in blood flow 
• Increase in muscle strength / endurance
• Better posture 
• Decrease stress/ improve relaxation state of body-mind
• Decrease blood pressure

All of the above, leads to better mental clarity & higher awareness of yourself. If you have worked out even for a short session, it usually ends up making you feel much better than if you were to procrastinate & end up doing nothing. Working out itself has plenty of benefits but done wrongly or without the proper instructions to make your sessions the best each time can be daunting once you sustain an injury. 

Your new programme

Don't know where to start with HIIT programming? You can try this & work the duration up to 30 minutes before changing/ adding a new move into it to become a complex HIIT session.

1. ​Using a stationary bike, pedal as hard(close to maximal effort)and fast as possible for 20 seconds, bring the resistance high enough that you need to work to pedal
   
2. Take 10 seconds to just pedal lightly, & bring the resistance back to zero
   
3. Repeat this cycle for 8 cycles, which will take you just 4 minutes of fat burning, cardiovascular work, & work your way up to the 10 minutes cycle up to 20 minutes

Frequency

HIIT is not done regularly as it taxes your whole body system(nervous system, bones, muscles, tendons etc) too much, especially if you do it without enough recovery. Do them 2-3 times at max & always seek for full recovery before attempting the next one. It's also done periodically to shock the body's metabolic system into a full automation of metabolic rise up to about 48hours post your HIIT session!

Attend a HIIT session

What are you doing for HIIT, & do you have any injuries that you sustained whilst doing HIIT? Let us know in the comments section below!