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- Hacker News
- I know the most physically fit I have ever been was when I was able to do every video of the Insanity workout.by UltraSane
- Same here in my late 30s. I was a machine. By my late 40s/early 50s it actually started to feel unhealthy, way too cardio intensive, and I switched to a more balanced cardio vs resistance mix. I think Shaun T did the same!
- how come the ones who live the longest never do the HIIT treadmill hamster wheel training, but rather frequent light-to-moderate walks, bicycle rides, garden work or the like?by brzezmac
- Can you really do HIIT on a treadmill? It doesn't sound safe to sprint on a machine.
Re your observations. Are you referring to elderly people? I'm not sure this study is about them. My mental model of this mechanism is that relatively young people can choose between e.g. long distance running and sprinting, and that the latter will yield better cardiac outcomes.
by manmal - Less impact, less wear and tear, more sustainable into old ageby talon8635
- The high-intensity gains only show up after you've built the base. Skipping zone 2 to jump straight to intervals is why people plateau and get hurt.by dunlin
- At first I thought they found something new, however it is known that exercise intensity should be of various types for the best health outcome. In my training regimen I already have a weekly session of high-intensity training, and other session at a lower intensity.by mimo84
- I built this HIIT timer tool www.hiitmeup.fit for exactly this reason as I try to squeeze in a compact exercise during my busy work days. I put this out on show HN a few weeks ago and hope others will find it just as useful as I do.by takee
- High intensity by far gives you the best gains for the time you put in, but there's only so much you can do without overtraining.
The way to really maximize your potential is to do high intensity 30 mins 3x/wk and then intersperse it with a great deal of low intensity cardio. Like 4x more if you can, per the 80/20 rule.
It works because it's starting to approach the most exercise your body can handle. (Although some athletes definitely fit in more.)
by asdfman123 - Does anyone have a recommendation for a dumb watch (<$100 USD) that has good programmability (flexible alarms) for a HIIT protocol? It would be nice if it had HRM but at that price point, maybe not feasible.
I don't want the fuss or expense of an Android or Apple watch. Garmin makes some nice models but they are still relatively expensive.
by clumsysmurf - You could just make a playlist of your intervals and use earbuds, or exercising in the town square under a large clock
- I would look into a used entry model Garmin. Something like a 235 (I have my old one sitting around). It has an HRM though it's not a terribly reliable one.by YZF
- 2nd hand Garmin or Apple Watch. These things are basically being thrown away and watches like a Gen 6 AW or a Fenix 5 can be found for so little money and they work very well even today if you only care about sports tracking.
I personally cannot stand Apple for sports, which is why I have a AW Ultra 1 AND a Fenix 7 lol. Got both 2nd hand for ~30% of their MSRP.
Personally something like a 2nd hand Garmin Forerunner 55 with a chest based HR monitor is for me the best budget setup. But when shopping second hand you, use what you can find. I often see great deals on things like the Garmin instinct series.
2 years ago I got a Fenix 5 for 180 and it was amazing for me. Just turn off all the "smart" features.
- I play Dance Dance Revolution. Doing hard songs in that game is basically the definition of high intensity interval training. And it's fun!by Madmallard
- Same! I used to play Max 300 in heavy mode (on repeat) at my local arcade without hugging the bar - your feet end up moving like Donald Duck from Mathemagic Land.
30 minutes and you are gassed...
Nowadays I switched over to Pump It Up - I feel like the 5-step configuration lends itself towards larger body movements and less river dancing. :)
by vunderba - Previous discussion less than a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49341411
The comments on that post were not nearly as favorable as this one for some reason.
- It's interesting that they characterize a 30-second cycling effort as "all-out" when any cyclist knows it's impossible to go "all-out" for that long. You can go really all-out for a few seconds before your whole metabolic process needs to switch modes. A 30-second effort has to be paced. "All-out" intervals are very effective but for me they mean 4 seconds out of every 30 seconds.by jeffbee
- You might need to talk to a doctor if you can only go flat out for 4 seconds before having to slow down. You may put out more power during the first few seconds, but you should be able to go substantially longer than this before falling into the limitations of aerobic capacity.by bob1029
- Here's a video of an amateur cyclist going all out for about a minute after spending about five minutes getting up to speed, pushing his bike to 76.11 mph.
- I don't understand your objection. Anyone who is not very frail could do maximum effort for 30 seconds. It's not going to be constant power/HR/whatever but the person can still go "all-out". Consider a bear chasing you, are you going to say that you will just go all-out for 4 seconds and then pace yourself?by pandaman
- I like sprinting a couple times up our hill, ca 10s each, 4-6 times. It’s full out, and when I‘m untrained (like now), I‘m quite exhausted afterwards.
But the dopamine boost I get from this is immense. It lasts 24-48h. I‘m in a general good mood for this period. Sometimes, a little more competitive than normal - that’s a downside.
Normal jogging or long walks don’t have this effect, at all.
by manmal - A long race will do it just fine. AKA Runner's High.
I also do hill sprints. I try to do one [HIIT] workout a week and also some longer runs.
Hill sprints tend to be safer then sprinting on flat surfaces. Last time I did my HIIT sprinting on level ground my knee didn't really like that at all. A stationary bike (like the "assault bike") is even safer. Or you can just do burpies. People who don't run and haven't sprinted in a long time shouldn't just jump into sprinting.
by YZF - High-intensity exercise is obviously good, but beware of the trap of doing just high intensity exercise and doing it too frequently - the body does not handle that amount of stress particularly well, and it will be counterproductive to your health.
Low intensity exercise that holds your aerobic base is vital as well - and for a well-rounded exercise week, it should constitute the majority of your exercise time.
That is not to say that you should neglect higher intensities, it's just that you cannot do them as often due to the disproportionate amount of fatigue they generate.
by occz - Interval training also seems like a great way to burn out and make yourself dread the thought of exercise.
Other than for elite athletes tuning specifically for bursty competitions, interval training is such an unnatural torture that I do not understand the appeal. Even if the dubious popular claim that it is a short cut to optimal fitness might be partly true, I would much rather have an hour or two fun cycling or light running and exploring than 10 minutes of interval agony.
by isthatafact - I found that setting a two minute timer and running up and down a stair case with high intensity once per day can resolve a whole host of seemingly unrelated issues.by tim-projects
- Issues such as?by bkishan
- I always run stairs when given an opportunity (big proponent of "incidental exercise"), so when I used to live in apartments I would deliberately rent a room in the highest available floor. It's shocking how much HIIT you can get out of running 20+ flights.by vunderba
- Same. I found that picking up a 28-kg kettlebell and climbing up a 20-storey building within 6 mins (switching up hands every couple of floors) is an awesome "functional" exercise.
Hits cardio, grip strength and unilateral stability stuff.
by bohrbohra - As an anecdote of one, I was doing moderate intensity endurance exercise for a couple years with only modest improvements in basic cardiovascular metrics that kind of flatlined over time.
As an experiment, I switched to high-intensity interval type training for a couple months, which required about half the time to do. All of my cardiovascular metrics immediately changed in a strongly positive way. When I did the old endurance training, performance was much higher than it had been before the high-intensity training.
It is the strongest positive effect I have ever seen from any exercise/gym theory that has been widely promulgated. I never expected to see my cardiovascular metrics change as quickly or as much as they did.
- You’d think more athletes and marathon runners would be living past 100.
It’s always that lady who chilled all day who says laughter is how she lived so long!
by bigcheeto