So, in my most recent post outlining my current plan, I forgot to discuss what my plan revolves around:  Cardiovascular training.  While I’m still doing weights three days a week, I’m also doing Cardio three days a week–  More specifically, I’m doing High Intensity Interval Training three days a week.

In the post about the basics, I discussed what HIIT and why it’s great, but here I’ll talk about the different things that I am currently doing.

Sprints – These are what I do most often, and what I hate most.  I will go on the treadmill and start with a warm up: 1 minute of walking at 3 MPH at an incline of “4.”  The next minute, I’m walking at 4 MPH at an incline of “10.”  For the next two minutes, I will walk at about 4.2 MPH at the “10” incline until I feel warmed up–  That’s when the fun begins.  For the remainder of my time on the treadmill, I vary between walking at speeds between 3 and 4 MPH, and sprinting at speeds between 7 and 9 MPH, all while adjusting the incline constantly.  Also, my ratio of walk to run is 1 minute : 1 minute (During the sprints, not the warm up).  I do a minimum of 32 minutes of sprints–  5 minute “warm up,” and a 2 minute “cool down.”

Stairs – I will go to the dreaded stair master and do battle.  Again, I do a warm up, and then after about three minutes of warm up, I start in with my most varied cardio workout.  Every minute I alternate between one of the following:  A gentle pace of “6;”  A pace of “4” while kicking my legs behind me with each step; A fast pace of “10;”  A pace of “9” while doing it sideways (30 seconds on the left, 30 to the right); a faster pace of “12;” or my maximum pace of “15.”  This is the workout the leaves me the most exhausted, but it is very, very effective.

Elliptical – In a similar fashion to stairs, I adjust the resistance of the elliptical every minute and do a 3:2 minute ratio of forward to backward movement.

The Run – This is very straightforward.  I go for a run to the local grocery store and back, which is a bit over 2 miles, and I periodically sprint for bursts at a time–  Typically while crossing streets, or between light poles.  At some point, I always stop at an intersection and sprint across a road until the light turns.  Then I do the next one, and the next, until I’ve done sprints across all four roads;  I then rest for about a minute, and continue my run home.  This is workout I do least often.

Home Workout – This is for my lazier days, or when I’m really strapped for time.  I will jump rope for 3 minutes, and then sprint from one end of my apartment complex to the other.  I will then rest for 30 seconds, and do it again.  After the second and fourth rounds, in addition to the sprints and rest, I will do some push ups.  I do this until I’ve been at it for 20 minutes, and then I’m done.

I make sure that I don’t do any one workout more than two cardio days in a row, as I don’t want my body to even consider settling into a habit.  During all of them, at some point the speed (or resistance) goes really low for a moment so that my heart rate can plummet.   I will then step it up to a crazy level immediately after to shock my system.  What do you do for HIIT?

Filed under: Body Building, Fitness by DeVinePhysiques
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