I like HIIT, but right now I'm just doing some steady-state work. I did Body for Life for about 6 months a couple years back (when I first got down to 150). It sure helped tighten things up, and I found I really like lifting those freakishly heavy weights, but just a few times. It also introduced me to HIIT.

I ended up skipping yesterday and will be working out today instead. I've already done 30 minutes on the treadmill. When I do my 60-minute cardio routine, I trade up with the elliptical, the recumbent bike, and the treadmill. The elliptical is by far the most challenging, so I start with that, then the bike, and finish up on the treadmill. Because I"m just beginning, I do 10 minutes on the elliptical, 10 on the bike, and 40 on the treadmill. Each week I plan to up that so that eventually I'm doing equal time on each. THEN, I might start switching off and doing more on one, less on another, but still get to 60 minutes.

And THEN I'll probably get into HIIT again. I work from home one day a week (Wednesday), and it makes for a REALLY long day to work out for an hour a day. These days I get up at 5:00 am, go to work (80 - 90 minute commute), work 9 or more hours, go home, exercise, and eat dinner. That makes dinner around 7:30 or even 8:00 pm. And then I want to go to bed by 9:00 because I'm exhausted, except that by that time my mind is still spinning from the exercise.

When I did BFL, I got up at 4:00, or even 3:45, worked out, and then went to work. I'm going to try to get back to that schedule. Next week will be yet another challenge because I'll be in Orlando from Thursday through Monday. DH is working down there for two weeks straight, so he suggested I come down for a long weekend. Those frequent-flyer miles come in handy! We'll see how closely I stick to my program -- both diet and exercise!

Do you weigh yourself only once a week? The "gain" in weight might have just been from weighing yourself on a "low' day last week and on a "high" day this week- the overall weight might have actually been the exactly the same, or a little bit lower than last week.

Also, your "piggy" day might have resulted in some temporary water retention. And where are you in your cycle? Many women retain water premenstrually and lose it after AF shows up.

Cardio exercise is very bad from the literature ive read, steady-state cardio style exercise recruits mostly slow twitch muscle fibre which produces energy from oxidation (free radicals incoming!) and also stresses the heart. Especially sessions as long as 45-60 minutes.

HIIT is indeed a much superior method to train for the cardio style machines like bike, treadmill etc. but then even it needs to be toned down to 15-20 minutes maximum , especially if your doing alot of steady-state stuff in between, if your doing steady-state in between make sure its intensity is very low, akin to just normal walking or very slow pedaling on bike.

i think a period of say 100% fast high intensity pedaling effort on the bike for about 8-15 seconds then GETTING OFF the bike and walking around for 90 seconds far better than staying on the bike for entire 20 minute duration, pedaling at 75% effort during high intensity intervals than pedaling ad 25% during the recovery session. getting off the bike and walking around allows increased blood flow through your bum.

also i think working out like 5+ times a week is quite over training for someone who is 50lbs overweight. you should almost certainly allow 1 rest day after a workout day especially if on that day you did the strength training too.

if your REALLY insistent about getting some steady-state cardio then keep it 10 minutes maximum. Apparently steady-state cardio exercise normalizes the hearts beat rhythm which is bad because it functions much more healthily on a slightly fractal,chaotic rhythm.

some other good points for exercise are doing it on an empty stomach, and after youve finished dont consume anything except water for atleast 2 hours. exercise produces alot of growth hormone and if you eat something ( even low carb ) as soon as youve finished the insulin spike will kill off the growth hormone benefits.

if your getting extreme hunger pains in your stomach just bite your teeth and resist it. Ghrelin is what causes that feeling of hunger, but Ghrelin also is a stimulant for growth hormone!

I've read a lot of that also. There are MANY theories on exercise. My steady-state is 3 mph on the treadmill (and VERY easy pace). Very low on the elliptical and bike also.

My strength training is heavy weights, low repetition. I work my upper body one day, and then it's actually 4 days before I work my upper body again. Same with lower body.

I don't think I'm overtraining. Will I keep up an hour a day forever? Not a chance. This is a bit of a kick-start. With BFL, you do simliar strength training (as in paragraph above) and on the in-between days it calls for a 20-minute HIIT session. I'll get to that. I just want to start out exercising every day. That's best for me.

I also don't consider myself to be 50 pounds overweight (or were you not talking about me?). I would like to get down to 150 (that's a 30-pound loss). I've been there before and it's a good weight for me. I carry a lot of muscle. People typically think I weigh at least 20 pounds less than I do because my arms and legs are muscular (but not big), and not flabby. Also, I have a definite waist and shape.

With exercise (as well as with food and the percentages of the macronutrients, not to mention number of calories), people need to find out what works best for them. If someone can thrive on working out 5 times a week at high intensity, I say go for it.

What are your literature references for these recommendations?

Exercise is invaluable for me......

Five days a week is SLACKING OFF for me compared to my past when I would exercise multiple times a day and never took a day off.

I feel that only doing 35-40 is pretty laid back... My HIIT is primarily running for 20-60 seconds at 5.5-6.0 and then walking for 40 sec - 2 minutes at 3.7-3.9.

I do steady state jogs of 3-5 minutes for one to two intervals... My elliptical intervals are 2 minutes at high resistance levels and 2 minutes at lower resistance.

I do cardio at 6:00 a.m on an empty stomach. I do eat about 30 minutes to an hour after working out.. I'm usually starving in the a.m. after my exercise. Starting this week, I'll be doing strength training in the evenings two days a week.

I typically workout Monday-Friday or 4 days M-F and then on Saturday. Sunday is always a rest day.

My hunger pains are pretty distracting... I literally CANNOT THINK if I get really hungry. I get pretty cranky too. I try to do the water thing but sometimes ignoring them does not work well...

I weigh daily and record it... I'm learning to be more relaxed about the inevitable daily ups and downs of my weight and look for the overall trends.

Gina, you're doing extremely well. Do what is right for you, regardless of what anyone else says. If it stops working for you, adjust. Simple as that. We're all different.

This week I'm going to cut it down to 30 minutes a day. SMW will be 30 minutes of cardio. Tuesday will be maybe 15 minutes of cardio followed by weights. I'll be going to Florida from Thursday through Monday, and I'll try to get some exercise in. Not discounting it altogether.

Keep up the good work! You're doing an amazing job!!!

Ms. Bawdy,
Enjoy Florida!

really its not. it is over training.



ok the pace and intensity is good but the duration of 35-40 is too long imo. i would cut it down to atmost, 25mins.



why not do intervals of 15-20 seconds EXTREME intensity
(i.e. high resistence go going for 100% power output by doing it as fast possible, imagine a hungry lion chasing you, run for your life!), then take a 1:30 min break, either get off the machine and walk around and keep going at VERY low resistence and intensity.

if you do it this way you exhaust your fast twitch fibres mostly, producing less free radicals, and the rest period gives your FT muscles time to regenerate thier ATP.




eating 30 mins after and you interfere with growth hormone release. Growth hormone is the whole point of exercise. if your starving thats GOOD. your fat metabolism will be cranked up. wait atleast 2hrs30mins after exercise before you consume anything other than water.





i think youd get much better benefit to do strength training in morning. leave the sissy cardio until later in evening or even better skip it on days you do strength. i swear i saw evidence floating around that cardio should always come after strength becuase fat burning will be higher.



yeh i agree it is really hard to think or do anything when your really hungry. if you really need something to eat then do it, just make sure you didnt do an exercise session 2hrs30mins before-hand.

Kindke,

Thanks for your input... You've given me some things to think about.

With my work schedule these days, cardio in the a.m. and weights in the evenings works better for me. Plus I have a trainer and that's the best time for both of us...

I'm slowly but surely finding my way...

I've always felt that the best time to exercise ... is when you're gong to do it!

Keep up the good work!

dont get me wrong im not bad mouthing anyone or trying to mess up peoples regimes that they are happy with, im just offering a bit of criticism and then mostly relaying the best information ive found from other websites that i truely agree with and believe in.

most of it comes from

http://www.arthurdevany.com/
http://www.drwong.us/

if you read arthur's full blog, he presents alot of arguments for why extensive cardio is so bad, and why alot of marathon runners are unhealthy on the inside. (they generally dont look very sexually attractive either, compared to 100meter sprinters.)

while i think arthur's guidelines and advice on nutrition are somewhat lacking (Dr eades is best for nutrition in my opinion), i think his advice on exercise is pretty much spot on.

When, like me, one spends one's life in front of a computer, daily cardio is a must. HIIT is all well and good, but 15 minutes every other day doesn't counteract 16 hours of sitting on your butt.

De gustibus non est disputandum, dude.

Cheers--
Terry-24