Isn’t HIIT a tautology? Does anyone do low intensity intervals?

you will might injure yourself very quickly

FIFY

Personally I don’t see why you’d injure yourself anymore quickly… ‘High’ is going to be a percieved level of exertion based on your current level of fitness.

It’s all relative!

Finbar, HIIT are close to maximum effort – way past Vo2max

You can do effective intervals much lower than that for some difference gains

finbar – no and what about moderate, peak level etc…

Pretty much everything ‘works’. For a while. Then you adapt or burn out.

My favourite short-term workout: here…

Aha, gotcha.

*chews on hard boiled egg*

I was doing okay on the idave until I drank a bottle of white last night I then ate mini cheddars

I love this, a trainee physiotherapist arguing with a professional cycling coach about cycling training…

Sooner or later someone on this thread is going to reference The Time Crunched Cyclist in which Carmichael advocates much the same thing ie focus on high intensity work to get the most benefit if you only have a few hours a week.

BUT he also points out repeatedly that compared with a higher-volume base-building approach:-

(a) it doesn’t generate such deep endurance (best for short sub 3 hour events)

(b) it only allows short spells of peak fitness before you burn out or hurt yourself.

And it’s striking that most of the examples he gives of riders who’ve used his approach successfully are ex-racers or similar with many years of high volume training behind them ie. who have deep long-term base and conditioning… not just random punters.

Meanwhile, here’s a dormouse in a coconut.

MG – not that long ago it was a certain IT type doing the same though…… 😉

I was just being sceptical not knowing your experience and skillz.. however SbZ has heard all the evidence I have and still argues with you.

I am not afraid to change my mind and learn 🙂

molgripsI love this, a trainee physiotherapist arguing with a professional cycling coach about cycling training…

I’m waiting for ‘the lawmaker’ to come amongst us and put us all to rights with a peer-reviewed risk-assessed judgement.

Seriously though, I think the message is that training/weight loss/body maintenance are all complex matters – what works for one won’t work for all.

It’s good to hear different views on this, it’s all part of the learning curve 😀

I think that what works for one should work for all BUT I suspect that we are all starting from different positions. There are lots of interacting systems in our bodies and the balance of those systems is different in different people. So we’re all effectively starting from a different place.

Hence people saying ‘X is great’ ‘no it’s not it didn’t work at all’ and so on.

‘no it’s not it didn’t work at all’

I think it’s more a case of, “no it’s not, I read something different in Men’s Health, or on a personal trainers course” , rather than actual direct experience

It’s more a case of what works for elite athletes not being suitable for jimmy lardarse.

True enough. It’s extremely difficult to tease any kind of scientific trend out of all the hard sell and anecdotes around such an emotive issue.

It’s more a case of what works for elite athletes not being suitable for jimmy lardarse.

Well it’s different for non-athletes and athletes because they do different things and have different goals, but surely for an amateur athlete the same principles apply?

One of the things I’ve found in my own actual direct experience is that doing really hard interval sets at…

close to maximum effort – way past Vo2max

…takes far more out of me than ordinary hill reps or threshold work. Much longer to recover properly and train at the same level again.

You need to learn how to give it the beans on hills then!

Oh I know how to do that 🙂

Training for the Fred Whitton at the moment, hills aren’t the problem. I actually have more trouble with pushing the pace on the flat. Doing a sub-six hour 100 miles last Sunday was something of a personal milestone.

I actually have more trouble with pushing the pace on the flat

It is MUCH harder agreed.

SBZ.
Why ?, why do you, why can’t you.

iDave.
I’m surprized you even bother replying, anymore.
From what I’ve seen on here, what you have proved beyond all doubt is that there is an inexhaustable supply of nay-sayers.
While I’m not sure why you still bother, I’m glad you do.
😉

Molgrips.
How are you ?, still progressing with the changes to your diet ?. Are you finding it any easier now, have you observed any results ?.
I’m hoping you can report some success.

The 4 hour body. I had a copy in my hand, I reached up to collect it from the shelf in the book shop.
However, when I read “a guide to incredible sex” I had to put the book back on the shelf. Pity really, but never mind.

😉

Solo – thanks for your interest 🙂

6kg (ish) down so far, body looks much better I think. It’s on the whole shedloads easier than restricting calories, but I do miss cake and milk. Had one or two wobbles.

As for the 4hb sex bit, you can completely skip that – I did. It’s still worth it. I also skipped the body building parts.

Solo – Eh?

Molgrips.

Had one or two wobbles

Aye, I know what you mean, but it gets easier with time, as I’m sure you know.
😉

And yes I realise, that on the face of it, its seems a bit short sighted of me not to do as you did. Buy the book and skip certain chapters, etc.
But I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a book promising me incredible sex.

I’ll see.

You wouldn’t believe whats just happened while writing this.
Our network is down today, so its a bit slow in here, and someone has just handed me a Mars Ice cream.
Think I’ll keep it until Saturday…..I’ve just had lentil soup for lunch and I’m not feeling hungry.

I’ve used the Time Crunched Cyclist programme and found it effective. As pointed out in the earlier post, it will not give you the sustained performance peak of a traditional higher volume training programme. However, it is a good way of maximising your training benefits if your time is limited.
Carmichael does provide different versions of the plan for different experience levels, but it is very intense, and it might not be appropriate if you are new to interval training.