HIIT Cardio - What's All The Hype?

by Kris Pitcher

I think there's a lot of hype about HIIT cardio. What's HIIT? High Intensity Interval Training. Now, I know this won't make me the most popular person on the planet...but when has that ever stopped me before.

Let me start out by saying a lot of female competitors do HIIT cardio. Lots. Most everyone...but me. So, when I start looking at something, I'm thinking about being efficient. I'm thinking about what the science says. I'm thinking about what makes the most sense to get from point A to point B.

If we break it down we might start with our goal. Our goal for cardio is to spare muscle and burn fat. We've usually got 16 weeks, or so, to burn the fat covering our beautiful physique. This is our number one goal for cardio. To burn fat.

HIIT cardio is done at high intensity, meaning at a high level of heart rate. The idea is we are working hard, real hard, for intervals. We might do 2 minutes high, followed by 1 minute lower...something like that. The benefit of HIIT is we can do more overall work in less time.

But let's look more closely. When I say more work in less time I mean more overall calories burned. However, the higher our intensity the fewer calories we are burning from fat. Hmm. Read that again. The higher our intensity the fewer calories we are burning from fat.

The alternative "type" of cardio is called steady state. We reach and maintain a steady heart rate at a lower intensity. The lower our heart rate the more calories we are burning from fat. The drawback...we have to do it longer.

Remember what our goal is, it's to spare muscle and burn fat. HIIT isn't muscle sparing, and it burns less fat (it's anaerobic). Where steady state at a lower heart rate burns fat. So, you can see that while I'm walking up a hill on my treadmill for 30 minutes vs. doing 15 minutes of HIIT...I'm wondering, "Why are all these competitors doing HIIT cardio?"

I think there are a couple of things happening here. I think, and this is my opinion, people don't understand the science. They just do what everyone else is doing and pretty soon...every one's doing it! Even when it doesn't make sense.

People feel like more is better. Harder is better. More intense is better. More isn't better. Higher isn't better. You're not more hard core because you did intervals. Just saying.

I also think that all these competitors with trainers...have trainers that want to feed them carbs. The more carbs you eat (the happier you are)...the more cardio, and high intensity will burn it, you can sustain. Me? I'd rather not eat the carbs in the first place and do my steady state. I think you're just taking one step forward and two back with that. Again, my unpopular opinion...maybe.

So, there you have the hype with HIIT. You can decide if it's the right kind of cardio for you. If you are just a "regular" exerciser...go for it. As a competitor though, you have some more refined considerations to take into account. Like how much fat you want to burn.