Is HIIT harmful? Can it damage your health and fitness? It all depends how you use it…
Snapshot:
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has become a popular training method for squeezing in a workout in a small amount of time.
Failure to balance high and low intensity training methods can hurt your fitness and your health. HIIT is a powerful tool to be respected.
HIIT, performed properly, can improve several markers of fitness, both aerobic and anaerobic, heart rate recovery and peak power output. (1)
High Intensity Training has infiltrated almost every corner of the fitness landscape. But is HIIT actually improving, or sabotaging your health and fitness level?
What is HIIT?
High Intensity Interval Training refers to any workout in which you are:
Working out at greater than 90% of your max heart rate
Using maximum-intensity periods of work followed by rest periods
Examples: Interval Sprints, High Intensity Circuits done for 3 minutes with a short rest period between sets.
The Allure of HIIT
HIIT is the preferred method of many with limited time to work out. The rationale is, you can squeeze a quick HIIT workout in 20 minutes and get the same benefit as an hour of a normal workout. For the majority of us with crazy busy lives, HIIT offers a convenient solution.
Many also believe that performing such high intensity training simply must be more beneficial. After all, it’s harder and requires you to really push yourself when compared to an hour of lower intensity training. It’s the widely accepted misconception that more is better.
The Problem
Too much HIIT causes a massive recovery debt and chronic stress-state
I hate to be the one to kill a good vibe.. but I feel like it’s my duty to expose this problem so you can hopefully have a better understanding of what you’re actually doing in the gym and to your body and mind.
First off, I have to be clear that I’m not saying that HIIT training is “Bad.” There are actually plenty of studies that show some really amazing results, and I’ll cover that later. But….
To understand the problem with too much HIIT training, you have to understand a few things about your body and how it responds to stress:
Stress, from anything.. be it work stress, being stuck in traffic, relationship stress, or really intense physical demands.. is registered by the body in a similar way.
The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated in response to stress, dumping stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, into the body.
Keeping your body in a state of constant, chronic stress is the opposite of promoting health and fitness. The body cannot recover, build muscle or improve any markers of fitness when it is in a chronic state of stress.
The main take-away here is that HIIT training is INTENSE… and it takes your body a lot longer than you think to actually fully recover from it. A really high intensity trainings session can take several days to recover from.
What You’re doing to Your Body
use both forms of training for optimal fitness gains
Overdosing yourself with too much high intensity training is causing you to accumulate an ever increasing recovery debt. Your body is never fully recovered, and is being forced back into a sympathetic, stress dominant state over and over. Sooner or later, something will give.
The massive amounts of energy being demanded by constant stress will be recruited from other areas.. your immune system, your cognitive function.. and a host of other functions you probably don’t want to mess with. The end result is a reduction in actual fitness and health.
New Research into HIIT and Overtraining
A new study by Les Mills Lab found that 40 minutes a week of HIIT training was optimal for most people. Beyond this amount of high intensity training, most people will not reap additional benefits and will in fact become more fatigued. Read about the study by Les Mills here.
How Much HIIT is Optimal?
The answer to this question depends on your current level of fitness and the nature of the training. Remember that HIIT refers to training at maximum intensity (at least 90% of max heart rate).
For 90% of people out there, there is absolutely no need for more than 2 true high intensity training days per week. Elite athletes rarely ever go beyond 3 days per week, and even then it is only for a short time.
So how much is optimal? Well, if you’re in pretty good shape, 2 days per week would be optimal. If you’re out of shape, 1-2 days per week is where I’d recommend starting. If you feel like you’re in great shape, you can utilize HIIT up to 3 times per week, but definitely keep an eye on your fatigue, and if you’re that serious about your fitness, you can use things like heart rate variability to check in on your body and see if it’s being overstressed.
Now that I’ve sufficiently killed the HIIT vibe, let me backpedal a bit.. To be clear, HIIT is not a bad thing. It is actually a well researched, highly productive form of training.. Studies have shown that you can improve aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, get leaner and stronger utilizing high intensity interval training.
A 2017 study by Frontiers in Physiology found that high intensity interval training was superior to lower intensity training, showing improved:
Anaerobic power
Heart rate recovery
Neuromuscular status (peak power)
Conclusion
So what are we to make of all this? HIIT can cause big improvements in fitness, but can also damage fitness.. what do we do?
Balance is always the key to growth
Knowledge really is power. HIIT is a powerful tool in your arsenal, with the capacity to dramatically improve your conditioning and fitness. But it is to be respected…
Your training week should include a lower intensity training day for each high intensity day. This way you can reap the benefits of both types of training, without putting your body in a constant state of stress. Lower intensity training promotes recovery and parasympathetic function.
Mike Tysons training routine to prepare for a fight is on another level. While everyone sees the troubled nature of a very misunderstood athlete and human, the truth is that Tyson was one of the hardest working, intense athletes of all time. It’s not by chance he won the heavyweight championship in just 6 years, at the age of 20.
History
Tyson began training with legendary trainer Cus D’amato at the age of 13. Tyson was a troubled teenager, getting arrested 38 times by the age of 13. As a child, Tyson was overweight and was often bullied at school. This led him to be a bit of a loner, and perhaps is what ultimately led him to the gym at 422 Front street.
Tyson showed an immediate affinity for boxing. D’amato had already produced several heavyweight champions, and saw the potential of Mike very early on. Tyson was his ultimate prodigy.
Punching Power
Tyson believed that punching power had nothing to do with weight lifting. Therefore, most of his training revolved around calisthenics, heavy bag work and sparring. Tyson himself stated that his punching power came mostly from hitting the heavy bags. Specifically, a 300 pound heavy bag. He claimed that heavy bag work trained a fighter to develop power from the hips.
Tyson hit so hard that D’amato eventually had him use water bags to protect his hands. Iron Mike’s legendary punching power came from relentless technique training, heavy bag work and certainly some natural athletic ability. (D’amato believed that no one was “born” with punching power.”
Mike Tysons Training Schedule
About 5 weeks before a fight, Tyson would begin training 50-60 hours a week, 6 days a week. Sunday’s were a day of rest and extra sleep. This routine began when he was only a teenager.
Daily Body Weight/Calisthenics training spread throughout the day:
2,000 sit ups, 500 dips, 500 push ups, 500 shrugs. (divided up in 10 sets throughout the day)
Mike Tyson’s Daily Workout Routine
4:00am – 3 mile jog
6:00am – Shower, sleep
10:00am – Breakfast (Protein, Oats, Juice, Fruit)
12:00pm – Sparring – 10 rounds without headgear. 3 rounds body weight/calisthenics routine
2:00pm – Lunch (High Protein, High carb, lot of water, vegetables)
3:00pm – 4 more rounds of sparring. Bag work, Mitt work, body weight/calisthenics routine, 1 hour on the bike
5:00pm – 4 sets of body weight/calisthenics routine, slow shadow boxing and focused technique training…mastering one or two techniques
7:00pm – Dinner. (again high protein, high carb, lot of water, juice)
8:00pm – 30 minutes light recovery cardio on the bike
9:00pm – Study fight film, go to sleep
Next day: – Repeat!
Diet and Nutrition
Much less was known about Diet and Nutrition strategies for athletes during this time. However, D’amato was ahead of his time and had his athletes eating a steady high carb, high protein diet full of steaks, vegetables, and other carbohydrate rich foods. Tyson was well known to love ice cream and did sneak in a lot of sugary cheat foods during his training.
Should You Train Like Iron Mike?
As a trainer I would never advise someone to follow the training schedule outlined in this article. Most people would be beat down before one week was over. But it does fill me with motivation reading about how hard he trained. It’s the stuff of legends, and would certainly be interesting to see what would happen. It could be an experiment that would make a pretty interesting blog post..but I think I’ll save it for another day.
Conclusion
Mike Tyson is known by most as a troubled human being, and the media has a way of only showing the worst of people. But Tyson has always been one of my favorite athletes of all time. He was possibly the most dominant heavyweight fighter of all time, and the way he trained was legendary. In conclusion, I hope this article sparks something in you.. to step up your training and get a little closer to being legendary yourself!
Shoulders hurt when you bench press? I have a solution..
Everyone wants the big bench press. It is likely the most overused exercise in history, and many with worn out, injured shoulders can attest to the dangers in relying too heavily on the bench press
Enter the Dumbell Floor Press, a simple movement that can save your shoulders and make you bigger and stronger at the same time.
Why is it Better on the Shoulders?
For Starters, floor pressing allows you to have your entire body against the floor..hips, back, and shoulders. Compared to laying on a bench, this allows the body to “grip” the floor, setting the shoulders into a better pressing position.
The Dumbell variation is even better on the shoulders, as your shoulders are not locked into one position like when you grip a barbell. The range of motion is also smaller, eliminating the portion of the bench press that really stresses out the shoulder joint, forcing the triceps to work harder.
What Muscles are Worked Compared to a Barbell Bench Press?
The dumbell floor press placed more emphasis on the upper chest and triceps when compared to a normal bench press. Perform a couple sets for higher reps (10 or more) and you will feel the upper chest being worked in a unique way.
Important Tips
Some things to focus on when performing this movement:
Keep constant tension. When your arm hits the ground, do not relax. Keep active tension and hold for one second before performing another rep..
On the first rep, hold the top position for 5 seconds and feel the shoulder socket being pushed into place.
After a one second pause at the bottom, explode up with force, activating as many muscle fibers as possible.
Conclusion
When it comes to working the chest, you have to mix it up. You must have other tools in your bag besides the bench press to save your shoulders and hit the pressing muscles from different angles. The dumbell floor press is a fantastic, effective method you can implement right away.
Brief overview of the aerobic system as the foundation of conditioning
How to improve and build the aerobic engine
High and Low intensity methods/benefits
Programming
You have to decide.. Do you want to have a Charger SRT Hellcat engine, or a 4 cylinder prius? Powerful conditioning is within your grasp, if you’re willing to educate yourself and do the work, training smarter AND harder. Conditioning for MMA athletes must have a foundation, and this article will focus on that.
Powerful conditioning could be the difference between having your hand raised, or your opponents.
Strength and Conditioning for MMA athletes can be a slippery slope. Most mistakenly believe that, since the sport is explosive in nature, high intensity training is all that is needed. This is a failure to really examine the energy demands of the sport. Fighters gas out all the time.. and conditioning is at the heart of many victories and defeats.
Profile of an MMA Fighter
Ideally, the following is what I’d want to see in an MMA athlete from a strength and conditioning perspective:
Resting Heart Rate in the high 40’s to low 50’s (aerobic fitness)
High level of mental toughness under stress and fatigue
Body fat under 12%
High Peak Power/neuromuscular ability. Especially in the lower body.
Obviously, not all athletes will possess all of these qualities, but this is an ideal profile of an elite MMA fighter with high-level conditioning.
The Aerobic System is Your Foundation
Try This out and see how it feels when Your Aerobic Engine is pushed to it’s limits
The Aerobic energy system uses oxygen along with fats and carbohydrates to create energy. MMA fights are characterized by explosive bursts mixed with periods of less explosive activity. The aerobic system is what refuels your ability to repeatedly be explosive throughout a fight. It clears out waste products and restocks energy. If your aerobic system is lacking, you will fatigue over the course of a fight.
“Although, according to the duration of an MMA bout, the energetic demands derived mainly from the aerobic system, it should be noted that the outcome of the match was often decided by explosive actions, which were based on anaerobic pathways.“
It doesn’t matter how powerful you are.. If you can only be explosive for the first round, you are going to run into problems.
How Do You Train and Build the Aerobic System for MMA Conditioning?
The Aerobic system needs a high frequency of stimulation (4-6 days/week), and a variety of different training methods to improve. This calls for a mixture of high and low intensity methods to really build up the aerobic engine. Conditioning for MMA will require various methods to be utilized for maximum adaptations and benefits.
Cardiac Output Method (Low Intensity)
Example of a Cardiac Output Session
Benefits:
Increased volume of blood pumped per beat (Stroke Volume)
Increased size of the left ventricle of the heart (eccentric cardiac hypertrophy)
Improved capacity for recovery (you can recover faster)
Lower Resting Heart Rate
Increased Heart Rate Variability
Methods:
30-90 minutes, 4-5 days/week with Heart Rate between 130-150 bpm
Can use any activity; cardio equipment, shadow boxing/drills at low/moderate intensity, or a combination of activities
Use a heart rate monitor to keep yourself in the proper range
Start with 30 minutes and build up over time.
Measure your resting HR when you wake up in the morning to track improvements. Use HRV tracking to get a deeper look.
Swimming is a great, low impact/high reward option for this method.
Lower intensity sessions will result in improved aerobic abilities resulting from a multitude of adaptations down to the cellular level. The Heart will pump more blood per beat, and your body will be able to utilize oxygen more efficiently. Lower intensity sessions also stimulate recovery, which is huge in such a demanding sport.
“Training Smart is more important than training hard.” -Georges St. Pierre
High Intensity Aerobic Training.
Obviously there is also a need for higher intensity training in MMA. These sessions should be limited to 2 times per week, and sparring would ideally take up at least one of these sessions.
The Goals/Benefits of high intensity aerobic training are:
Increase in VO2 Max (Aerobic Power) The maximum amount of oxygen your body can use
Increased ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer durations
Increased power at threshold: You can work harder at the point where anaerobic energy processes start to take over.
Faster recovery between rounds (Heart Rate Recovery)
Methods
Power Intervals
Power Interval Session with Hill Sprints
Power Intervals are the most intense form of aerobic training. The term “intense” means you’re training at close to your max heart rate.
Drive the heart rate up to as close to maximum as you can get, then keep it there for 20-30 seconds.
Immediately stop the activity and rest for one minute.
Use active recovery (very light activity) for 1-3 more minutes, then repeat for 3-5 total reps.
Can use various implements; inclined/hill sprinting, sparring, circuit training, etc..
High Intensity Continuous Training
High intensity continuous session
Get your Heart Rate up to 155-160 bpm and keep it there for 10-20 minutes. Repeat 1-2 times. This should feel difficult but not max intensity.
Keep a consistent pace/effort for the duration. Treadmill/Rower/Machines are best for this purpose.
You should be training right below your anaerobic threshold. You’ll know if the intensity is too high because you will feel like you cannot maintain the pace for the duration.
High Intensity Interval Training/Sprinting
High intensity intervals
Use 400m Sprints or full body circuits with a 1:1 work to rest ratio (rest the same amount of time as the work interval). Aim for 3 minute work intervals.
Decrease Rest/Increase Work periods periods over time
Use full body movements: Clean/Press, Pull Ups, Explosive movements
Shoot for 20-30 minutes total.
Max Effort during the work intervals
“High Intensity” refers to any training session where you’re training at greater than 90% of your max heart rate. Get a heart rate monitor and use it. Elite athletes are doing it, why shouldn’t you?
Programming Your Training
Part 3 of this article will cover programming your training in depth. For now, focus on building your engine and break it down something like this:
2 days per week of High Intensity Conditioning. This can include high intensity sparring sessions.
3-4 days per week of low/moderate intensity Conditioning
The intensity of any method can be made higher or lower by increasing or decreasing the volume, total sets or reps.
Conclusion
When it comes to conditioning for MMA, your foundation is the Aerobic system. It is your engine. You have to decide if you want the SRT or the Prius under your hood. Take the time to develop your aerobic engine and make yourself a machine!
On high intensity days, train even harder. On lower intensity days, take the time to back off a little and get specific adaptations from your body by training intelligently and with a purpose. Recover, get better… build the engine! Then, when you don’t have to worry about gassing out… your opponents will be in trouble!
Get ready to push your conditioning on this one. Full Body movements with explosive components.. This will test your metal for sure.
Excuse the video quality. Had to use my phone for this one, but it’s enough to get the idea
All you need are 2 kettlebells (or dumbells) and something heavy to throw around. I’m using a 50lb slam ball, but work with what you got. If you don’t have a rower, then do 45 second sprints or rows.
Each round is 5 Minutes total… 4 minutes of work, followed by 1 minute of rest. Complete 4 rounds getting in as many reps as possible. = 20 Minutes.
Round 1: Kbell high pulls x 8/Overhead throw x 5
Round 2: Kbell Clean and Press x 8/Over the shoulder throw x 5
Round 3: 250 meter row/Explosive Pushup x 8
Round 4: Single arm Kbell swing x 15/explosive wall throws x 5
This Method of Training Will:
Increase VO2 max
Increase ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer
Improve strength and power endurance
Improve Your Mental Toughness
Improve Aerobic abilities
Tips
Try to keep good form under fatigue.
During rest periods, really try to drive your heart rate down as much as possible.
Wear a heart rate monitor, get familiar with what HR you begin to reach that deep state of fatigue.
Make sure to follow this session up with a Recovery Training day the next day. Don’t train HIIT/High intensity back to back days. For more on recovery check out my article on Recovery Training
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