Sprint To Your Ultimate Body

Joel:

Do you have an opinion about Supersetting two bodyparts w/little rest vs. Circuit Training. I like to Superset Chest/Back, Quads/Hamstrings, and Shoulders/Arms …. I do one set of each exercise (i.e. – bench press/pullups) and then rest for 30 secs to 1 minute and then keep going… its got a little bit of the interval concept…. what do you think regarding its effectiveness for building muscle and burning fat?

Could you use these same principles for other cardio machines like stairmaster, maybe up the levels a bit for intervals. I can’t really sprint cause my ankles gets sore after bout 10 minutes of intervals

I personaly did not understand anything from this artical but thanks to ‘Clayton’ for explaining it in simple English that I can understand with simple examples…

I do sprint intervals often! Great stuff! Really shapely legs!
Keep bringing it, Joel!

“30 seconds fast/30 seconds recovery (fast is pretty close to flat out, recovery is slow!)”. We all know what slow means, but I understnad a lot of us have a Q on “fast is pretty close to flat out”. What is flat out? Dead on the treadmill :-).
I guess the question is that in weeks 1 thru 4 there is a heart rate that we can relate to. In intervals phase all I hear is “go all the way, flat out, full speed”, etc. It would be great if there was a measure to a ‘flat out’, but I guess there can’t be as it depends on the age, physical shape, etc. Also, how dangerous is it to go beyond 100% max rate? I bet the answer will be “it depends on your heart condition”, etc. So, to summarize – there is no clear instrucrtions on HIIT as it depends on a person doing it. HIIT for a 200lb person will be completely different from HIIT for 120lb.

I tried this workout on my Nordic Track. My lungs were on fire after 8 intervals. Thanks for a great workout!!

Joel,

I gotta say that I absolutely love sprinting and the “high” you get off of it.

Burning more fat in less amount of time is just an added bonus!

As you recommended above, I find I get the best results, and keep things from getting too boring by constantly mixing things up with work to rest ratio.

Chris

Whoa … sprinting. Now that would force me to exercise outdoors again. Which is a good thing. Do need some fresh air. Thanks for the lovely post!

Dear Joel,

thank you for this info, really great stuff. I am recovering from a knee injury, and cannot sprint or use any of the machines. I want to incorporate HIIT though, using weights at home, I have a nice set of dumb bells

My workout so far is like this:

30sec dumb bell squats- 30sec rest
30 sec push ups/30 sec rest
30 sec dumb bell dead lift/30 sec rest
30 sec sprint on home stair machine/30 sec rest

on the days I feel strong, I go 45 sec of exercise and 15 sec of rest

I do this 2-3 cycles, ie 8-12 sets in total. I am pretty winded by the end of each. Is this workout HIIT?

Thanks, and keep up the good work

@ Wesley:

for example they said 20 mins @70% or hrmax that means :

20 mins of 220 – (Age = 28) = 192 x (70% =0.70) = 134.4 Bpm

so you should be around that Beats Per Minute.

Thx 4 the details Joel, nice post !!
Just have a question.. can i cycle exercises too ? for example using the treadmill for the first workout, stair climber on the second and rowing machine for the third ? that way it wont become as boring :)

Due to a lag in heart rate response, intervals shoud not be based upon any percentage of HRmax. Any heart rate after such short periods of effort will be inaccurate. This is one case where rating of exertion would be good. In this case an effort of 8-9 on a scale of 10. This is more immediate and is still reflective of fitness level; a fit person at a rating of 9 will be working at a lower absolute intensity than a highly fit person also working at a rating of 9. As the less fit person gets more fit, his/her absolute intensity will become greater.

@ Becky:

Try rating of perceived exertion. See my earlier post.

Ok am I missing something??? One person posted a comment that fasting cardio sucks and that Joel attests to this. I have been reading from several authors that fasting cardio is the way to go, so which is it? Now as far as the HIIT is concerned I am unsure. I have been doing it for a few months now and my weight or pant size has not changed. I do it for 30 sec sprinting and 1 minute 30 sec rest for a total of 20 minutes. I was walking 6 miles a day and that is how I lost 90pounds in about 6 months but now I am stuck and my weight is constantly going down and up a couple of pounds, (very very annoying) on the days I do the HIIT I still walk a total of about 3 miles, to and from work (not all the time it depends on the weather but at least once a week) I also have been doing a bodypump class at the gym 3 times as week for a couple of months, (love it!) I feel like I am stronger from the bodypump but my clothes are still the same. I eat a very healthy diet and monitor my intake daily on a program that i have and the hightest my calories go a week are maybe 1500, most days its between 1200 and 1400, the highest I went was on thanksgiving at about 2100. Ok so what am I doing wrong? although I have not gained weight since switching to HIIT and considerably cutting my workout time to about a quarter, I feel like I have hit a wall and nothing I try is working to lose that last 15 pounds or better yet that last 2 or 3 inches from my waist. I am 42 and maybe this has something to do with it and maybe I should just be thrilled with the amount I have lost so far but I want more and considering how hard I work for it, it doesn’t seem right that no matter what I try I cannot get to my goal. If you have any answer to my frustration it will greatly appreciated.

@ mickey:
Stop doing “weights” they will likely cause you nothing but pain, do interval training with compound exercises in sets of 5 or less.

great as always joel,

one question though, I recently had a new gym membership upgrade which allows me to use the pool and I am interested in doing some swimming HIIT which would be compatiable with your 1000 calorie challenge program, I am currently at week three and the results are phenominal! Can you please give me a small guide as to how I should incorporate swimming intervals in the program?

Hi Joel,

since reading your blog I introduced sprints into my runs and was kind of shocked to find 1 inch coming off my waist within a couple of weeks despite my consumption of alcohol and peanuts.

Now I am blasting muscle groups one at a time per day at home with dumbbells and a variable-incline bench, but after the first week where the muscles were in severe pain, I am not achieving the burn anymore.

Maybe the workout is so effective that I only needed to do it one time? Ha ha!

I promised myself that I wouldn’t get into this argument any more, but I apparently have no self-control.

If you can go “all out” for 20 seconds, and then recover enough to do that again 40 seconds later — and if you can repeat that more than 3 times — you may be doing a lot of things, but you’re not “sprinting”.

I’m a 43 year old competitive sprinter and I’ve checked this with every other real sprinter I know. If we go all out for 20 seconds, we’ll cover about 160-180 meters. 40 seconds later, we MAY be able to start running again, but if we go “all-out” we’ll cover about 120-150.

By then (or the next round) the oxygen debt will be so great we won’t be able to move, let alone go “all-out” for a few minutes.

Have you ever seen a real sprinter interviewed after running all-out for 10 seconds? 1-2 minutes later they’re still having trouble standing!

Thank you so much for this post, it really solidify what I thought I should be doing. I live in NYC and its cold outside. Every single time I jogged or exercised outside I got very SICK. Is it because its cold outside or am I just weak:)
I live in NYC, land of the box sized apartments and can’t even jump rope! Is there anything you can suggest. Patiently awaiting your next post. Peace.

Hi Joel,

Many thanks for the post.

I’ve been reading through this blog and I’m a bit confused.

You mention the sprint intervals only at week 5.

But then, can you please explain what you mean by
Week 1, Workout 1: 20 minutes @ 70% of HRmax
Week 1, Workout 2: 25 minutes @ 70% of HRmax
Week 1, Workout 3: 30 minutes @ 70% of HRmax?

I mean, I do understand how to measure th 70% of HRmax, but can you please give an example of the workout so that it helps me understand better?

Thanks in advance.

Yog.

@ Joel Marion:
If interval is so much better than cardio, why not start with lower level interval instead of cardio? Of course, as a freeloader who just got off the boxcar, I certainly understand if you don’t want to develop something new as a freebee.

Thanks for the workout. I really want to learn more on the MRT so I am waiting for that, in the mean time, thank you.

I believe the answer to your question or comment can be found in the “Mixing Up” portion of the article where Joel provides different examples on “work to rest” ratios. I believe he recommends a near maximal effort so that one can complete the workout. I’m sure if you find that the 1:2 work/rest ratio isn’t providing enough recovery time you can adjust your work/rest as you see fit within the recommended guideline. @ Lou:
@ Lou:

Your age predicted maximum heart rate (APMHR) can be obtained by simply subtracting your age from the number 220. For example, if you are 30 years old, your APMHR is 190 beats per minute (bpm). Therefore, if following the complete program above, your first workout would be 20 minutes in duration and would be performed at the intensity of roughly 130 beats per minute. (This makes no sense–how you got from 190 bpm to 130 for high intensity.

Just a question: ‘the perceived rate of exertion’ thats is like what you feel right or how you feel it right?@ Annie: