Doing HIIT 3x a week- Should I still lift legs?

[z1ggy]

Mon, weds and Fri I do interval training on the treadmill. I start off w a 2 minute light jog, then rotate between 30 seconds at 7mph, and 1min at 4.5mph. I do this atleast 10 times.

My question is- Should I still lift legs? Tues and Thurs I do my lifting, but I worry if I do squats and dead lifts, that I will over work my legs. I will still continue to do power cleans and push presses though.

Right now my goal is FAT loss, not necessarily weight loss. Currently I am around 15-19% bodybody (the device I used says within +/- 2% and I measured in at 17% recently and weigh 185-190. I know I won't really be gaining much strength and/or I will plateau much faster than if I were eating for maintainence or in excess.

 

[gar655]

I wouldn't call 30 secs at 7mph exactly high intensity. You need to do something like Tabata intervals, 20 secs on 10 secs off, repeat 8 times. This is hard to do on a treadmill because of the run up time to full speed.

Alternatives could include burpees for a minute, 30 secs rest or some variation of that. Box jumps, if you have the space, standing broad jumps- do as many as you can as fast as you can, jog backwards to the start and repeat a number of times. I'm guessing that only 2 or 3 sets will have you wasted.

Concept 2 rower if you have access is great for high intensity training and Tabatas.

So in order for it to be high intensity you have to really crank it up.

Oh, and I would still work the legs.

 

[purbeast0]

yeah that definitely isn't what i would consider HIIT by any means, especially on a treadmill. the intervals are too short for a treadmill at the high speed, and 7mph is not high intensity. you want to be at a sprint for your high intensity speed, especially if only doing it for 30 seconds. but as mentioned, with the startup/slowdown time on a treadmill, you are probably getting closer to 20 seconds at 7mph.

and just fyi, fat loss is weight loss. the way to minimize your muscle loss when losing fat loss is to do weight training. so yes, you DEFINITELY want to keep your weight training regimine going as well as make sure you get a lot of protein.

me personally though, i'd never do squats/deadlifts a second time 2 days later. if it was me, and i could only lift 2 out of the 5 weekdays, i'd do it monday and thursday, then do the cardio on the other 3 days.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Are you going for the frog look? If so don't lift legs.
Aren't you the guy that plays hockey? If so you need that crazy explosive power. Look up some routines that will give you that explosive burst. I was the slow guy that couldn't jump or outrun anyone on the basketball court until I started seriously training for explosive power. You need the full body stuff. Legs, back, abs, etc. You can't create that explosion without the full chain working. As in no weak links in the chain. It was insane to see the transformation once the training started paying off. I mean literally guys feet were still in place and I had exploded and was taking off in the other direction. If you're serious about your hockey and want to see some crazy stuff train your total body for explosive power.

 

[z1ggy]

I wouldn't call 30 secs at 7mph exactly high intensity. You need to do something like Tabata intervals, 20 secs on 10 secs off, repeat 8 times. This is hard to do on a treadmill because of the run up time to full speed.

Alternatives could include burpees for a minute, 30 secs rest or some variation of that. Box jumps, if you have the space, standing broad jumps- do as many as you can as fast as you can, jog backwards to the start and repeat a number of times. I'm guessing that only 2 or 3 sets will have you wasted.

Concept 2 rower if you have access is great for high intensity training and Tabatas.

So in order for it to be high intensity you have to really crank it up.

Oh, and I would still work the legs.

Yeah I realized it's not HIIT in the pure sense.. But still it's intervals and I don't really feel safe going faster than 7 on a treadmill.

I can def do burpees though for 30 on 30 off. Maybe I will look up some stuff on youtube for HIIT work outs.

yeah that definitely isn't what i would consider HIIT by any means, especially on a treadmill. the intervals are too short for a treadmill at the high speed, and 7mph is not high intensity. you want to be at a sprint for your high intensity speed, especially if only doing it for 30 seconds. but as mentioned, with the startup/slowdown time on a treadmill, you are probably getting closer to 20 seconds at 7mph.

and just fyi, fat loss is weight loss. the way to minimize your muscle loss when losing fat loss is to do weight training. so yes, you DEFINITELY want to keep your weight training regimine going as well as make sure you get a lot of protein.

me personally though, i'd never do squats/deadlifts a second time 2 days later. if it was me, and i could only lift 2 out of the 5 weekdays, i'd do it monday and thursday, then do the cardio on the other 3 days.

Well yes fat loss is weight loss, but I meant specifically I want to focus on fat loss. Anybody can just stop eating for 2 weeks and lose 5lb, but of that 5lb maybe half or more could be muscle. That's not what I am after.

I think I will adjust, but after that interval I did on the treadmill my legs were still tired today, even slightly sore. If I did deads/squats 2x a week, essentially I would be working legs 5x a week (if my HIIT consisted of box jumps or other jumping type motions). I feel as if the HIIT intensity would probably sufficiently work the quads, hammies etc as so I didn't lose much muscle in that area.

 

[pauldun170]

Mon, weds and Fri I do interval training on the treadmill. I start off w a 2 minute light jog, then rotate between 30 seconds at 7mph, and 1min at 4.5mph. I do this atleast 10 times.

My question is- Should I still lift legs? Tues and Thurs I do my lifting, but I worry if I do squats and dead lifts, that I will over work my legs. I will still continue to do power cleans and push presses though.

Right now my goal is FAT loss, not necessarily weight loss. Currently I am around 15-19% bodybody (the device I used says within +/- 2% and I measured in at 17% recently and weigh 185-190. I know I won't really be gaining much strength and/or I will plateau much faster than if I were eating for maintainence or in excess.

Your treadmill work sounds more like a warm up routine for leg day.
If your goal is fat loss then you need to talk about your diet and go into more details of your training.

I'm 5'9 and I float between 180 and 195lbs depending on if I'm doing a lot of races that year. I've had fairly good luck at maintaining strength while trimming down but its tough getting diet just right.

 

[Ventanni]

Fat loss is going to be more diet related than anything.

As for your legs...you should always work legs, and unless your legs feel like they're about to give out, you're not working them. No point in working out unless your legs are built to match.

"Your mind will give out long before your legs will."

 

[z1ggy]

Fat loss is going to be more diet related than anything.

As for your legs...you should always work legs, and unless your legs feel like they're about to give out, you're not working them. No point in working out unless your legs are built to match.

"Your mind will give out long before your legs will."

Alright well I was just wondering if running 3 days a week plus the leg work out was too much...The diet part is tough but I've got a pretty good system in place now. I'm eating about 2000-2100 cals a day, about 200g protein, 150g carb, and around 100g fats.

 

[Zivic]

Alright well I was just wondering if running 3 days a week plus the leg work out was too much...The diet part is tough but I've got a pretty good system in place now. I'm eating about 2000-2100 cals a day, about 200g protein, 150g carb, and around 100g fats.

I wasn't a math major, but
200 x 4 = 800
150 x 4 = 600
100 x 9 = 900
----------------
total calories = 2300

200-300 over your "goal" is equivalent to 1 lb every two weeks

 

[Nebor]

Always skip leg day. It's the least fun\rewarding day.

 

[z1ggy]

I wasn't a math major, but
200 x 4 = 800
150 x 4 = 600
100 x 9 = 900
----------------
total calories = 2300

200-300 over your "goal" is equivalent to 1 lb every two weeks

Hard to tell what my goal really should be. According to some website I used (which told me my BMR), if I do lifting/sports/exercise 3-5 times a week ( which I do ) then my total cals a day should be 2900 just to maining my weight of 190. Now since I want to lose weight (goal of 175-180) I should be under that amount obviously. 2900 seemed high to me, so I went with the 2400 or so it said if I barely did any exercise. So from there I said around 2000-2100 a day would be good enough to slowly and safely lose fat.

 

[Zivic]

Hard to tell what my goal really should be. According to some website I used (which told me my BMR), if I do lifting/sports/exercise 3-5 times a week ( which I do ) then my total cals a day should be 2900 just to maining my weight of 190. Now since I want to lose weight (goal of 175-180) I should be under that amount obviously. 2900 seemed high to me, so I went with the 2400 or so it said if I barely did any exercise. So from there I said around 2000-2100 a day would be good enough to slowly and safely lose fat.

I'm a pretty big 205. I am shoot to stay under 3000. if you are a solid 190, I would start at around 2500 and see what your weight does over a couple weeks and adjust from there. getting around 2000 would be pretty low IMHO. would be feeling pretty run down and hard to work out

 

[z1ggy]

I'm a pretty big 205. I am shoot to stay under 3000. if you are a solid 190, I would start at around 2500 and see what your weight does over a couple weeks and adjust from there. getting around 2000 would be pretty low IMHO. would be feeling pretty run down and hard to work out

190 @17% body fat, so not "solid" persay.

I ate on 2400 for a while, and i stayed about right where I was. Did this for 6 weeks. My strength went up a ton, but that's because I hadn't hit the gym in like 3-4 months.

So I'm better 2400 is about where I need to be to maintain. During this time I was lifting 3x a week and doing cardio 2x a week.

So if I flip that to 3x cardio and 2x lift on 2100 cals, that might help me lose.

 

[purbeast0]

just another note.

if you are strictly looking to lose weight and not really going for any cardio goals or anything, then you don't even have to do any cardio. i dropped like 12lbs in a few months by simply changing my diet over that time period, all while still eating like crap on the weekends but just being strict during the week. went from 210lbs to a much leaner 198lbs. i did lose some strength as well but that just comes with the territory.

 

[Zivic]

190 @17% body fat, so not "solid" persay.

I ate on 2400 for a while, and i stayed about right where I was. Did this for 6 weeks. My strength went up a ton, but that's because I hadn't hit the gym in like 3-4 months.

So I'm better 2400 is about where I need to be to maintain. During this time I was lifting 3x a week and doing cardio 2x a week.

So if I flip that to 3x cardio and 2x lift on 2100 cals, that might help me lose.

17 aint too bad. good that you know where your maintenance level is. I would still maintain the lifting at least 3 x a week and do smaller cardio sessions following it and use your food intake to regulate the majority of the weightloss

 

[z1ggy]

just another note.

if you are strictly looking to lose weight and not really going for any cardio goals or anything, then you don't even have to do any cardio. i dropped like 12lbs in a few months by simply changing my diet over that time period, all while still eating like crap on the weekends but just being strict during the week. went from 210lbs to a much leaner 198lbs. i did lose some strength as well but that just comes with the territory.

I know but that means I need to be SUPER strict on diet. I am perfect about 80% of the time. Ie, mon-fri I eat totally clean, but weekends.. all bets are off sometimes. If I end up going to a friends house for hockey or football games.. 5 slices of pizza and 6 beers later... Well you get the idea.

I do the cardio to help up my metabolism and burn a few extra hundo cals. I know it is possible to lose fat (look at Koing...) with out cardio and just intense lifting sessions. I plan on doing that eventually once I do lose a few more pounds.

17 aint too bad. good that you know where your maintenance level is. I would still maintain the lifting at least 3 x a week and do smaller cardio sessions following it and use your food intake to regulate the majority of the weightloss

So maybe a 45 min lift (I only take about 60-90 seconds rest) followed by 20-30 mins of interval training doing that treadmill routine? I also do a similar thing on the elliptical. I dont know if the mph are right, but usually I do 30 seconds at 11mph, then 30 seconds at 6mph, from level 10 down to level 4.

 

[Zivic]

So maybe a 45 min lift (I only take about 60-90 seconds rest) followed by 20-30 mins of interval training doing that treadmill routine? I also do a similar thing on the elliptical. I dont know if the mph are right, but usually I do 30 seconds at 11mph, then 30 seconds at 6mph, from level 10 down to level 4.

lifting sounds good. I would go 15 - 20 on the HIIT. If you are doing it right, 20 minutes of that style cardio is a lot and should be about all that you can handle.

just keep the intensity as high as you can with the on interval. the level shouldn't matter too much. I do 12-15 minutes following my lifting a few days a week. I shoot for 1 minute on, 30 seconds off. I would try increasing your on interval to a minute. Your off interval can be adjusted accordingly to accommodate that

 

[z1ggy]

lifting sounds good. I would go 15 - 20 on the HIIT. If you are doing it right, 20 minutes of that style cardio is a lot and should be about all that you can handle.

just keep the intensity as high as you can with the on interval. the level shouldn't matter too much. I do 12-15 minutes following my lifting a few days a week. I shoot for 1 minute on, 30 seconds off. I would try increasing your on interval to a minute. Your off interval can be adjusted accordingly to accommodate that

Alright. I can also toss in some high intensity rowing after, too.. To change things up. When I am rowing hard, I can't usually last more than 10mins or so.

Currently, am doing a A/B split routine 3x a week (A lift mon, B lift, Wed, A lift Fri.. etc) but I am thinking about doing 4x a week with upper body Mon Thursand lower body Tues and Fri if I am going to tone down the cardio. Any good routines or suggestions for this?

 

[Zivic]

Alright. I can also toss in some high intensity rowing after, too.. To change things up. When I am rowing hard, I can't usually last more than 10mins or so.

Currently, am doing a A/B split routine 3x a week (A lift mon, B lift, Wed, A lift Fri.. etc) but I am thinking about doing 4x a week with upper body Mon Thursand lower body Tues and Fri if I am going to tone down the cardio. Any good routines or suggestions for this?

I am a strong believer in AST's MAX-OT program. It is a 5 day split for the most part, but you can incorporate the key points and use it in any split you like. If you want to get basic just do the major lifts -> bench, squat, deads and fill in with accessory lifts.

as far as the HIIT... the rowing you do sounds like how it should be done. If you can go 20 minutes I would question the intensity. AST also has a MAX-OT cardio program that you can read through on their site
ast-ss.com

 

[Teizo]

Never skip legs.

Never.

 

[z1ggy]

I am a strong believer in AST's MAX-OT program. It is a 5 day split for the most part, but you can incorporate the key points and use it in any split you like. If you want to get basic just do the major lifts -> bench, squat, deads and fill in with accessory lifts.

as far as the HIIT... the rowing you do sounds like how it should be done. If you can go 20 minutes I would question the intensity. AST also has a MAX-OT cardio program that you can read through on their site
ast-ss.com

Says I need to sign up for an account. It says free... but..... is it really? At the least, I will get on some email list I don't want to be on right?

 

[purbeast0]

I know but that means I need to be SUPER strict on diet. I am perfect about 80% of the time. Ie, mon-fri I eat totally clean, but weekends.. all bets are off sometimes. If I end up going to a friends house for hockey or football games.. 5 slices of pizza and 6 beers later... Well you get the idea.

no it doesn't. i did exacxtly what you are saying. i'd eat super clean sunday night - friday afternoon, then friday night to sunder afternoon i'd eat whatever i want and drank alcohol both nights for the most part.

i ate taco bell and chipotle pretty much every weekend and still lost the weight.

 

[z1ggy]

no it doesn't. i did exacxtly what you are saying. i'd eat super clean sunday night - friday afternoon, then friday night to sunder afternoon i'd eat whatever i want and drank alcohol both nights for the most part.

i ate taco bell and chipotle pretty much every weekend and still lost the weight.

Ok well that's encouraging then.

My buddy and I are going to start lifting together next mon at 630am 4x a week for an hour. I've been lifting 3x a week now for almost 10 weeks. He hasn't lifted in... like a year. I am going to be so far ahead of him, haha.

 

[gar655]

Alright. I can also toss in some high intensity rowing after, too.. To change things up. When I am rowing hard, I can't usually last more than 10mins or so.

A 10 minute rowing workout is not high intensity as it is meant to be. It's an aerobic exercise. High intensity should be more or all anaerobic.

Try 250 meter intervals, or like I mentioned before, a set of Tabatas. Done properly a set of Tabatas on the rower will have you totally wasted, all in 4 minutes.

High intensity should be all about MAXIMUM effort for a short amount of time with short rest periods.

 

[Zivic]

Says I need to sign up for an account. It says free... but..... is it really? At the least, I will get on some email list I don't want to be on right?

it is free. I get a few emails from them, not too many