Why your HIIT training doesn't work: the three keys to keep in mind

In recent years, there has been a boom in high-intensity interval training, or HIIT for its acronym in English. The diffusion of this type of training has succeeded, among other things, by promising certain results in less time compared to traditional training. However, when blogs and different media talk about this method, they rarely explain some keys that must be taken into account to apply it. In this way, in this article, we want to explain three important keys to keep in mind when designing your own HIIT workouts. Select the right exercises HIIT workouts are characterized by following an interval format, that is, there are short periods of time in which we work and short periods of time in which we rest. The proportions are variable and vary depending on the effects we want to achieve. This work scheme is very intuitive and easy to assimilate, but the great diffusion that HIIT has had in the last decade has distorted it. HIIT is not about taking a random handful of exercises and doing them on an interval schedule. HIIT aims to raise heart rate and oxygen consumption to the maximum and for this, we need exercises that involve a lot of muscle mass and that are dynamic or cyclical. We do not use biceps curls, triceps extensions, crunches, or irons. We need to run, swim, ride a bike, jump, do burpees, jumping jacks, or do complex movements like thrusters, and wall ball shots. Ask yourself if HIIT is for you right now, This point is one of the main mistakes made when applying HIIT training: the people who practice it do not always have an adequate level of physical condition. It is common for many people without the habit of training and therefore without physical condition to go to HIIT as a training method that will save them time and yet give them results. HIIT is true that it is characterized by short training times, but also by high intensity. HIIT doesn't give away anything. The fact is that a person without adequate physical condition is not able to reach the degrees of effort and intensity that HIIT requires. It's not a matter of willpower, it's a matter of physiology. An untrained person cannot reach their limits in terms of maximum heart rate and maximum oxygen consumption. You must be trained for it. Monitor what is happening with your heart Regardless of how dynamic, enjoyable and fun high-intensity interval training may seem to us, the truth is that it is still a method and a tool to improve our performance or body composition. For its potential benefits to take place, we must take into account the two previous keys, of course, but also have a slight notion of how much our heart is working. For this, the ideal is to have an activity bracelet that measures our heart rate and estimates our maximum oxygen consumption. You may think that "going all out" is enough, but we tend to be very forgiving of ourselves and the effort we put in, so having an objective reference is always a good idea. In HIIT training, the appropriate thing would be to stay above 90% of our maximum heart rate.