HIIT/ How to start right?

Hi all

I want to improve my performance and have never done some sort of cardio or anything so my endurance is not that great. But at the moment I try to put on some mass and cardio wont help me with that.

I need something that will help me reach both of my goals.

So I figured out that I will do some sort of HIIT, but I dont know which protocol will fit my needs.

HIIT will be good for my metabolism, my endurance and will help me put some lean mass on.

Did i get that right?

Which protocol will be best for my needs ?

Someone has experince with HIIT and can give me some feedback about it?

Thanks everyone!

Apparently HIIT is better towards sparing your strength gains but last I checked it was recommended to first build up some aerobic cardio (long runs, slower pace) before starting work on anaerobic (sprints and intervals). But I'm sure there is someone more knowledgeable about this around here.

There is some evidence that sprint work decreases body fat while increasing lean mass in obese males and females. 

Here's a paper on obese males using a thrice weekly 20 min protocol of alternating between 8 seconds of hard work at 80-90% max HR and 12 seconds of easy recovery. I think that one of the rationales for this type of protocol is that it's a lot less painful than the 30 second wingate-based ones.

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobes/2012/480467/

Some salient results:  Total body fat decreased by 2 kg (4.4 lbs) in 12 weeks, whereas fat free mass (presumably muscle) increased by 1.2 kg (2.4 lbs) in 12 weeks. Keep in mind that these were obese males with average BMIs of 28.4. Bodyfat went from 34.8% to 32.8% in 12 weeks. 

What's *really* interesting about this study, is that despite the fact that they used cycling as the exercise intervention, a greater part of the lean mass gain was in the trunk, where they gained 0.7 kg (1.54 lbs) compared to 0.4 kg in the legs.

There may be some evidence that mixing steady state and sprinting decreases body fat even quicker (this time in obese diabetics), while also increasing muscle mass in the legs, but I don't have time to go into it deeply. Here's the link for anyone that's interested: http://eje-online.org/content/149/5/421.full.pdf#page=1&view=FitH

Finally, here's a link to a review article on HIIT and fat loss written by the authors of the first paper. They touch upon fat free mass increases a little, referencing their work on obese women, as well as the second paper I linked to. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/

Question for Josh or any other exercise physiology buffs: the second paper used %VO2 max to determine the steady state, sprint, and recovery intensities for each subject. Is it reasonable to use %MaxHR after actually testing your max HR yourself as a surrogate for %VO2 Max?

-MR said:

(...) obese males (...) Total body fat decreased by 2 kg (4.4 lbs) in 12 weeks (...)

Hi

These studies are very helpful thanks for sharing them !

My plan now is to start with a 8s sprint/ 12 s jogging protocol and switch later to a hard protocol ( maybe TABATA) .

My experience with HIIT was basically just sprinting up the steepest hill I could find.  Rest times were as long as it took me to walk back down the hill.  Try a half dozen of those before you start messing around with specific work/rest intervals.

Personally what worked for me as a guy who barely had any good cardio at all was start with doing a 10 minute jumping jack routine - in short you to do as many jumping jacks as you can for 10 seconds then right after either start side-stepping, jog in place, etc... for 10 seconds then repeat the jumping jacks again for 10 seconds - do this for 10 minutes without stopping (or as you need to rest of course).

I literally did that almost everyday for 2 months then I found the M100 (just go to youtube and search for M100 - pick the video with the two dudes.   I would post a link but I'm new and don't want to break the rules or anything.  The description of the workout is in the video.

To me, the M100 is true HIIT - I still can't perform it without stopping a couple of times and overall, it also increases your strength - you will really see your leg power go up big time.

Do what works for you....there are other programs out there but to me, A real HIIT session only lasts a couple of minutes...sessions that go longer are basically medium intensity to me.