Calculating intensity in HIIT and making program adjustments

[Bestafter60]

My advice: Don't do HIIT at all. Just push the prowler.

Ok, I'm interested in getting a prowler. If I had one, are there any intensity adjustments I should make to my strength training to make room for this new stress? And nutritionally, other than replacing the puked up food of course, is there a dietary adjustment called for?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Start out light. Go up as you can. When intensity/volume exceed recovery, you'll know.

[ChessGuy]

Something to consider for conditioning.

Clarence Bass and Richard Winnett both are long in the tooth. Both find the Graded Exercise Protocol (GXP) quite good for conditioning purposes. It goes like this:

Over the course of 5 minutes, ramp up your heart rate (HR) to 85% of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) by running, rowing, elliptical machine, etc. This is determined by 220 - (your age) then multiplying by 85%. Not everyone finds this formula the shit hot ticket, but I have found it to work well enough.

Then maintain the 85% MHR for 5 minutes.

Concluding with a 5 minute ramp down.

A mere 15 minute routine, done twice a week. I have tested at a VO2 Max of 40+ for several years now following this routine. Which puts me in the Excellent category for the 64 year geezer I am.

What was your VO2 Max before you did HIIT?

[Mark E. Hurling]

What was your VO2 Max before you did HIIT?

I don't know. I started out jogging 3+ miles a day 5-6 times a week at age 17 in 1968. I never stopped until about 10 years ago when my feet and knee got too old for it. SO I started mixing it up with rollerblades, rowing, ellipticals, and stationary bikes. It's only been the last few years when machines got smart enough to have heart rate monitors and fit test functions.

So I suspect it's always been pretty good. My echocardiogram shows my left ventricle to be very thick and overdeveloped.

[tfranc]

Is two times per week really enough to cause an adaptation to anaerobic stress?

[Mark Rippetoe]

It seems to do the job.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Is two times per week really enough to cause an adaptation to anaerobic stress?

What Rip said.

But I'll go so far as to assert that the same can be said of stretching that out as far as three sessions over a span of two weeks. It may not be ideal for younger folks who can deal with the recovery quicker and who want to progress faster, but I've done both that and twice a weeks and made progress with them. But if that's what you need to do for reasons of time available and recovery needs, you do what you gotta do and accept the results at a slower rate.