HIIT issue at the gym

[Marcinator]

Ok, so I decided to try HIIT out this morning at they gym. I stretched, then jogged for 5 minutes on the treadmill going 6.5 miles an hour. At the 5 minute mark, I increased the speed to 12.5mph and sustained that speed for 30 seconds. then I slowed back down to 6.5....well, the machine automatically stopped and on the display it said "Check Speed Functions".....I tried pressing clear, cancel, start, resume....no buttons would unlock the machine.

I then jumped over to the next machine, ran for 30 seconds at 11mph this time, then back down to 6.5mph. Well, same thing happened....I broke the second machine too!

I don't know if these treadmills can't handle that kind of speed or have some sort of control device built in or what....but bottom line, I don't think I can do HIIT on the treadmill.

What would my next best choice be for HIIT, at the gym? The ellipse machine, the bike???

[kitchenstud]

i don't mess with the treadmills, but when I did, I don't ever remember seeing ones that would go up that high, so I have no idea what to tell you.

Did you ask somebody that worked that what it would've been?

[LT*]

Ok, so I decided to try HIIT out this morning at they gym. I stretched, then jogged for 5 minutes on the treadmill going 6.5 miles an hour. At the 5 minute mark, I increased the speed to 12.5mph and sustained that speed for 30 seconds. then I slowed back down to 6.5....well, the machine automatically stopped and on the display it said "Check Speed Functions".....I tried pressing clear, cancel, start, resume....no buttons would unlock the machine.

I then jumped over to the next machine, ran for 30 seconds at 11mph this time, then back down to 6.5mph. Well, same thing happened....I broke the second machine too!

I don't know if these treadmills can't handle that kind of speed or have some sort of control device built in or what....but bottom line, I don't think I can do HIIT on the treadmill.

What would my next best choice be for HIIT, at the gym? The ellipse machine, the bike???

The elliptical machine is your friend for HIIT.

[BrentH560]

just out of curiosity how long do you do this for? how many 30 second sprints?

[JDF]

just out of curiosity how long do you do this for? how many 30 second sprints?

I dont do a set amount of sprints, I just keep changing it up. Seems to work pretty well for me and makes the time really fly by

[BrentH560]

I dont do a set amount of sprints, I just keep changing it up. Seems to work pretty well for me and makes the time really fly by

I have not yet had to time to read up on the HIIT programs.. is it basically just training at a medium intensity and then hitting 100% intensity for a short amount of time then returning back to the medium intensity??

[Marcinator]

Thanks for the feedback guys....maybe I'll stick with the elliptical machine. I'm sure it looks pretty funny watching me pump that elliptical as fast as I can for 30 seconds to the casual gym goer...lol.

Yes thats exactly what hiit is....high intensity followed by medium then high then medium then high etc. etc. But I don't think you're supposed to go any longer than 20 minutes.....most people seem to go around 12 - 15.

[akjose]

alot of people say the eliptical isnt that great for hiit, because of the limited range of motion. i agree with this on a limited motion eliptical. however, some machine let you change of the stride, but not on a whim. like medium with short stride, then heavy with long stride. you have to do it all manually at the specific time you want to do it.

My HIIT interval is eliptical for 15-20 min. at a medium pace, then 20 sec hard, 10 sec. medium, 20 hard, 10 medium, etc for 5 min. Then 5 min of medium followed by 10 sec hard, 20 sec medium etc. 5 min of medium again, followed by 3-4 min. of 20 sec hard and 10 sec medium. Then a 5 min. cool down, or if i have anything left, finish out the entire time on machine to 50 min.