IS FAST WALKING COUNTED AS A HIT WORKOUT?

This topic contains 5 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by AileenGouws 4 years, 3 months ago.

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keytothegarden

10:24 am
22 Nov 16
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Hello everyone,

In the book, it suggests not doing anymore then 3 HIT sessions a week, as it will not have any benefit.

My questions are, is Fast Walking something one can do on top of the normal sprint HIT sessions, or does it constitute one of these sessions, e..g for those who can’t or don’t want to sprint?

And if I do Fast walking on the days between my normal HIT (sprints), is this any more beneficial?

Thank you!

dykask

12:06 pm
22 Nov 16
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Does the fast walking get your heartrate up to its maximum? The idea is high intensity. If fast walking is at the highest intensity you can do than it would probably count.

keytothegarden

12:14 pm
22 Nov 16
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Thanks for replying dykask! It does get your heart rate up and is high intensity.

Apologies I may have been unclear, I guess my main question is if I do Fast walking on top of my normal HIT sessions on a bike etc, is that deemed not beneficial or too much, because the book states you shouldn’t do more than 3 HIT sessions a week.

I’m already doing 3 sprint HITS, but wanted to know if on the other days I can do Fast Walking for extra weight loss. But I don’t want to if there’s no extra benefit.

Thank you!

Amazon

12:26 pm
22 Nov 16
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Fast walking is classified as moderate aerobic activity so is not HIT.

The general guidelines for adults suggest 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity 5 times per week plus 2 sessions of strength exercises that work all the major muscles.

Many people over-estimate the effect that exercise has on weight loss.
I go to the gym 2-3 times per week and spend an hour on the rowing machine, bike and treadmill which I use for fast walking. I occasionally do 30 second sprints on the bike and the difference in calories expended is barely noticeable. Regular exercise has made me much fitter but it hasn’t made any difference to my rate of weight loss.

There is no reason why you can’t walk but don’t rely on it for weight loss which is 95% caloric restriction and 5% exercise.

dykask

12:40 pm
22 Nov 16
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People are at different fitness levels so an exercise that is moderate for someone might be intense for someone else. Besides the term “fast walking” could be a lot of different things. I’ve seen people training for walking races and they were easily working harder than many runners.

I also don’t put much faith in the 150 minutes of activity a week thing. Since cutting my workouts down to a total of a few hours a week, often maybe just 2 hours I’m not hitting the 150 minutes a week, but the improvements are very noticeable. When I do a 16 minute sprint 8 style workout it really pushes me even though only about 4 to 5 minutes are really high intensity. Since I hadn’t been running for over two months I decided to do a run today just to see how much endurance I’ve lost. As far as I can tell I haven’t lost any and in fact might have improved. It was pretty amazing considering how little running I had done in the past two months.

I think the following is key:
1) When pushing hard, push as hard as you can. When you finish breathing should be all you can do for a few seconds.
2) Slow down then and let your heartrate recover a good bit before pushing again. For me I’m having to do about 75 seconds between sprints. At first it was taking a full 90 seconds. While pushing I want my heart over 95% of max and then I want the heart rate to drop back to about 75% of max before pushing again. Probably more deeper the recovery the better, mine might be too shallow right now.

When I finish, I’m spent. The workouts are short but very hard to do.

Amazon

5:40 pm
22 Nov 16
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dykask,

I made a considered guess that if key is capable of doing sprint HIT then he/she can run and answered the question as to whether it is OK to do fast walking as well as HIT. I am also guessing that he/she is not at the level of training for races but wanting to increase activity levels and as stated increase weight loss.

I have quoted the NHS website fitness guidelines for adults undertaking MODERATE activity not intense activity such as HIT which by your description is what you do so the 150 minutes is irrelevant in your case.

keytothegarden

7:04 pm
22 Nov 16
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Thanks guys for all your help. It is much appreciated!

bigbooty

12:08 am
6 Dec 16
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Basically HIT is an activity that you need to do at 100% flat out. It is an activity where you are under complete physical duress and something that you can not maintain for more that 30 seconds. You need to be 100% anaerobic. If you are able to talk during or immediately afterwards it is not HIT. You need to be almost physically ill as a result of doing it.

Read an interesting medical paper on HIT. Three 30 second HIT sessions with 5 minutes pause in between can deplete up to 50% of your stored muscle glycogen (in the muscles used for that activity). Presumably the depleted glycogen is then topped up from fat reserves if you don’t eat immediately afterwards. This is a slow process taking hours.

AileenGouws

4:38 pm
15 Aug 20
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If do high knees as fast as possible, for 30 and rest 60 secs, repeat 5 times, can it be HIT? I read through the comments and it seems so, as my heart rate is definitely very high after each set.