BBM HIIT duration vs others

According to the GPP guidelines, a HIIT session would consist of 30-40 seconds of work and 90-100 seconds of rest between each set.

But while shopping for home HIIT workouts on Youtube, most of them use a format of 30-60 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest between sets. I didn’t find a single one with shorter work and longer rest intervals like BBM recommends.

Are they not doing the programming properly, or is it just a matter of dose, where they’re dosing the session for highly trained individuals?

TBAB,

A bit of nomenclature here first.

Intervals could programmed at any intensity, but most people would consider “high intensity interval training” (HIIT) to be vigorous intensity by definition.

Vigorous intensity conditioning is usually stuff greater than ~70% max heart rate, RPE 5-6, zone 3, lactate threshold 1, ventilatory threshold 1, and so on.

From here, intervals can be programmed at a variety of different lengths, from seconds to minutes depending on the adaptations desired, which determines the programming.

Sprint intensity interval training (SIIT) is done at the highest intensity for conditioning. In general, they require very short “work” periods with longer “rest” periods. Most will agree anaerobic interval setups will be in the 1:3 to 1:5 + work to rest ratios, whereas 1:3 and below is more aerobic.

To your question, a 30s work period and 10s rest period is aerobic conditioning intervals. Depending on the pace and exertion levels, it may or may not be vigorous intensity (it probably is). It’s unclear what adaptations this setup selects for besides being hard. I would almost never program this setup and am insinuating this is in error. It could be worse for highly trained folks.

When I program SIIT intervals, I need them to be short enough for people to sprint and rest long enough for them to do it again. A lot of people don’t program them correctly.

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Could you elaborate on why it may be worse for highly trained folks? I ask because I’ve seen it commonly used in competitive combat athletes. I think the intent there was to build conditioning for highly intense rounds, followed by short rests.

Yea, that’s not a great way to develop cardiorespiratory fitness as much as it is a way to test it. For highly trained people, they can generate a lot of training stress and fatigue, though the adaptive payoff isn’t equivalent. It’s kind of like a trained powerlifter doing a 1RM test (or similar). It doesn’t really help 1RM performance anymore than doing a 1 @ 8 or 1 @ 7, yet it costs a lot more. For a newer person, it’s probably less intrusive.

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