Gassed & Gainsless?

Feeling un-enthused at your progress with circuit training?

I'm gonna go over some key reasons that might be happening so you can get back on the Gainz Train.

Let's talk about some differences that get lumped together because confusing the two may be the reason you're in Stucksville.

HIT: High Intensity Training. Generally defined as performing weighted movements that take you to momentary failure/ near-failure. Circuit training, cross training, functional fitness, and CrossFit fall here.

HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training. Short bursts of all-out sprint efforts that need rest in order to do them correctly. Typically done with one movement to preserve effort.

There are benefits from both that I won't get into today.

However if you think you've been doing "HIIT" for its benefits and your "HIIT" looks like a continuous-paced 30min EMOM of Deadlifts and Hang Cleans, and Burpees, and Box Jumps... that's not HIIT

In HIIT you should be dying so dead during each working interval that you couldn't repeat the effort without rest, and you couldn't have gone harder or longer.

I won't get into ratios today either, because those vary based on your goals.

Just know that if you're doing HIIT, you need to be going hard, and then resting.

I might sound redundant here but it's because of how many athletes I’ve seen flat out ignore this.

Other reasons you might be stalling:

You're not resting enough, period.

HIT and HIIT deliver the best benefits when your body can recover.

Theoretically, you're not pushing yourself to stimulus in HIIT if you can do it back-to-back days, nor should you be aiming for that.

If this is you, go for more rest between sessions and go harder in your sessions. More isn't better, better is better.

I'd start with 24-48hrs between HIT sessions and 72hrs between HIIT sessions, but this still depends on what else you're doing.

Trying to do WODs (HIT), and strength, and HIIT can quickly put you in the territory of over-training and under-recovering.

That's a recipe for stalls, stagnation, and risk of injury.

FitnessBailey BAugust 18, 2023fitness, progress, crossfit, functional fitness, weightlifting

Gassed & Gainsless?

HIT: High Intensity Training. Generally defined as performing weighted movements that take you to momentary failure/ near-failure. Circuit training, cross training, functional fitness, and CrossFit fall here.

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HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training. Short bursts of all-out sprint efforts that need rest in order to do them correctly. Typically done with one movement to preserve effort.

Other reasons you might be stalling: