Circuit-Based HIIT For Hikers

Circuit-based HIIT is VERY popular in the fitness industry. And it can be great for general fitness and weight loss. But if you are a hiker who is actively trying to improve your fitness and strength for the trail, this might not be the best approach... 

In this episode, we discuss why solely focusing on circuit-based HIIT might not be the best idea, and share some simple ideas on how you can adjust your training to work around this. 

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode,

[0:03] we are talking about circuit-based HIIT training. So circuit-based high-intensity interval training. And we're gonna be talking about why in the majority of situations, it's not an amazing way of improving your strength and your fitness over the long-term. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about today, you know, circuit-based HIIT training is a really, really popular method of training worldwide. You know, it's used in things like F45, Orange Theory, boot camps around the world, and a million other variations and a million other spins on this. And essentially what it involves is going into a workout where we just have a selection of different exercises, which you do one after the other, after the other, after the other. And essentially you'll do one exercise for a period of time, and you try to go very, very, very quick during that period of time. You'll have a quick rest and then move on to the next one. And then you go around in a circuit doing exercise after exercise after exercise.

[1:01] Typically, the way people approach this is they'll just have a combination of different cardio-based exercises and strength-based exercises. So you may use some cardio machines, you may do some med balls, some dumbbells, whatever it may be. So a really simple example class, just to put this in perspective, is you may put together a circuit of a series of exercises. And it may be a salt bike, squats.

[1:25] Kettlebell swings, lunges, the skier, push-ups, ball slams, sit-ups, burpees and you may do each exercise for 45 seconds on going really really really really quick have a 15 second rest and move on to the next exercise. Now that's a really really common example and I'm sure it sounds a lot familiar to a lot of people. Now this type of approach approach to training, it is very, very, very popular worldwide. There are so many different businesses who this is literally what they do. You come into the gym, you follow this type of approach. And this is what we do. There's also a lot of people online who do online fitness classes who do this type of thing. And this type of training, it's fast, it's fun. And if you particularly enjoy this type of training, if you feel like getting out of breath, getting huffed and puffed, you enjoy that. A lot of people absolutely love this. And in all honesty, it can definitely be a great option if you're just looking for general fitness just to generally be fit and generally be healthy. And if you're looking at weight loss and you want to lose weight, and that's what probably 99% of the fitness industry is all about, those two things.

[2:33] But while it can be great for general fitness and weight loss, while it can be enjoyable, while it can be accessible for a lot of people, if you are actively trying to improve your strength and your fitness over the long term, if they're the priorities that you want, It isn't an ideal approach. Now, the reason for this is circuit-based HIIT training, for the most part, and in 95% of different situations, you'll find this in a class environment or whatever it may be.

[3:03] It is really, really, really good at what it's designed to do, but many people out there kind of misconstrue what its main priority is. Maybe the coaches delivering this are kind of, you know, maybe saying things which aren't entirely true. maybe you're just going in with a slightly different perspective and it doesn't quite line up or whatever it may be. Because in 95% of situations, circuit-based HIIT training in this type of format is designed for three big things, three things that are kept top of mind and they're the main priorities people are trying to get out of it. Number one is to jack up the heart rate as high as it can go and create a format where you can spend the most amount of time at the highest heart rate. So what I mean by that, in the example before, that 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off, that's a really, really, really popular structure because people have found worldwide that a lot of people can work very, very, very hard for 45 seconds or quite hard for 45 seconds, get the heart rate really, really, really high. And then if we have 15 seconds off in between, that's kind of enough time for people to kind of move around, get a bit of recovery before they went away. If we just ask someone to go super hard for 20 minutes straight, not super accessible. People are going to gas out way too quickly. But if we break it up, it's much more accessible. So that's the first thing a lot of people are looking at is they just want to jack the heart rate up and make sure that is what we're getting out of this class.

[4:31] Number two, these types of approaches are designed to burn a lot of calories. If we're looking at weight loss, which again, a lot of people are in the world of fitness.

[4:40] When it comes down to training and weight loss, the main priority is just to burn a lot of calories, just to be working hard for an extended period of time.

[4:48] And in these formats, we just want to burn a lot of calories. And a lot of these classes out there, they will track that as a measure of success. They'll get you wearing heart rate monitors or they'll get you doing, seeing things on screen and it will show up how many calories you burnt during the session. And that's kind of what people are aiming for. And then number three is designed to be engaging for people, to be fun, to be exciting, to keep people involved or whatever it may be. Now, there's nothing wrong with these things. But these are the priorities of this type of training. And this is what 95% of the programming and decisions is catered towards in these environments. And again, there's nothing wrong with these things if that's what you want to get.

[5:27] And you will definitely improve fitness and strength to a degree from this type of stuff. It's not like you're not going to improve your fitness and strength, but fitness and strength aren't the priority. People aren't thinking, okay how can i effectively improve someone's fitness for eight weeks in a row or 10 weeks in a row or 12 weeks in a row and make sure we're continually getting more fit people aren't thinking how can i continually improve their strength that's not the priority of these workouts and because of that there usually are some pretty big limitations when it comes down to the long term development of your strength and your fitness this isn't again a big deal if you're just training for general fitness, general weight loss. But if you're a hiker who's trying to improve your fitness and your strength over time, this is not ideal. Now, to explain this, let's break this down and why I'm actually saying this and why these are limiting, just so you can understand. Because quite often I talk about this subject and people like, oh, yeah, Rowan, but what do you mean? Like, why isn't it working? I feel like I'm working hard. I feel like I'm improving. Why are you saying this? So I want to break this down and I'm going to break it up into strength and cardio separately, so you can kind of understand.

[6:35] Now, on the strength side of things, if we are actively trying to improve our strength.

[6:40] There are two big principles we want to keep in mind if we're effectively doing this. Number one, we want to make sure that to improve our strength, we need to be providing the body with a strength stimulus, meaning we need to be providing quite a difficult amount of resistance to our working muscles to force it to adapt and change. Because there is a big difference between a strength stimulus and a cardio stimulus. And while there are certain things that do feel difficult, if we really do want to improve our strength, we need an adequate amount of resistance.

[7:13] Number two, over long term, for us to improve our strength, we need what is called progressive overload, in the sense we apply stimulus to the body. The body's like, I don't like that, that makes me uncomfortable. So the body adapts and gets stronger, so it can handle that resistance and that stimulus better. And if we want to keep it getting stronger, we need to progressively apply more and more and more stimulus over time. That is the first principle of resistance training, of strength training, progressive overload. Now, when we're looking at this hit-based circuit stuff, there are a few limitations when we're looking at getting a strength stimulus and applying progressive overload. In no particular order, number one is in these circuit-based environments, there may be weights available, dumbbells, kettlebells, whatever may be, but quite often, you can't really get access to difficult weights or heavy weights or whatever it may be. You may be doing squats, but you'll be doing that with an eight kilo kettlebell or a 10 kilo kettlebell. And while that may be fine, you can still get a bit of a burn or whatever it may be. Realistically, your muscles can probably do way, way, way, way, way more than that. But it's just not convenient in this environment because you've got to cater for lots of people and the space and equipment access or whatever it may be. So in these circuit-based environments, quite often, it's just hard to get enough resistance. Number two is cardio and being huffed and puffed and being out of breath can very much hinder your lifting.

[8:42] Because typically, if we're trying to lift weights, we want to be fresh, we want to be able to focus, we want to be able to actively really, really push things. But if you're absolutely huffed and puffed from the last exercise, or you're just doing lots and lots of quick repetitions from that exercise, and you're getting really out of breath, and your heart rate's through the roof, well that's going to inhibit how much you can actually concentrate on the strength side of things number three is HIIT training typically doesn't have enough rest for effective strength training in the sense if we if we are looking at developing strength typically we want to do an exercise and after we do an exercise we want to give that muscle group a rest of usually up to two minutes or more two to three minutes between you know working that muscle group again so we may do, in a traditional sense, you may do a set of squats, rest for two minutes, do another set of squats, and do that repeatedly. Or to break it up, you may sort of say, I'm going to do a low body exercise, then an upper body exercise, then a core exercise, or whatever it may be. So by the time you get back to your low body exercise, you've had plenty of rest. In this hidden environment, it's very rare for you to get that. If you're just resting 15, 20 seconds in between exercises, that's not a huge amount of rest. And on top of that, if you're just doing every single exercise that's working legs, legs, legs, legs, legs, or whatever it may be, you're not really getting enough rest for a strength stimulus.

[10:01] Number four is when we're doing this HIIT training, typically exercises, or for the most part, exercises will change most weeks. You're not going to go in and do the same workout for week after week after week because they want it to be fun. They want it to be exciting. They want it to be engaging. So you do spend a reasonable amount of time each week trying to learn these exercises, figure them out. And that can detract a little bit from your strength training. In a traditional approach for strength, you will follow the same program for a number of weeks in a row. So you can learn those exercises, you can master them, and week by week you push it a bit more. We don't have that luxury in this circuit-based approach.

[10:39] Next up is typically you don't really know what you did previously in regards to weights. So hypothetically, if you did do a circuit one week and you're doing lunges or something with a certain amount of weight, and then two weeks later, you do lunges again, you may not really know how much weight you used. You can't really remember because you were tired. It's been a while or whatever it may be. So it can be difficult to actually overload and say, each time I do this exercise, I'm going to do more and more and more. It can be really, really difficult. And then finally you know these exercises when we're doing exercises in HIIT classes typically we're doing them very very quickly we're doing rep after rep after rep after rep very very very quickly and that's really really good for getting the heart rate up but it can sometimes be missing the mark a little bit in regards to strength development usually slowing things down being a bit more controlled being a bit steadier usually a bit better for strength so as you can see from all of these reasons, while yes, circuit-based stuff can feel like it's working really hard, can feel like the muscles are burning, there are a few limitations in regards to our strength development over the long term.

[11:46] Now on the cardio side of things, similar stuff. One of the main principles if we're looking at improving cardio over time is we want that progressive overload. Over time, we want to challenge the body. We want to give it more and more and more stress, more and more and more stimulus for it to move forward. When we're looking at cardio, there's lots of different ways you can provide progressive overload. You can add more volume, meaning you just do a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. You can add more speed. You can add more intensity, add more resistance or whatever it may be. In the hit environment, when we're doing the circuit-based stuff, realistically, the only method of overload that you have is just working harder. You can't really add more time. You can't extend intervals out. You can't do longer workouts because you're just following a class-based thing. So the only thing you can do is just work harder and harder and harder each week. Now, this works for a time because you'll notice in the first four to six weeks, you can do this. Each week, you get a little bit more fit and you can push a little bit more. Then you get a little bit more fit, you can push a bit more. And this will happen. After about the week seven or eight or nine or 10, you'll be like, you know, it's getting a bit harder. And then after that, it gets really, really, really difficult. And you may be absolutely redlining things every single week. You never really feel like you're moving forward.

[13:00] So HIIT can be difficult in regards to long-term progression for cardio. Now, for these reasons, this is why I often say this type of training, it's fine if you enjoy it, but as a long-term approach to improve things,

[13:13] you probably can be doing a little bit better. I'm not saying you have to give it up, but you may want to tweak your training just a bit, because if you are actively trying to improve your strength and your fitness for the trail, we want to be making sure we're making the best use of our time, best use of our week, and really seeing the results that we want. So with all that being said, you may be thinking like, okay, Rowan, cool.

[13:36] You've harped on about this enough. I can't make sense. What can I do? What is a solution? Stop poking holes in this. Give me a solution. And in all honesty, this can be really, really simple. Some gyms around the world I've seen apply some really, really, really simple tweaks to their training to actually do this very, very well. But for you as a hiker, I'm going to talk you through a very, very simple options where you can get a solution here. You can make sure your fitness and strength is moving forward, even if you're doing this type of environment. Now, if you are going to HIIT classes, if you're going to a gym, if you're following online workouts, if you're doing boot camps or whatever it may be, and you enjoy this, absolutely fine. But all you need to make sure you're doing is that somewhere else in your week, you are getting some exposure to strength outside of that environment and some exposure to some type of cardio outside in that environment. So on the strength side of things, very, very, very, very simple, you could literally turn up for your classes and do 10 to 15 minutes of more traditional strength lifting. You may choose one or two exercises before your class where you really focus on slow, steady control, challenging the weights, follow a program, and week by week by week, you push it a little bit more. Then you jump into your HIIT class, enjoy yourself, happy days. You've got both of those.

[14:57] Alternatively, you could sort of say, hey, I'm doing HIIT training twice a week. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make sure at least once a week, I'm going to do just a traditional strength session where I'm not getting huffed and puffed. I'm not jumping around, but I'm being focused on that. I'm following a program and week by week by week, I'm getting a little bit more. Either of those options are pretty simple, but they definitely work. On the cardio side of things, I would usually say if you're doing HIIT, that's fine, but make sure you have some type of cardio outside of the HIIT or the circuit-based approach and something that you're following a plan and you are following a progression plan. As we said, progressive overload, so you know week by week by week it's getting a bit more. As a hiker, this might be pack walking, it might be stair climbing, it might be hill climbing, it might be step sessions, whatever it may be, but following a plan. and ultimately you can still enjoy your HIIT classes. That's absolutely fine, but just make sure you're working on these other areas as well.

[15:50] Now, if you're in a situation where you're actually creating your own circuits, maybe not doing classes, but you just enjoy this approach to training. Well, very, very, very simple. What I would recommend is just take your strength training, take strength exercises, do them separately, either do them as separate workouts or do them as a, at the start of a workout, just do that. And then when you're doing this circuit-based approach, just keep it cardio-based. Don't throw strength exercises in there and think it's going to be working for that. Just keep it cardio-based.

[16:19] And then for those circuits, keep them the same circuit for three, four, five, six weeks in a row. So you know what's coming up. You can push it a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, and then make sure there is some method of progression. So week by week by week, maybe you add an extra five seconds to the working intervals, or maybe you actually add an extra interval each week, or maybe you, I don't know, whatever, but make sure there is some method of progression ultimately if you're doing this circuit-based hit approach i fully understand a lot of people love it i fully understand a lot of people really enjoy it and there's nothing wrong with doing that but don't fool yourself thinking that just doing that is really going to give you the best results if you're a hiker who wants to improve their strength and fitness for the trail make sure you're complementing it with some separate strength in one way or another make sure you complement it with some separate cardio make sure there is some method of progression overload and make sure you're really doing the right things to best help your hiking so with that being said i think i'm going to wrap things up here going on enough about this topic and i really do hope it makes sense i hope it helps a few people and i hope it should just opens a few people's eyes last thing i will sort of say on this topic is as always if you are a hiker who does need help with their training maybe you follow the hit approach and like you know what that makes sense maybe i'm missing a few things out and i

[17:36] do want help with that I would love to chat with you. If you want to learn a little bit more about our online personal training for hikers, you can go to summitstrength.com.au online.

[17:46] On that page, there's a big video that talks through our online personal training programs. And if it sounds like something you'd like to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page. You can book a call with our team. We can have a chat and see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to check it out, go to summitstrength.com.au online, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you got a bit out of it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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