HIIT and the Social Athlete

The NYTimes published a series of articles last year extolling the virtues of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).   High Intensity training is simply a series of very short burst of exercise at near maximum effort followed by recovery. The training concept has long been utilized among endurance athletes (Sebastian Coe doing wildly fast 200-meter repeats, the Tabata Protocol workouts, etc) with more rapid and efficient improvement in aerobic capacity and racing performance versus steady-state workouts.  More recently there has been various research suggesting metabolic benefits - fat-burning, insulin resistance, long-term cardiovascular benefits, neurological benefits, and more - hence the NYTimes articles urging even the most sedentary types to take on a regiment of painfully intense sprints on stationary bikes, rowing machines, boot-camp calisthenics, etc. 

  

 I seem to have inadvertently become something of an evangelist for this High Intensity Training myself. Saturday after Saturday I find myself leading a group repeatedly sprinting up  a series of nearby hills.  I had started these sessions some 20 months ago with two other runners as a brief off-season strength building effort.  These two teammates are long gone.  But, much to my surprise -- my extraordinary surprise -- the painful Hill Repeats have lived on.   

I thought perhaps everyone else had been reading the NYTimes Wellness columns.  Why else would they subject themselves to hill repeats?   But the other participants look at me blankly when I asked them if they are joining the workout because of the metabolic benefits..

After reading all these articles I had started to assume that everyone must be on the HIIT bandwagon, however when I look around at pool or gym, 90% of other people exercising are just plodding along at a steady pace.  Even  in my spin class, many of the participants hardly follow the instructors urging them to sprint and to climb.   I can certainly understand why most people prefer a long, easier steady workout -- I envy the blissed out swimmers gliding serenely through water while I am bent over the edge of pool gasping for breath.  I much prefer just being lost in thought on run through forests and not being a slave to my watch.  So I was not surprised last week the NYT comes out with a story about Danish researchers who are shocked, shocked!, that not every middle-aged, overweight, sedentary person has embraced a  intense, painful interval regime

The Danish researchers go on to contrive a formulaic workout which they argue will make high-intensity training appealing to the masses.   But my own experience with Saturday Hill Repeats makes me wonder if turning a challenging exercise program into a habit is so much a function of the specific workout structure.  The Hill Repeats benefit more from the fact it works for all speeds with the fastest runners turning around and uniting with the slower runners as they jog back down the hill after each hill repeat (in contrast to say a long, fast group bicycle ride where all but the fastest cyclists ride in constant fear of being “dropped” and then struggling on their own for the remainder of the ride, perhaps becoming hopelessly lost on some distant mountain course).  The Hill Repeat dynamic is similar to what has made the Hash House Harriers surprisingly popular with its weird, convoluted system of a “hare” setting up a false course so the fastest runners would intentionally get “lost” and backtrack to the slower runners.  

 

Moreover, the Saturday Hill Repeats team is very diligent about Social Media. We seem to always take time for the all-important photo ops.

Not to mention the critical post-workout reward and camaraderie with Starbucks and museum visits and global brunch experiences after each workout