Is intense interval training really killing you?

Recently, HIIT has become very popular, and for good reason: they have many advantages for health and fitness. But there are also disadvantages. Probably the most important of them is that such training is really hard to bear, especially by untrained people. The person begins to choke, the pulse jumps, he feels bad and unpleasant.

At the same time, fears arise: can such work "wear and tear" have a bad effect on health.

Let's figure it out.

Can HIIT hurt the heart?

Since we are accustomed to the fact that intensive work acidifies muscles - they start to burn and require rest - some people worry that the heart can acidify in the same way. However, myocardial muscles are different from skeletal muscles: they simply cannot do this.

The heart muscle is structured in a fundamentally different way than the muscles of the arms, legs, or trunk. The myocardium is unable to get tired. Unlike biceps, the heart does not know how to ache from accumulated lactic acid and never "falls from fatigue." In fact, whatever exercise your muscles can allow you, so can your heart, if it's healthy.

On the contrary, HIIT pumps the heart and does it better than calm cardio.

Olga Gromova says that during training, heart cells learn to consume oxygen and produce energy faster and more efficiently - the activity of enzymes in mitochondria increases. As a result, a person can handle stress better and can do more.

What's more, HIIT has a positive effect on insulin sensitivity, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. That is, they reduce all major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, we are talking about a healthy heart.

Olga Gromova

Exercise too intense can be dangerous if there is a heart problem but the person is not yet aware of it. In this case, any load can cause harm.

An analysis of more than a thousand people with myocardial infarction showed that 4.4% of patients were engaged in intense activity an hour before the incident. So strenuous exercise does increase the risk of,., Myocardial damage. However, the absence of any activity harms the heart much more.

On the other hand, it is much more dangerous for the heart not to do it at all or to do it rarely. Those who exercise five or more times a week are eight times less likely to die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than those who only do it 1-2 times a week. And 44.5 times less than not active at all.

So exercise is a must, and HIIT is great for preventing CVD, but only if your heart is healthy. This is exactly what you need to find out.

See your cardiologist before diving into the high-intensity world.

Your doctor is unlikely to tell you not to do HIIT. This training format is used as part of rehabilitation after heart disease, and it works more efficiently and safer than long calm cardio. However, only a specialist can also say for sure whether you can do it, how and how many times a week. If you are in complete order with your heart, certain conditions must be observed.

Olga Gromova

Most likely, the most effective and safe combination of daily moderate cardio exercise for at least 150 minutes per week with HIIT 1-2 times a week. The main thing is to increase the load gradually, not to ignore the heating and cooling, to monitor your feelings.

Start slowly, eat well, and do not ignore the warm-up and cool-down, and HIIT will provide you with a strong and healthy heart.

Can High Intensity Workout Kill Your Joints?

When HIIT includes bodyweight or weighted exercise, working at maximum intensity can lead to injury.

So, scientists from Rutgers University in New Jersey analyzed the data of the electronic system from 2007 to 2016 and found almost 4 million injuries from exercises with a barbell, kettlebells and calisthenics - box jumps, burpees, lunges, push-ups. Moreover, with the growing popularity of HIIT, their number is steadily increasing by about 50 thousand per year.

The knees, ankles or shoulders are primarily affected. Scientists speculate that such injuries are due to a combination of factors.

When muscle weakness and improper technique meet with high intensity, trouble is.

However, this can be easily overcome if you train wisely. First, you should consider your level of training. There is a difference whether you do the deadlift of 100 kg 2-3 times in strength training for relaxed muscles and central nervous system and with full concentration on the technique or in an intensive complex without rest, when the only thought in your head is "to make it faster and rest." HIIT should only include what you do well and with 100% correct technique.

Secondly, you should warm up well before intensive work. Before engaging in HIIT, do a joint warm-up and 5-10 minutes of calm cardio before sweating. Perform each exercise from the complex several times, then rest for 3-5 minutes and start HIIT.

Also, don't forget to work on your weaknesses.

If you lack joint mobility or core strength in a particular exercise, it increases stress and the risk of injury. So work on mobility (stretching, full range exercises), swing your core muscles (folds and crunches to the abs, hyperextension to the back and glutes) and listen to the coach.

Is it possible to die from something else during HIIT?

For example, ashamed that you did not close the circle … a joke. Another serious condition that can really die from after HIIT is rhabdomyolysis. This is a fairly rare condition that can be earned by overdoing it in training.

During serious physical exertion, muscles are damaged, and in some cases this is good, because microtraumas trigger a cascade of reactions for growth. But if the damage is too large, muscle microparticles enter the bloodstream, the kidneys try to recycle them and begin to fail.

Muscles hurt a lot, and this does not go away with time, the urine becomes dark, myoglobin, a skeletal muscle protein, and creatine kinase, an enzyme that is involved in energy metabolism during physical activity, increases in the blood.

Rhabdo can result in acute renal failure, liver dysfunction, disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome (blood clotting disorder), arrhythmias and death.

Mention of this disease has surfaced after the rise in popularity of crossfit training, which includes HIIT with a mix of calisthenics, aerobic work, and strength training. Even CrossFit creator Greg Glassman wrote an article about it, in which he admitted that his training system can cause rhabdomyolysis and this condition can kill you.

However, until now, there has not been a single fatality among CrossFitters. For example, in Northern California there were 1,277 cases of rhabdo in 12 years, only 297 of which were caused by exercise and 42 by CrossFit. On average, people with this diagnosis spent 4 days in the hospital, moreover, CrossFitters were the least of all.

To get an idea of how to overdo it and kill the muscles, consider one case of rhabdomyolysis after CrossFit training.

A 33-year-old man did either three sets of 100 push-ups in training or three sets of 20 biceps curls, 20 chest presses, 20 triceps extensions, 20 side pulls, and 20 20 kg dumbbell dumbbell pulls. Each set was usually completed within a few minutes, with 60 seconds of rest in between.

It’s not clear why give a beginner so many arm exercises. In almost all complexes, movements are varied in such a way as to load different muscle groups. After all, the goal is to develop, not kill. At the same time, despite such terrible training and rhabdomyolysis, after the treatment, the person recovered and returned to training.

If you are not inclined to be so mortified during class, you have nothing to fear. Well, if there is a tendency, find a good trainer who will not allow you to commit suicide during his training.

What is the bottom line

HIIT probably won't kill you if you:

We went to the cardiologist before starting.
Do them no more than twice a week and combine them with calm cardio or strength training on the other days.
Warm up well and cool down.
Eat well.
Increase the intensity gradually.
Exercise with perfect technique.
Listen to the coach (good).

Welcome to a world of high intensity, perfect body shape and healthy heart!