Should You HIRT Instead of HIIT?

(Second article in a three-part series)

The previous post, "Are HIIT Workouts Wearing You Out?," discussed how the mainstream application of High Intensity Interval Training can often be too stressful and exhausting, especially when these workouts happen in a chronic pattern. By redesigning some of your high-intensity workouts to focus on HIRT (High Intensity Repeat Training), you get an effective training stimulus for the explosive anaerobic energy systems, experience less cellular stress, and recover faster. HIRT, an acronym coined by Dr. Craig Marker, psychologist, certified strength and conditioning coach, and CrossFit instructor, counters the objections about the exhaustive nature of HIIT.

The essence of HIRT is to perform maximum efforts of typically shorter duration, with much longer recovery between them, and fewer total efforts than a typical HIIT session. These workouts are also described as Sprint Interval Training (SIT). The word "Repeat" in the HIRT acronym suggests that you maintain a consistent quality of effort on every repetition of hard work. This means hitting the same performance standard as well as experiencing the same level of perceived exertion. For example, say your workout entails running 100-meter sprints across a football field, and you hit 18 seconds for your first sprint. This is a nice controlled, explosive effort with excellent technique, and you declare a perceived exertion level of around 90 out of 100.

Hence, you'll want to do successive sprints in 18-19 seconds each, preserving explosiveness and excellent technique and delivering what you still discern to be 90 out of 100 on the effort scale. If you have to "dig deep" (the implicit objective, and badge of honor, during a typical HIIT session) just to arrive at 19 seconds on your sixth effort, that's it. You are done. If you notice a slight attrition in explosiveness or degradation of form during one of your later reps, that's your cue to end the session. This could be feeling a little twinge in your hamstring, tightness in the lower back, or extra tension in the chest, arms, or face.

In his landmark article titled "HIIT versus HIRT," Dr. Marker explains that after HIIT sessions we bask in self-satisfaction of a job well done, but disregard the health-destructive consequences of these sufferfests: "Your feelings don't matter! That is, your subjective feeling of the effectiveness of a workout is not as important as what science tells us is important to building an impressive base of endurance and changing your body composition." That sound you hear is a slap to the face of highly motivated, goal-oriented, Type-A fitness enthusiasts across the land. The idea that your feelings don't matter might hurt your feelings, but it's time to consider the importance of putting your ego and unbridled competitive intensity aside in favor of a more strategic approach to your hard workouts and your overall workout program.

This admonition applies to everyone from hard-core folks to novices. Hard-core enthusiasts are notorious for constantly pushing the envelope and frequently succumbing to injuries or periods of declining performance. Novices generally don't concern themselves with training strategies, often leaving their fates in the hands of the peppy bootcamp instructor. Without sufficient experience or reference points, they exercise themselves into exhaustion, believing that pain and suffering are part and parcel of the fitness experience. This is heartbreaking because it results in ambitious, well-meaning enthusiasts drifting away from the gym as if pulled by some invisible force.

Alas, the subconscious is very good at avoiding sources of pain and suffering, which you come to associate with the gym or the Tuesday night track club. What happens so often to fitness enthusiasts who drift into this pattern is that they look back over a three-month or six-month period and realize they haven't been to the gym much. First it was that nagging bronchitis keeping them away in the winter, then work got busy, then that vacation, then that sore knee, and life drifts on in a different direction than the fitness ideal they'd envisioned at the beginning.

It's time to rid the planet of this suffering-and-attrition dynamic once and for all. In the article "Why You Should Only Sprint for 15 Seconds - Understanding The Physiology Supporting the HIRT Protocol," you'll learn how to design an ideal HIRT training session.