What Happens If You Do Too Much Hiit?

On Oct 18, 2022

What happens when you do too much HIIT :

Cortisol levels spike. Exercise, although usually a good stressor, is still a stressor. …
Glycogen stores deplete. During exercise, your body first uses fuel that’s available for quick processing. …
Sleep becomes elusive. Exercise can improve sleep, but too much can cause sleep disturbances. …
Metabolism is disrupted. …
Joints are taxed. …
Demotivation persists. …

After exercise, you may feel exhausted rather than energized
Disrupted sleep
Mood swings or depression
A saturation or drop in training progress

While many exercise methods don’t work for certain people, HIIT has proven time and time again to be one of the most reliable forms of strength and cardio exercise all wrapped up into one. It will get you shredded. Notice that I said treat symptoms, and not the disease itself.

“HIIT is a great way to lose weight in less time. Most people can burn the same number of calories in a 20-minute HIIT workout than they can in performing constant cardio or strength training for 45 minutes. HIIT also increases lung capacity and blood flow within the body.”

Try This Body-Weight HIIT Workout for Beginners

Start on all fours, then lift up into a high plank — knees lifted off the ground, legs extended, feet hip-width apart, hands under shoulders and fingers facing forward.
Keeping your hips down and abs and glutes engaged, bring your left knee to your chest.
Set it back to join the other, but then quickly draw the right knee up.

What happens when you do HIIT?

When you do HIIT, your body releases cortisol — the stress hormone — which “causes increased heart and breathing rate, pulse rate and blood pressure,” says Sherry A. Ross, MD, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and women’s health expert at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

Known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), your body goes through an afterburn effect when you do a HIIT workout because it creates an oxygen deficit.

Cornick says that proper recovery and stretching are essential, too. Because HIIT puts your body under an intense amount of physical demand, injuries are more likely. A simple solution is to not do HIIT every single day. Instead, weave in other types of workouts, like running, yoga and strength training.

FYI, you have two main muscle fibers: type I (slow-twitch) and type II (fast-twitch).

View Work. HIIT can take a toll on the body if you do it more than three or four times a week. Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com Creative.

Signs that you might be pushing yourself too hard during exercise include shortness of breath, chest pain and lightheadedness, according to Harvard Health Publishing. If you experience any of these symptoms, you should stop exercising and call your doctor. Advertisement.

In fact, HIIT is a great way to meet physical activity guidelines and decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a July 2019 article in the World Journal of Cardiology . While HIIT can do great things for your heart, you want to avoid doing it every day. “The key is to do a variety of exercises and not do …

What is HIIT fitness?

HIIT was initially a way to improve aerobic fitness and was generally only used by athletes to increase their capacity for running, cycling, swimming or other forms of cardio. But in the fitness industry, HIIT encompasses everything from straight conditioning to high-volume weightlifting to CrossFit-like workouts.

In general, HIIT has come to be defined as exercise characterized by short, vigorous bursts of energy followed by short rest periods. A classic and simple example of HIIT is 30 seconds of running, 30 seconds of resting. HIIT was initially a way to improve aerobic fitness and was generally only used by athletes to increase their capacity …

Glycogen stores deplete. During exercise, your body first uses fuel that’s available for quick processing. First goes free-circulating sugar in your blood and then it uses glycogen, the form of carbohydrates stored in your muscles and liver. Your body replenishes glycogen stores during rest, but if you never rest long enough between HIIT workouts, …

HIIT workouts promise better results in less time, but they can take a toll on your body. Amanda Capritto. May 20, 2021 7:00 a.m. PT.

Fly View Productions/Getty Images. The term “HIIT” has become pretty ambiguous, and it means different things to different people. The definition of HIIT varies even in the scientific literature that studies this form of exercise.

Your body replenishes glycogen stores during rest, but if you never rest long enough between HIIT workouts, those stores will struggle to become fully replenished. Low glycogen can make you feel slower and weaker during workouts, and it can also negatively affect the way your body recovers from exercise. More HIIT is not the answer.

Other research proves HIIT to be a helpful tool for reducing resting blood pressure, increasing VO2 max, losing body fat and other benefits. Given the benefits and that “lack of time” is one of the most common excuses for skipping out on exercise, it makes sense that HIIT has become a popular form of exercise.

Is HIIT good for you?

HIIT workouts have got a lot of good things going for them . They serve double duty to build strength and spike your heart rate, and are so short and effective that you only need 20 free minutes to squeeze a solid session into your day. But according to new research, too much HIIT may actually be doing your body a disservice.

At first, doing moderate amounts of HIIT, improved their performance and their bodies were producing more mitochondria, which you may remember from biology class is the “powerhouse” of the cells.

This isn’t the first time that science has suggested that going overboard on HIIT may be a problem. Because these workouts tend to involve a lot of jumping, they have a well-earned reputation for being not-so-good on your joints.

Because these workouts tend to involve a lot of jumping, they have a well-earned reputation for being not-so-good on your joints. Plus, since the whole point of this type of training is to alternate between periods of all-out effort and rest, if you’re not giving your body proper time to recover in between sessions, …