Low Intensity Interval Training

In my program on Paleolithic HIIT, I recommend establishing an endurance base of 20 minutes before doing any HIIT.

What I've found is that this endurance base alone can go a long way in helping you to reduce body fat, and in helping to improve your cardiovascular fitness and health in general. This is especially true when you convert it into low intensity interval training.

Let's say you pick running as your HIIT exercise. With the endurance base, I would recommend that you first learn to run at a steady aerobic pace for 20 minutes, BEFORE you start doing HIIT.

What this does is it helps prepare your skeletal muscles, bones, joints, cardiovascular and metabolic systems for HIIT.

In the beginning, a lot of my clients who started straight out with HIIT (without establishing an endurance base first), would stagnate in their progress within the first few weeks. When I started to introduce the endurance base, the results of my clients skyrocketed!

Low intensity interval training (LIIT) is different from the standard 20 minute endurance base. I discovered its benefits when a few of my clients were having some difficulty in establishing their 20 minute endurance base.

Here's what LIIT involves. Like with HIIT there are many different protocols you can follow, but I'm detailing one that my clients have had success with:

  • Jog at a steady endurance pace for just 5 minutes
  • Walk the same distance at a moderate pace (should take around 9-10 minutes)
  • Jog another 5 mins
  • Walk the same distance again

It ain't rocket science.

Repeat until you have done a total of 4 intervals. This means you have done 4×5 minute jogs and 4×10 minute walks.

For people struggling to establish a 20 minute endurance base, the benefits of LIIT are astounding!

Here's how my client Mark described it:

“The first 5 minute jog is the toughest one by far. By the end of it, you're almost ready to drop dead. If you were trying for a continuous 20-minute jog, then you'd give up at this point.

But thankfully you don't have to continue running. All you have to do for the next 10 minutes is walk at a comfortable pace.

At the end of your first 10 minute walk, you're close to getting your breath back, but still don't feel fully ready for another run. Running at this point is tough, but not impossible.

So you run again on your second 5-minute run.

And here's where the magic happens – during your second run, you suddenly find it easier to just keep on running.

As you continue to run for 5 minutes then walk for 10 minutes, your 5 minute runs just get progressively easier and easier.”

By the end of the 3rd run, most guys feel they can easily go on running continuously for 30 minutes or longer.

Low intensity interval training is like an easy way to get that second wind.

As a novice runner, you have to really force yourself and go through a lot of pain in the beginning before you get your second wind. LIIT helps you get that second wind while you are walking!

During your 10 minute walk intervals, your metabolism stays up. Your heart is still beating like crazy, you are breathing deeply, and your body's metabolism continues to adapt to make running easier for you.

What's really cool is that since your metabolism stays so high during those 10 minute walks, they are almost just as much an active part of your workout as your 5 minute runs.

So in 4 intervals, you are getting in 4×5 minute runs (=20 minutes), plus 4×10 minute high metabolism walks (=40 mins), which makes an EASY 60-minute workout! You get a 60-minute workout while busting your chops for just 20 minutes! Plus those 20 minutes are separated out so it doesn't feel nearly as tough as a continuous 20 minute run.

I know I'm against regular 60-minute endurance sessions, but since you are not running continuously for 60 minutes, the metabolic demand on your body isn't enough to lead to overtraining, chronic fatigue, and low resting testosterone levels.

This type of training will not negatively impact your resistance training. It will leave you feeling refreshed, alert, and full of energy.

It will also help prepare you for those HIIT sessions, which will REALLY take your results to the next level.

But you know, you don't HAVE to do HIIT. The right diet along with the CORRECT resistance training protocol is enough. Couple this with LOW intensity interval training, and you are WELL on your way to getting a flat chest within a few short months or even weeks.

You don't ever HAVE to progress to doing HIIT.

Quite a few of my clients have been quite happy just settling with LOW intensity interval training. Some were actually freaked out by the results they were getting with Paleolithic-style HIIT.

I know it may be hard to believe, but a lot of guys find it unsettling to have their physiques change SO rapidly. It can cause a bit of an identity crisis.

If you've been overweight your entire life and have had man boobs for years, imagine if all that suddenly went away and you looked attractive. Women suddenly start checking you out and wanting you to talk to them. But you don't know what to say because women have never wanted to KNOW you before.

Your body suddenly changes before you've had a chance to adapt psychologically and socially to the different lifestyle that comes with being an attractive man.

A lot of guys can't handle this. So if you don't want changes to happen too quickly, stick to LIIT, it will really help you get that body you want over time, and avoid Paleolithic HIIT, because its results really can be scary.

Please do let me know how you get on with LIIT in the comments section below. Your experience will really help me to refine the process.

2 thoughts on “Low Intensity Interval Training”

  1. Ive been starting to do LIIT for a while and i wanted to know does it decrease muscle mass/strength since it counts as a long distance exercise? Also, how do you treat muscle soreness from a regular HIIT activity?

    Thank you if you respond

    Reply
    • Hi Peterson

      LIIT may be steady state cardio, but it’s not long distance, since you’re only going at a steady pace for 5 minutes at a time, so you won’t be losing any muscle mass or strength. Even when you manage to get in the full 20 minutes in one go, you wont’ experience any muscle loss. You only need to worry if you start doing over 40 minutes (especially over 60 minutes) of moderate intensity cardio, and also if you start doing it daily.

      Muscle soreness from HIIT is something you experience more of when you first start doing HIIT or when you restart HIIT after a long break. Once your muscles adjust to the exercise, you’ll find you don’t get nearly as sore.

      One good tip to boost recovery from soreness is to take cold showers and ice baths. You can also take turmeric and/or garlic supplements, which both reduce inflammation and thin the blood, which improves blood flow to your muscles.

      Reply

Leave a Comment