Dash interval coaching, or SIT, is tremendous stylish proper now. It’s a good way to enhance your operating pace and to get in a tough interval exercise, and I’ll clarify precisely how. However I additionally must clear up this foolish query about whether or not it’s “higher than” HIIT (or high-intensity interval coaching). SIT is, actually, a sort of HIIT.
What’s SIT?
Dash interval coaching refers to train routines the place you run as arduous as you presumably can (or practically as arduous) for a short while, usually 30 seconds. A SIT exercise often seems one thing like this:
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Heat up with strolling and/or straightforward jogging for 10 to fifteen minutes.
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Run 30 seconds as arduous as you’ll be able to.
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Recuperate (stroll or relaxation) for 3 to 5 minutes.
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Repeat the above steps anyplace from 4 to 10 instances.
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Quiet down with extra strolling or straightforward jogging—for, say, 5 to 10 minutes.
The advantages of SIT embody improved operating financial system (mainly, your physique will get extra environment friendly on the operating movement) and improved time in operating races. SIT has not been discovered to extend your VO2max any higher than steady-state coaching, or any higher than HIIT. For instance, this examine discovered no important distinction in VO2max between SIT coaching and a management group that did regular state coaching (each improved), nevertheless it did discover that the SIT group was higher at sprinting. Not shocking, when you consider it.
Right here is a few knowledge from a current SIT exercise I did. I wished to get in 5 miles for the day, so I warmed up for quarter-hour and cooled down for about the identical, and in between I did 10 intervals of 30 seconds every, with three minutes’ restoration. (I thought of doing 4 minutes, however I solely had about an hour to get that exercise in, so I opted to be a bit extra environment friendly.) The sprints had been arduous, however the restoration gave me loads of time to really feel able to go once more.
Credit score: Beth Skwarecki
What’s HIIT?
As I’ve written (or, to be sincere, ranted) earlier than, HIIT began as a catch-all time period for arduous interval exercises, and has mutated right into a advertising and marketing buzzword that signifies the overall concept of arduous work in a brief timeframe.
HIIT stands for prime depth interval coaching, and it consists of every kind of various interval schemes. Listed below are a few of the “traditional” HIIT exercises from the scientific literature:
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Wingate sprints: 30 seconds all-out, adopted by 4ish minutes of relaxation, repeated a number of instances. (These had been initially achieved on a research-grade train bike.)
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Tabatas: 4 minutes of 20-second all out sprints, with simply 10 seconds between each. These, too, had been initially achieved on a motorcycle, and also you do the entire block as soon as, not a number of instances.
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60/60: One minute arduous, one minute straightforward, then repeat
Scientific articles that assessment the outcomes of HIIT are likely to have bother arising with a definition, for the reason that time period has been used so many various methods. This examine has a desk with examples, together with those above, plus basketball gamers’ shuttle runs and swimmers’ 50-meter intervals. This one outlined HIIT as something the place the work intervals had been 4 minutes’ length or much less.
Did you discover one thing? These Wingate intervals? Yep, that’s the identical sort of exercise individuals are actually calling SIT. SIT is a kind of HIIT.
Is SIT or HIIT higher for fats loss?
Neither is healthier. SIT is a kind of HIIT, anyway. If you wish to change your physique composition, the precise sort of train doesn’t matter a lot, so long as you might be doing a little type of power coaching to protect or construct muscle. The distinction between your calorie consumption and your calorie burn is what determines how a lot fats you lose. It doesn’t actually matter how you burn your energy.
SIT ought to be a little bit simpler to grasp than HIIT, because it’s one particular household of exercises. However as I browsed TikTok and different social media, I discovered individuals utilizing SIT to check with non-SIT protocols like 20 seconds work, 10 seconds relaxation, for 5 rounds. That’s not SIT in any respect. I additionally discovered a “SIT” exercise that concerned 20 seconds of kettlebell swings, 20 seconds of thrusters, and 30 seconds of burpees. That’s not even sprinting! Take all these social media exercises with a grain of salt, particularly after they make massive guarantees about weight reduction or muscle achieve. SIT isn’t some magic secret to getting a health influencer physique; it’s only a good, intense exercise that advantages your operating.
