Q&A: Combining High Intensity Training and Sprint Interval Training

Question: I am an avid fan of Arthur Jones and have almost all his books, I do train alone and started the big five exercises recently, and I do supplement peak 8 cardio workouts with a Bowflex max trainer. The reason I do this is because of something Clarence Bass touched on which I think is true for people who train without that push from a personal trainer which Dr Ellington has also commented on about people not have a personal trainer to push them. I think the HIT cardio fills that gap. Love your work.

Bass comments on fast intense HIT workouts for cardio benefit:

“Perhaps not, but the question remains whether an appreciable number of people are willing—or able—to push themselves that hard without Arthur or the military driving them to the outer limits of effort, workout after workout. Proper Strength Training may be the most efficient way to build strength and endurance simultaneously—but what difference does it make if serious strength trainers are unwilling to keep doing it. Surely, it isn’t a viable approach for lifetime fitness.”

“I believe it makes more sense—and is more practical—to rest as long as necessary between sets to exert maximum effort on each strength movement—and then do brief, whole-body, high-intensity intervals or sprints to build and maintain cardiovascular fitness. You can combine the two forms of training or do them in separate workouts. That’s my approach.”

“Jones freely admitted that few people would train as he recommended without his hobnail boots urging them on. He never trained that way for very long.”

Answer: I’ve read most of Clarence Bass’ books and many of his articles and I like him and agree with a lot of things he’s said, but he’s wrong about this.

While the results you get from exercise are proportional to how intensely you train and most people won’t train as intensely on their own as they will with a good personal trainer or training partner, it is not necessary to strength train with the absolute maximum intensity of effort humanly possible to effectively improve your cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. You just have to consistently train hard enough to place a greater demand on your muscles and the supporting systems than they are accustomed to, and the longer you do this the better you get at it. Over the past two decades I’ve received e-mails from thousands of people who were able to accomplish this following the guidelines in my books and articles without a trainer pushing them through their workouts and without additional “cardio” sessions.

High Intensity Training > Sprint Interval Training

While moving quickly between exercises can help you maintain an elevated heart rate throughout your workout, research comparing sprint interval training to traditional endurance training shows this is not necessary to improve your cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. As long as you create enough of a metabolic and cardiovascular demand during each exercise it doesn’t appear to matter if you rest for a few minutes in between, and properly performed compound exercises do this as effectively as sprints or better with less wear on your joints and lower risk of injury.

Even if you do move quickly between exercises and cumulative systemic fatigue reduces the loads you are able to use for subsequent exercises you can still train with the same relative intensity of effort, which is more important than load for stimulating increases in muscular strength and size.

Resting longer between exercises may favor muscular strength and size gains over cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, and rushing between exercises may do the opposite, but as long as you are training intensely enough either method is more effective, more efficient, and safer for your joints in the long run than performing separate sprint interval training sessions for cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. Because of this a proper high intensity training program is not only a viable approach for lifetime fitness, it is the best approach.

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  • Dean Curtis Apr 3, 2016 @ 15:33

    Good article Drew, as usual. I was recently thinking about this exact topic, having just read C. Bass’ article. For all the good he has done and is right on, methinks it is his background in olympic lifting and leftover beliefs from the 80s that leans him in the direction of separate cardio vs weight sessions. He had an article a few years back covering BBS too, same conclusions.

    As an old sprinter and LSU football player, having run a Nautilus gym back in the day, training myself and others for decades, and watching “aerobic athletes” literally fall to the floor after 1 set of squats or leg presses, I can assure your readers, HIIT is not necessary if you are doing HIT once a week. I can see doing a HIIT session between HIT sessions if they are 2 or 3 weeks apart, but that is about the only case where HIIT would be of benefit. Even then, HIIT will cause far more injuries than proper HIT. Not just sprinting either. My very fit 16 year old cannot do HIIT on an elliptical without it hurting her knees. Imagine what it is doing to us older folks.

    • Drew Baye Apr 3, 2016 @ 18:48

      Hey Dean,

      Thanks, and I think you’re right about Bass just having a hard time letting go of old beliefs. I’ve talked with a few others who cling to their “cardio” no matter how clearly or how many ways you explain to them why it’s not necessary.

      I’ve had the same experience with endurance athletes new to high intensity training, and have heard similar stories from many trainers of skeptics being amazed at the cardiovascular effect after being put through a proper high intensity training workout. The only way you can convince some people is to show them. Bass has probably experienced this since he is clearly aware it is possible, and I believe his claim that most people won’t train hard enough is just a rationalization for continuing to recommend redundant “cardio” sessions.

  • Eric Ramos Apr 3, 2016 @ 16:46

    I’ve always enjoyed training to failure and disliked doing cardio, even before I knew about HIT. And while I haven’t translated it to much size (that’s another story) the lack of “traditional” cardio never seemed hurt me whenever I’ve needed to call upon some form of running. Whether it be an impromptu football game or chasing after kids that decide they want to run away from school (the latter has been fun and tends to happen during the first weeks of school). And while I can’t prove it, I feel I’m way faster than when I was younger. Good to know that my brief workouts keep me conditioned enough to respond quickly if I have the need.

    Over the past year I’ve attempted to condense my workouts further, doing a pull,push, squat/dead combo in order to hopefully get a bit stronger and gain some size. But I have felt my conditioning a bit more lacking on just 3 exercises 2x a week.

    In Massed versus Distributed Exercises you wrote:

    “I have found two full-body workouts a week to be a good starting point for most people. It is infrequent enough that most people will not overtrain if they keep the workouts relatively brief (only one set of around ten exercises including work for smaller muscle groups like neck, forearms, or calves) while frequent enough that metabolic and cardiovascular conditioning is not compromised.”

    Personally, I’ve found a happy medium between a Squat(alternated on day 2 with a deadlift), Horizontal Pull, H. push, Vertical Press, V. Pull, especially if the squat is a high rep one.

    I’ve been curious about doing less exercise and the conditioning aspect of it, how little can one go and still reap the benefits. And I think the answer is…it depends. In a blog post reply you mentioned:

    There is a very broad range of repetitions and time under load that can be effective, but I like to keep sets over 30 seconds for the sake of creating greater cardiovascular and metabolic demand

    30-60 seconds for 3 exercises 2x a week probably isn’t going to help much. I could be wrong. In full body routine like you recommend it might be 180-360 seconds of work on just the compounds alone and 300-600 seconds for all 10 exercises

    And while something like the big 5 is only 5 exercises done 1x a week, McGuff recommends a TUL that is about 90 seconds for a total of 450 seconds of TUL to failure for a workout. And Maybe there lies a range of sorts, getting at least 180 seconds of work to failure on some compound exercises 2x a week or at least about 450 1x a week.

    Maybe you can clarify a few things if I’m wrong. Thanks.

    • Drew Baye Apr 3, 2016 @ 18:34

      Hey Eric,

      Consider many sprint interval training protocols consist of only four to six 30 to 60 second sprints with several minutes of rest in between. A brief high intensity training workout consisting of only a few compound exercises done for similar TULs can create even greater metabolic and cardiovascular demands because the targeted muscles are more efficiently loaded. Like most things the exact workout volume and frequency that works best for this purpose will vary between individuals and requires experimentation to determine.

  • Greg Roseman Apr 3, 2016 @ 18:07

    Try a 3×3 workout. The vascular system is usually the limiting factor.

    • Drew Baye Apr 3, 2016 @ 18:16

      Hey Greg,

      The same can be achieved with regular HIT workouts, but some 3×3 workouts make it easier for someone to do this in a busy gym. I wrote about this in 3×3 High Intensity Training Workouts.

      • Greg Roseman Apr 8, 2016 @ 8:38

        Drew, your article about the 3x3s is what got me into doing them.

        • Drew Baye Apr 8, 2016 @ 10:02

          Hey Greg,

          They’re great for when you’re trying to maximize the cardiovascular demands of a workout but your current training environment prevents you from moving quickly between different exercises. Every once in a while I’ll do the Cerberus workout from Project Kratos which is a bodyweight 3×3, and it always kicks my ass.

  • Billy Apr 3, 2016 @ 18:19

    Drew, this is really helpful, thanks for the tremendous insights, as usual.

    My side question is this …

    How would you rate doing jump rope as compared to sprinting? I’ve been adding rope skipping to my fitness routine because I like the challenge of the hand-eye coordination, and I just plain think it’s fun, but I’m curious if you consider jump roping to be less impactful on the joints and whether it has a lower risk of injury to sprinting.

    Curious if you have any thoughts on jump rope. Thanks as always for the help.

    • Drew Baye Apr 4, 2016 @ 13:51

      Hey Billy,

      Jumping rope is not as hard on your joints as sprinting but it will not improve your general hand-eye coordination. A proper high intensity training program is all you need for general improvements in functional ability, and there are specific drills for improving hand eye coordination in different activities that would be more effective than jumping rope.

  • Alvin Vassodoaven Apr 4, 2016 @ 9:15

    Hi Drew,

    Always a pleasure reading your articles, just an example how proper high intensity trainign is more efficient, I do quite a fair bit of hiking, going up hills and mountains and friend of mine who always goes with me jogs quite a lot. But guess what my “cardio” is still better than his though I don’t do any of the so called cardio. He actually struggled going uphill. Another friend of mine to did the dolomites, said the same thing that it was doing exercise like squats that helped him the most. My brother and I always argue about this not matter how I explain it to him and send him to read your articles.

    Regards

    Alvin

    • Drew Baye Apr 4, 2016 @ 13:18

      Hey Alvin,

      Thanks for the feedback. It amazes me how many people refuse to believe how effective proper strength training can be for cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning even when the evidence is right in front of them. I suspect part of the reason for this is many people do not like to admit they’ve been doing something wrong when they’ve invested a lot of time and effort into it.

  • Tom Peterson Apr 4, 2016 @ 10:44

    I work out three times a week. On Monday and Friday afternoon, usually 3pm, I do a 12 minute HIIT session on an exercise bike of which only 2 minutes are under load. For some reason these end up being full body workouts because my arms end up being even more exhausted than my legs which surprises me. It takes me close to the remaining portion of an hour to recover from both the mental and physical exhaustion. I know that my metabolism remains elevated into the night because I have to toss the blankets and sheets off me when I go to bed. In my head I do HIIT to improve my endurance. I believe that it allows me to do physical activities longer than I would otherwise be able to do. I have no safety concerns about using the bike.

    On Wednesday, again around 3pm, I do a 30 minute Kratos HIT session. My body responds in the same way as the HIIT session except that I have many more exhausted muscles. I do HIT to improve my strength, although it takes my muscles a week to recover, so progress is not as swift as I would hope. Maybe I’m just hitting my genetic limitations.

    I’m just trying to make sure my 50 year old 165 pound body can keep doing the things that I ask of it. For instance, yesterday I spent 4 hours pulling barbed wire out of thick brush and then dead lifting the fence posts out of the ground. My body knew that it had a workout after that but today I am ready to use by body hard again.

    I believe that both HIIT and HIT are allowing my body to improve in ways that I desire. I don’t look forward to any of the workouts. They are very demanding but the HIT workout is much more mentally challenging (30 minutes of continuous intense exercise, ugh). I wish there was a way to make it mentally easier.

    Thank you Drew.

    – Tom

    • Drew Baye Apr 4, 2016 @ 13:05

      Hey Tom,

      Both high intensity training and sprint interval training can effectively stimulate improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, but in the long run a proper HIT program is safer for the joints and provides additional benefits SIT can not.

  • Dan Apr 7, 2016 @ 20:30

    hey drew, i have a qustion, what do you mean with improvements in cardiovascular and metablic conditioning (because i dont feel them ).

    For me , I like running and take part on some 10miles runs. If i just train with hit strength training i am not able to run the 10milles in whatsoever time.
    So if i like this sport do i have to spend some time of my training with running? How fit this to paarts together? Can i seperate the skill running from the cardiovascular and metabolic part?

    • Drew Baye Apr 8, 2016 @ 8:58

      Hey Dan,

      I explained how high intensity training stimulates improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning in Q&A: What is Metabolic Conditioning? and High Intensity Strength Training for Cardiovascular Conditioning and Fat Loss. and More On High Intensity Training For Cardiovascular And Metabolic Conditioning and cover this in all of my books. If you are not feeling a significant cardiovascular demand during a workout you’re not doing high intensity training. I’ve had endurance athletes express amazement at the degree of heart rate elevation and systemic fatigue they experience during their workouts with me, and many other HIT trainers I know have received similar feedback from endurance athletes they’ve trained.

      A proper high intensity training program is the most effective, efficient, and safest way to improve the general factors of functional ability required in activities like running, however to optimize your ability to perform a physical activity you must also practice the skills specific to that activity. The more skilled you are, the better your economy of motion and the less energy you waste with each movement, the more slowly you’ll fatigue. Since practicing the skill of running also involves muscular work, and thus metabolic and cardiovascular work, you can’t separate these.

  • Pascal Apr 25, 2016 @ 11:26

    Hey Drew. My wife enjoys Zumba classes because of the group spirit, loud music etc. But being overweight and not training at all she would get very tired, and could barely finish a Zumba session. Then she trained with me once a week, doing a full body, HIT big five kind of workout. And after about 4-6 weeks she would go to her Zumba class and enjoy the hell out of it because she would barely get tired from it.

    She stopped HIT because of several surgeries she had to go through but started Zumba again and hates it because it’s too hard. So she decided to go back to HIT in order to be able to enjoy doing what she likes to do.

    I just think this story fits what you are trying to teach. Brief, safe, intense workouts, that limits your time in the gym so you can enjoy your life and the recreational activities that brings you joy.

    • Drew Baye Apr 27, 2016 @ 12:29

      Hey Pascal,

      Thanks for sharing this. I’ve had many clients with similar experiences who came to me for help because they were unable to enjoy or even engage in their physical hobbies because of a decline in functional ability. After starting a high intensity training program many were able to resume these activities within weeks, often with significant improvements in performance.

      This is why it is so important to distinguish between exercise and recreation. If people want to improve their functional ability in an effective, efficient, and safe manner they need exercise (high intensity progressive resistance training). Recreational activities are a poor substitute, and relatively ineffective, inefficient, and unsafe compared to exercise for the purpose of stimulating improvements in functional ability, and won’t get them the physical results they want. Unlike exercise, recreational activities are meant to be fun, and that’s what people should do them for. A balanced life should include both, separately, but in the right amounts.

  • Ralph Aug 21, 2016 @ 11:31

    Drew,
    Late to comment but my experience definitely proves to me that a proper high intensity training session provides all the benefits needed to improve the cardiovascular system. I am a retired military special operations type, former chronic cardio junkie. I transitioned to performing calisthenics and 1-2 sprint sessions per week. After years of high mileage running and other training related injuries I now only perform 1-2 high intensity body weight training sessions per week based on your “Project Kratos” and “Timed Static Contraction Training” books and recommendations. I get my activity kicks from participating in local 5k charity walks. 8-10 weeks out from a scheduled walk I get in 2-3 walks a week to perfect my gait and ability to walk at a faster pace.

    If someone doubts the benefits of high intensity body weight training I offer a challenge… Perform the hip belt timed static contraction squat as a pre-exhaust then immediately drop the belt or strap and one strict set of body weight squats to failure… Then tell me how much more effective a set of sprints are! At 55 years of age I have a resting heartbeat of 49-50 beats first thing in the morning, and BP of 107 / 70. All other markers are on target as well.

    Drew, you provide a great service and following your advice and teaching I am in the best shape of my life.

    • Drew Baye Aug 24, 2016 @ 12:25

      Thanks Ralph,

      The TSC hip belt squat to bodyweight squat combo is definitely a brutal one, and shows just how intensely one can train with minimal equipment. Speaking of which, one of my bodyweight program clients suggested an alternate to the regular strap for the belt squat I think you’ll like, which I’ll be writing about soon.

  • Tyler Kinsley Feb 12, 2017 @ 14:54

    Hi Drew. I am doing my second sprint triathlon in North Florida in June. Do you know any people who have used this type of training to prepare for Triathlons?

    • Drew Baye Feb 15, 2017 @ 16:39

      Hey Tyler,

      Myself and many other trainers I know have had clients who compete in triathalons and other endurance events and the best approach requires both high intensity training for strength and conditioning and specific practice of the event being trained for. I also know people who have entered endurance events having done nothing but high intensity strength training who have performed well.

      HIT trainer Doug Holland once entered a bicycle race as a joke. He showed up on a cheap, old bike with ape-hanger handlebars and a banana seat, wearing a t-shirt, jean shorts, motorcycle boots, and a German WWI helmet with a spike on top, while smoking a cigarette (he doesn’t smoke, but thought it would be funny). Despite doing only HIT workouts and no cycling and being in his fifties Doug finished ahead of more than half of the cyclists who came riding expensive, high-tech bikes and wearing neon spandex and aerodynamic helmets. If Doug were serious about the event and not just doing it to be funny he probably could have finished in or near the lead.

  • Dominik Jul 15, 2017 @ 15:15

    Hello,

    I have read book Body by Science. Is it possible to train Big 5 twice a week? Becouse you suggest training 1-3 times a week and In book is just once.
    Methods I exect are very similar to yours except few details such like breaks between exercises, pace of repetition etc.

    Thank you

    • Drew Baye Jul 27, 2017 @ 8:52

      Body by Science is an effective program for people who want to be stronger and better conditioned but only have a little time for exercise or do not want to work out more frequently. It is not an optimal program for everybody, however. If you want the best possible results you should train as frequently as your body is able to effectively recover from and adapt to, and for most people this means two or three full-body workouts per week.