Tip Choose Your Own HIIT Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Choose Your Own HIIT A funny thing happens when dedicated gym-goers disregard what their workout plans say and choose their own intensity Take a look by Shawn Wayland June 10, 2018April 5, 2021 Tags Metabolic Conditioning, Metcon, Tips, Training The Power of Choice It's time for cardio. It's your second interval training workout for the week and your motivation as you approach the treadmill is low. The workout planned seems awful. You're dreading it. What do you do? Easy. Just choose your intensity level, no matter what the workout plan says. You may end up going even harder. Check out this study. The Study Fourteen active people, seven men and seven women, took part. Each performed two HIIT (high-intensity interval training) sessions on a cycle ergometer: 8 one-minute efforts with one minute rest in between. In one of the workouts, they were forced to work at 80% of peak power output. In the other workout, they were allowed to choose the percentage of peak power output that they felt corresponded to an RPE level of 7. RPE stands for "rate of perceived exertion." One feels super easy, 10 feels extremely challenging. Heart rate, blood lactate, VO2, RPE, power, and exercise enjoyment was recorded. The Results Peak heart rate was higher in the self-selected intensity session than the forced intensity session. Blood lactate, VO2, RPE, and power were all greater in the self-selected intensity session than the forced intensity session. Exercise enjoyment was lower in the self-selected intensity session than the forced intensity workout. What this Means to You Active people go harder when they have the freedom to choose their intensity during HIIT sessions. On the flip side, they may enjoy it less. However, a more trained population may have slightly different responses, especially when it comes to the enjoyment factor. In this study, only one person found self-selected intensity session more enjoyable than the imposed intensity session. Auto-Regulation For the Win Once again, auto-regulation seems to allow for greater intensity. When given the ability to choose, active people naturally choose to go harder... even at the expense of enjoyment. Depending on your goals, determining intensity by "feel" during your HIIT workouts may benefit you. You'll train harder and get better results. Reference Kellogg, E, Cantacessi, C, McNamer, O, Holmes, H, von Bargen, R, Ramirez, R, Gallagher, D, Vargas, S, Santia, B, Rodriguez, K, and Astorino, TA. Comparison of psychological and physiological responses to imposed vs. self-selected high- intensity interval training. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2018 Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip For Big Lats Add Intense Stretches Here are 4 painful stretches that, when added to your back workout, can help you trigger new muscle growth. Don't wimp out. Tips, Training John Meadows October 12 Training Exercises You ve Never Tried 15 Well, maybe you’ve tried some of them. But maybe not. Check out the list and challenge yourself. Bodybuilding, Powerlifting & Strength, Training T Nation November 23 Training Tip To Get Bigger Get Stronger You understand progressive overload, but are you really using it? Check this out. Bodybuilding, Powerlifting & Strength, Tips, Training Charles Staley May 18 Training The Sacked Back - Part 1 It's the sound you never want to hear when weight training. Sometimes you feel it immediately; sometimes you sense something happen but it takes a few hours for the full impact to hit you. Either way you've injured your back. The big question is, what do you do? Training Ian King February 4