HIIT vs. MIIT: Which have you been doing?

High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is all the rage right now. Everyone loves this type of workout because it burns major calories in a short amount of time. But, are you doing in properly? Today we are going to go over HIIT vs MIIT. Let’s figure out which you have been doing.

HIIT workouts are short. If you just did a 40-minute “HIIT workout”, you did not just do HIIT. HIIT workouts typically range from 4 to 20 minutes in length. The longer workouts will have quite a bit of rest involved. If the workout is longer than 20 minutes it is not truly HIIT. Or perhaps only parts of it were HIIT.

You can blend HIIT with resistance training or other forms of cardio to create a longer workout. That is something I do in the 4-Week Slim Down Plan. However, HIIT alone is an incredibly exhausting workout, and your body cannot keep that level intensity for much longer than 15 minutes.

As the name suggests, HIIT involves intervals of work and rest. The working intervals should be shorter than 20 seconds for the workout to be considered HIIT. Your body can’t physically sprint for longer than 20 seconds, and each interval in a HIIT workout should be a sprint.

Sprints require the body to use a specific energy system. Once the interval surpasses 20 seconds, your pace slows for your body to switch to a different energy production system. In a HIIT workout, you never want your pace to slow down. Thus, intervals longer than 20-seconds are no longer considered a sprint.

If you are doing longer intervals, it’s possible you are doing Moderate Intensity Interval Training (MIIT). A majority of the time, what people think is HIIT is MIIT. Even if you feel absolutely exhausted like you would during a HIIT workout, your workout still may fall into the “moderately intense” category.

Both workouts are amazing for you body and will burn major calories. They have similar outcomes and the workout structure is quite similar, but there are some major differences.

HIIT workouts will make you feel like you are going to collapse within one minute. MIIT can be endured for longer because your body isn’t being pushed to its max.

Have you been doing HIIT or MIIT?