it seems that quite a couple of opinions differ in how exactly HIIT should be performed. Some advocate that outside the boxing gym, training HIIT for 2-3 days out of the week doing fast sprints, etc. is a good way to go. Others say that when training to improve performance in a particular type of activity, your HIIT should come from that particular activity alone. Which is the "right" way to go about this? Is it even possible to train HIIT in just boxing alone?
You should split up your HIIT and other forms of training as HIIT by definition is high intensity, you should be a mess by the end of it. People seem to have this obsession with sprints when it comes to HIIT. Sprints are great, but it seems that's all everybody does. Mix things up a lot. 10 100m sprints, 1 min rest between sprints Sprint 100m, jog 100m, repeat 4x400m sprints 8x200m sprints etc etc Add other things like Tabata - 20 secs work, 10 secs rest repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. Sprint a mile as fast as you can. Row 1000m as fast as possible. Do the sprint work above on a bike. There's hundreds of ways you should be pushing your body. Obviously you should also spar a lot as the requirements for the cardio in boxing are different to any other form of cardio.
You can apply it to most anything, HIT is High Intensity Training. Can be used on Bagwork, Skipping, Shadow, Circuits, Running, anything you like.
Should the whole HIIT session last longer than 20 minutes and more, similar to what is advised for aerobic training? And also..I've read that because HIIT is such a high demand of the body that you can not prolong it more than 3 days a week. Is this true?
Difference is you are working Anaerobically, big difference in output. Working at Max for Amatuer depending on what you are trying to achieve, and your Fitness level should control, your output. Its a question of build up. 3 Days is ample, I like day on day of routine, seems to work for most, once again depending on Fitness Levels. Like all things its a Balancing act.
Here is my experience and how I did my HIIT and other conditioning work with my boxing work. I have all this documented from last summer because I am obsessive about this type of stuff. I did everything with a Heart Rate Monitor and did a total of 8 weeks as an experiment to see how good of shape I could get in at the end of 8 weeks. I did this in block format with the goal being solely aerobic conditioning. I'm not an amateur or pro, I just like training at the boxing gym and being competitive. We always have club and low level pros so I geared this toward their round structure. Also it was the summer and my practice was slow, so I had a lot of time on my hands to do this experiment. When I started this my resting heart rate was 58-60bpm, and recovery after reaching and sustaining Anaerobic Threshold for 5 minutes went from 168 bpm to 135bpm after 1 minute 52 seconds. The first 4 week block I started with jumping dbell squats and plyo pushups 2 x week in a HIIT format in the PM, starting easy and decreasing rest/increasing work each week and sparred AM 1-2 x week 4-6 rds, and did 1-2 days of bag work. Around my fourth week I added one day of Threshold training 5 x 3 minutes and took out 1 day of the squat/pushup. This is the how I used HIIT and other modalities on weeks 5-8. Monday: AM: Jacob's Ladder(threshold training)started at 4 x 5 minutes and worked up to week 8 doing 4 rounds of 10 minutes at Anaerobic Threshold(167bpm) + or -5bpm. Recovery was until HR came back down to under 130bpm, then did next set. Tuesday: AM: Sparring(6-8rds, 3mins, 30 sec rest) PM: Active Recovery work (Tempo Intervals 20 minutes(12 secs at 70%, 63 secs at 40%) Wednesday: AM: Light Bag Work(30 mins on bags, Heart rate down under 150bpm. This I used as more of an off day) Thursday: AM: Bag work(HIIT)20 secs hard 1-2 combo, 20 secs "touching" bag, worked up to 3 rds of 7-8 mins, recover to 135bpm or Threshold training on bag, same rds/time as Monday. PM: Active Recovery Work(Tempo Intervals) or LSD for 30 minutes Friday: AM: Bag work (8 rds of 3 mins, 30 sec rest, steady, good pace) Saturday: AM: Sparring same as Tuesday, no PM Sunday: off The results at the end of 8 weeks were my Resting Heart Rate was 48-52bpm, and the recovery went from 168 to 132 in 58 secs. My experience when actually sparring was that I would get tired still at times in the ring of course, but recovered far quicker during lulls/between rds, and work output became much better. I'm not an expert, but used some expert resources to program this. It is almost like a 2 on 1 off format. If I would have looked at this without doing it, I would have said that it was way too much work. However, it worked well for me and there are really only 4 "hard" workouts for the week. Nonetheless, if my goal was still aerobic conditioning after week 8, I would probably cut the volume by a 1/3. If you are an amateur boxer, as Scrap said, the energy system demands shift quite a bit to more anaerobic due to the pace/output although there is still a substantial energy demand from the aerobic energy system. Therefore, you would have to adjust the work/rest time and the intensity accordingly to the nature of the competition. Hope this helps. I know it's long winded.
Funny enough, do a lot of Hit Training, with the Triathletes I work with. I have had some very good results, well they have . Do 30 mins on something that makes the body work, 30% more efficient, where recovery time is halved. One guy represents G/B and in 6 months has reduced His Triathlon times by 30 mins, just knocked 4/ 26 of his P/B today in Turkey.
Makes sense. So HIIT and HIIT-related exercises should be on different days? Is a rest period of 24-48 hours needed in between as it is with strength training? I'm glad you brought up Tabata--- is that like the most superior version of HIIT for immense conditioning improvement?
So how would this be used on the heavy bag? Just 20 seconds of non-stop punching followed by 20 seconds of rest? Would this sacrifice form and boxing technique too much if doing this too much?
One way I do it, is to Tie the Back Foot to the Hook under the Bag. So your Jab is 3inch away extended, this is done with 15 mil elastic, keeps the Bag moving Fast you move and Punch, to the movement you create, not easy.
Depending on Fitness, and what you are trying to achieve, Governs what you do. Hit and Interval work we do, is Hard. So to prevent overdoing it, we have a hard Day, then a Day we call a Fun Day. Which consists of Technique, and Stretch, or Spar, depending as I say on the individual, and where they are as regards Fitness.
