Is Your HIIT Workout Actually HIIT?
Why Variable-Intensity Training Deserves Its Own Name
HIIT has become one of the most overused terms in the fitness industry.
Scroll through the websites or social media of almost any gym, fitness retreat or training camp and you'll see the same promise: High-Intensity Interval Training.
The problem?
A lot of what is being advertised as HIIT isn't really HIIT at all.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
In many situations, what people are actually doing is better described as variable-intensity interval training — periods of harder and easier work where intensity naturally rises and falls according to the exercise, the individual and their level of fatigue.
That's still excellent training.
We just believe training should be described for what it actually is rather than choosing terminology because it sounds better in an advert.
What Does "High Intensity" Actually Mean?
The important word in HIIT isn't interval.
It's high.
Simply doing burpees quickly, hitting pads hard, swinging a kettlebell or becoming exhausted doesn't automatically make a session HIIT.
In a properly controlled HIIT workout, intensity needs to be sufficiently high during the work intervals, with recovery periods structured to allow repeated efforts at that level.
That creates an immediate problem in a normal group fitness environment:
How do you know whether everyone is actually working at the required intensity?
Two people can perform exactly the same exercise, for exactly the same length of time, and experience completely different physiological demands.
A 30-second exercise that pushes one person's heart rate close to their upper training range might barely challenge a highly conditioned athlete.
Conversely, asking a beginner to maintain the same relative workload as an experienced athlete could be completely inappropriate.
Heart Rate Changes the Picture
One of the most practical ways of monitoring cardiovascular intensity is heart rate.
If you want to prescribe genuinely high-intensity cardiovascular work with any precision, you ideally need some way of monitoring the individual's response rather than simply looking at them and deciding that they're working hard.
That can mean using heart-rate monitors and establishing appropriate individual training zones.
This is relatively straightforward with one athlete.
Now imagine doing it properly with 10, 20 or 30 people simultaneously.
Everyone has different fitness levels, maximum heart rates, recovery rates and training histories. The coach would need to monitor those differences throughout the workout and potentially adjust workloads accordingly.
For most commercial gyms and training camps, that's simply not practical.
And that's okay.
The problem isn't that they're not performing laboratory-controlled HIIT.
The problem is pretending that every difficult interval workout automatically qualifies as HIIT.
Hard Training and HIIT Aren't the Same Thing
This is an important distinction.
A workout can be extremely demanding without technically being HIIT.
Think about a circuit containing:
Battle ropes
Burpees
Kettlebell swings
Push-ups
Sprints
Medicine-ball work
Bodyweight exercises
Your intensity might be extremely high during one station, drop during another, rise again during the next exercise and gradually change as fatigue develops.
That's variable intensity.
And that isn't a criticism.
For many people, it's exactly what we want.
Why Variable-Intensity Training Can Be Excellent
Variable-intensity training allows us to combine cardiovascular conditioning, muscular endurance, strength, coordination and movement into the same workout.
It also reflects many sports far better than maintaining one predetermined cardiovascular intensity.
Combat sports are a perfect example.
A Muay Thai, boxing or MMA round isn't performed at one constant intensity.
You move.
You attack.
You defend.
You explode.
You recover.
You clinch.
You attack again.
The physiological demands constantly change.
So deliberately training the body's ability to operate across changing intensities can be incredibly valuable.
The same principle applies to general fitness.
Not everybody needs to spend every workout chasing their maximum heart rate.
The Fitness Industry Loves Buzzwords
Fitness marketing has always gone through trends.
A particular phrase becomes popular and suddenly everybody offers it.
HIIT became associated with workouts that were efficient, intense and effective, so the term started appearing everywhere.
Eventually, HIIT became shorthand for "a hard workout."
But those aren't necessarily the same thing.
If we're going to talk about intelligent training, terminology matters.
Not because we're trying to win an argument over definitions, but because people deserve to understand what they're actually doing and why they're doing it.
At Combat 360X, Intensity Has a Purpose
At Combat 360X, we're far more interested in the purpose of a training session than attaching fashionable terminology to it.
Sometimes we want you working extremely hard.
Sometimes we want controlled technical work.
Sometimes we want aerobic conditioning.
Sometimes we want explosive intervals.
And sometimes we deliberately want intensity moving up and down throughout the session.
Because harder isn't automatically better.
The right intensity depends on the person standing in front of us, their current fitness level and what they're trying to achieve.
Someone coming to us for weight loss and general fitness doesn't necessarily require the same conditioning structure as an experienced fighter preparing for competition.
That's why we believe training should be adapted to the individual rather than forcing everyone into the same fashionable training system.
Call Training What It Is
There's nothing wrong with HIIT.
There's also nothing wrong with variable-intensity interval training.
Both can be extremely effective when programmed appropriately.
But there's an important difference between the two.
If you're genuinely prescribing high-intensity intervals, there should be some meaningful way of determining whether the athlete is actually reaching the intended intensity.
If you're running a circuit where intensity naturally rises and falls according to the exercise and individual, that's perfectly legitimate training too.
You don't need to call everything HIIT to make it effective.
At Combat 360X, we'd rather explain why you're doing something, what it's designed to achieve and how it fits your goals.
Because good training isn't about using the catchiest terminology.
It's about using the right training, at the right intensity, for the right person.
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