HIIT, uphill interval running and cellulite

Part 1: HIIT / interval training and cellulite: the basics

HIIT / interval training and why uphill interval running is the best exercise for cellulite

Interval training (some versions of it also referred to as “high intensity interval training”, HIIT), is a type of cardiovascular exercise that involves bursts of high intensity training, alternated with periods of rest or low activity (intervals).

Interval training can consist of fast-slow running / swimming / cycling / rowing / exercise on the elliptical machine / exercises on a mat / other activities that can involve high intensity bursts of activity, interspersed with period of rest.

Most "active" sports are in essence interval training, e.g. basketball, football, rugby, water polo, hockey etc.

(This article is part of five that examine the relation between exercise and cellulite. The other four deal with “cellulite exercises”, spot cellulite reduction, fartlek training and vibration plate training.)

Why HIIT / interval training is the best type of cellulite workout

Interval training is by far the best form of exercise for cellulite reduction and prevention for three reasons:

1. This is because during the bursts of high intensity activity you burn calories very fast - much faster than you would with slow intensity work.

2. In addition, those bursts act as a shock on the endocrine system and boost your metabolism much more effectively than slow intensity exercise, so you continue to burn calories after your training session.

3. Furthermore, the extreme production of noradrenaline and adrenaline that occurs during sprinting has an immense effect on the fat tissue, stimulating it to not only release fat but, with time, to also burn fat itself (thermogenesis).

Interval running, in particular, additionally provides quite intense mechanical stimulation to the:

• fat cells (adipocytes)

• blood and lymph vessels

• collagen cells (fibroblasts)

…so it offers yet another benefit in terms of cellulite reduction.

The only exercise type that provides more mechanical stimulation than interval running is vibration plate training.

However, vibration training does not burn nearly as many calories as interval running does. But then again, nobody stops you from combining vibration training with interval training and get the most of the two best anti-cellulite forms of training.

Why should I do interval training instead of continuous high intensity exercise?

Studies have shown again and again that low intensity exercise, such as walking or slow running, is not particularly effective in reducing fat and cellulite, but it is easy, especially for unfit people.

On the other hand, high intensity training is fantastic for burning fat (including cellulite fat) but it can not be practised for prolonged periods of time by beginners.

Interval training offers the best of both worlds, giving even unfit people the opportunity to reap the benefits of high intensity exercise without the required mental discipline and advanced physical fitness.

In addition, interval training leaves you with a feeling of invigoration, instead of a feeling of exhaustion that prolonged high intensity activity may do. This is always a bonus if you are overworked and tired - like most people today.

Finally, interval training makes you much more motivated to train than continuous training, because when you interval-train you don't get bored: the sprints offer you a natural high (adrenaline rush), while the rest periods act as a reward (dopamine release) and provide you with a welcome distraction after the exertion of the sprints.

Furthermore, by varying the speed of the sprints, the length of the sprints, the rest periods and the overall amounts of sprint-rest cycles you can create a different workout everyday, beating boredom and tricking your body into working harder.

Spot cellulite reduction with interval training and a good cellulite cream or treatment

Due to the high amounts of noradrenaline that it releases, interval training is the perfect type of exercise to combine with anti-cellulite treatments and/or creams in order to focus the results of exercise on specific cellulite areas.

The way it works is as follows:

1. Noradrenaline, from the high intensity activity burst, triggers fat release

2. This is synergistically combined with the fat release caused by a good, concentrated anti-cellulite cream (think high amounts of forskolin, caffeine etc)

This means that the topical cellulite fat reduction (spot cellulite reduction) is much more pronounced on the area where the cream is applied than the little local fat reduction caused by exercise alone.

Interval training for four decades

I have personally been practising interval running for the last 40+ years now - among several other forms of training - and I can say that interval training is my favourite type of cardiovascular training. It’s much more fun than any other training, I never get bored and within one hour I am done and ready for the rest of my day.

Circuit training, being very similar to interval training, is my other favourite form of training, offering a mix of strength and cardiovascular conditioning.

What is the difference between classic interval training, HIIT and circuits?

• Classic interval training involves sprint running / cycling / swimming etc with breaks between sprints

• Circuits involve sets 5-8 different exercises, comprising of about 10-20 reps each, usually performed on a mat, with/without dumbbells, medicine balls etc and performed one after the other without rest. After finishing you have a rest for about 5 minutes and then repeat the cycle, up to a maximum of about 5 cycles. Circuits is a bit more endurance-like type of intense exercise.

• What most people call HIIT today is the same type of exercise previously known as circuits, but with rest in-between each exercise. Because of the rest periods, HIIT can involve more intense bursts of activity than circuits, so HIIT is a bit more sprinting-like type of intense exercise.

---

Part 2: How to do HIIT / interval training

How to beat cellulite with HIIT/interval training, based on interval running

In the previous section of this article I analysed why interval training is the best anti-cellulite exercise. On this section I am showing you how to perform interval training simply, effectively and safely as part of your anti-cellulite exercise regime.

Intervals are simple and fun, so you don't need a personal trainer - all you need is to get started now and then be creative along the way, devising your own interval training routines.

The information below is for interval running, but the same principles apply to interval rowing, interval swimming, interval cycling, interval training on the elliptical/cross trainer machine, HIIT etc.

Warming up (warm clothes and stretching are essential to avoid injuries - neglect them at your peril)

First off you start with a warm-up session consisting of 10 minutes of slow running.

The warming up is essential to avoid injuries, so neglect it at your peril. Warm clothes are also essential: when you sprint, your muscles must be warm at all times, otherwise injury is almost guaranteed (great business for the physiotherapist though).

Other injury prevention measures include:

• Running on grass or on the treadmill. Running on concrete is criminal for your joints and again, good business for the physio. Running on dirt road is a decent compromise.

• Running uphill which places less impact on knees and hips. However, this places more on calves and achilles tendon, so you need to stretch your calves well

• Wearing special running tights. For some people with patellar displacement there indispensable for knee stabilisation.

  Buying a pair of quality trainers. Don't even think of doing interval running with any other type of shoe than proper running shoes.

• And perhaps using shock absorption insoles to enhance your running shoes' shock absorption

After a 10-minute slow run you need to spend about 5 minutes stretching your legs. This will also help prevent injury, in addition to allowing you to rest and prepare for the exertion of the sprints.

There are quite a few theories that stretching is not necessary for running. Well, try to say that to any elite athlete and they will laugh at you. The physio will be happy though…

Finally, make sure you always carry some water with you and do not start your session hungry, to avoid hypoglycaemia.

On the other hand, eating for two hours before exercise is not recommended, as the deep breathing occurring during interval training may upset your stomach.

If you did not have time to eat properly 3-4 hours before training, you can have half a banana with some water just before exercise to give you an energy boost and some minerals without overfilling your stomach.

Main interval session

After stretching you are ready for action.

A typical sprinting-rest routine for beginners involves 30" of sprinting, followed by 90" of slow walking (for beginners recovery time should be about 3x times longer than sprinting time).

Alternatively, you can sprint for about 150 metres and then walk back slowly to your starting position. The time it takes you to walk back to the starting position will be just about the right amount of rest, which should take about 3x times the sprinting time.

Typical sprint/rest combinations are:

• Time-wise:

  • 30" fast sprint + 90" slow jog/walk (two minute cycle)

  • 1' moderate sprint + 3' slow jog/walk (four minute cycle)

• Distance-wise:

  • 150m of fast sprint+ 150m of slow walk back

  • 200m of moderate sprint + 200m of slow walk back

  • 300m of moderate sprint + 300m of slow walk back

Intensity/duration of sprints and recovery periods

Anything below 30" of sprinting does not allow your heart rate to increase considerably, unless you are very fit and can run really fast. Anything more than one minute of sprint is also not suitable if you are an amateur, as you will be too exhausted after one minute of sprinting.

Recovery periods should consist of very slow jogging or slow walking - never standing or sitting down - to allow for lactic acid removal and to reduce the possibility of dizziness.

If you sprint really fast you will need to take more time recovering, i.e. you will need to walk back to the starting position at a slower pace, in order to recover sufficiently (maybe you can have 4x times more recovery time than sprinting time).

Alternatively, you may choose to sprint less fast, in which case you will have to allow less recovery time, i.e. you will have to walk faster towards the starting position (perhaps 2x times more recovery time than sprinting time).

However, I do not recommend beginners to sprint so fast that they need 4x times more recovery time than sprinting time, as such excessive exertion may lead a beginner to dizziness or cause an injury.

And I do not not recommend sprinting very slowly combined with recovery time of less than 2x times the sprinting time, as this does not allow a big enough fast/slow contrast.

Of course, trying to be "too smart" by sprinting fast and resting little, in order to have faster results, is not recommended, as it will only lead to early exhaustion and slower sprints / lower quality workout - and definitely not faster results.

Number of sprint/recovery cycles to be repeated

Repeat those sprint-rest cycles 6 to 12 times, according to your fitness and energy levels.

Your main interval training session (without warming up and cooling down and stretches) should last anything between 12' (6x two-minute cycles) and 48' (12x two-minute cycles). Less is not efficient enough, while more is definitely too much.

Remember, if you're tired it is better to do a short workout made up of only 6x short sprint-interval cycles, than going home to watch TV and wait for the perfect day with the huge energy levels that will allow you to do 12x long sprint-interval cycles.

Let your heart rate monitor be your personal trainer

If you want to know whether you sprint too fast or too slow, or whether you rest too much or too little, you can assess your heart rate with a heart rate monitor, or by checking your pulse by gently pressing your thumb on the carotid artery (found just either side of your throat).

A heart rate at the end of the sprint of 160 beats per minute (bpm) is ideal for a 30 year old person (~85% of maximum heart rate), while a heart rate of 115 bpm is great after the end of the recovery period, for the same person (~60% of maximum heart rate).

Older people can do with slightly slower heart rates, for example a 50-year old should aim for 145 bpm after the end of the sprint and 105 bpm after the end of the recovery period.

Anything lower is less effective, whilst anything faster may be too much for your system. Of course, these numbers are relative, as some people have a much higher maximum heart rate than average and some much lower, but statistically, these are the average recommended heart rates.

How to measure your heart rate without a heart rate monitor

If you assess your heart rate with the thump/carotid method, you don't need to take your pulse for 60 seconds - 10 seconds are more than enough. All you need to do is divide the beats per minute stated above by 6.

So, for a 30-year old person, ~27 beats per 10 seconds are ideal immediately after the sprint, and ~17 beats per 10 seconds are great at the end of the recovery period and immediately before the next sprint.

Athletes normally do 28-31 beats/10" post-sprint (equivalent to 168-186 bpm) and 21 beats/10” post-recovery period (equivalent to 126 bpm), but that is not advised for beginners.

Stretching and cooling down are essential for injury prevention and for lactic acid removal from your muscles

As the title suggests, you must follow EVERY interval training routine with 5 more minutes of stretching and 10 more minutes of slow jogging, to enable your body to adjust to normal life smoothly and to help remove lactic acid from your muscles.

Again, neglect the cooling down session and you might find yourself feeling dizzy or getting injured sooner than you’d expect.

How often can I do interval training?

Interval training is what we call high quality workout, meaning that it pushes your body further than normal steady pace cardiovascular training (i.e. steady-state running, swimming, cycling etc).

However, this also means that you need to allow a longer recovery period between each workout, so doing interval running every day is definitely not recommended.

In fact, interval training is ideal if performed once or twice a week, with other workouts, such as continuous running (or cycling, swimming etc.), circuits, resistance training (weights) etc. filling the rest of your training week.

After doing a few interval training sessions and attempt to do steady pace CV training you will realise just how boring steady pace CV training is. However, steady pace training has its own benefits - one of them being a nice "filler" between interval training sessions in your training week.

Rest periods are important in interval training

Remember, with interval training the trick is not to have very little rest or run fast on the recovery period, as that will lead to either slower speed during the sprinting period or to early exhaustion (and fainting for some amateurs).

This will transform the interval training to a continuous running session with just small variations in speed, which is not called interval training any more and defies the whole point.

If you were an elite athlete who can do high intensity interval training with very little recovery without fainting, you would not have cellulite in the first place.

The trick for the rest of us is to run very fast and then jog very slowly.

Very important

Please ask for doctor’s permission before engaging on any high intensity exercise.

Make the most of your interval training to beat cellulite fast

You can combine the ultimate anti-cellulite training with a suitable anti-cellulite treatment, such as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation, taken immediately before or after interval training, in order to focus the fat loss produced by your interval training session on your cellulite.

You can also achieve the same effect by applying a concentrated, multi-active ingredient anti-cellulite cream immediately before and/or after your exercise session.

As mentioned above, the intense noradrenaline production during interval training encourages fat release from fat cells, thereby creating the perfect biochemical environment for a good anti-cellulite treatment or cream to work. 

---

Part 3: Interval training variations: SMIT, plyometrics, interval step climbing, fartlek and uphill interval running

Interval step climbing

A great variation of uphill interval running involves climbing up steps fast for 20” or 30" and then stepping down to your starting point slowly for 60” or 90".

The same rules about stretching / warming up / cooling down apply, as above.

Fartlek training - an even more playful type of interval training that is ideal for cellulite reduction

After a few sessions of interval training you will be able to create your own routine, with shorter or faster sprint/recovery times and less or more interval cycles per workout. 

If you get bored of intervals you can also try fartlek training. Fartleks have nothing to do with passing wind or other discomfort - fartlek means "speed play" in Swedish.

 Fartlek training involves the random change of pace while running - anything from sprinting to walking, with random and continuous change of speed every few seconds during your 20-40 minute routine. Spinning classes and most sports (basketball, football etc) can also be categorised as fartleks, and are great for fast fat loss.

For more detailed analysis click here.

Have you heard of SMIT (Supramaximal interval Training) yet?

If you thought faster forms of HIIT may be a bit demanding for your heart, muscle or joints, well, then SMIT / supramaximal interval training (aka supramaximal exercise training) is definitely not for you.

As the name suggests, with SMIT you go above your maximum 100% exercise intensity. How is this possible, you might think? Well, it is. Imagine you cycle really fast down a hill and then cycle as fast as you can on a steep incline at the bottom of the hill - that's supramaximal. You could never achieve this intensity on a level road.

How can you apply this at the gym? Simple. Go on the exercise bike, cycle as fast as you can and then, while you cycle super-fast at your maximum intensity, suddenly increase the bike resistance by two-three notches and keep cycling for 30 seconds. Then rest for 3-4 minutes.

Plyometrics: a form of SMIT

Another application of SMIT is plyometrics.

Get some heavy dumbbells, jump off a 3-foot high bench and on hitting the ground do a deep squat and quickly bounce back up again. Repeat a few times.

That's the simplest form of plyometrics and if done with really heavy weights it's also SMIT.

SMIT can be a recipe for disaster for amateurs

Do both types of supramaximal interval training training sound as a recipe for disaster for you?

Yes, they are a disaster for anyone except the very fit types. You know, those ones with great strength, flexibility and cardiovascular conditioning. SMIT is not for the faint-hearted and although it gives you generally better results than HIIT, the risk to joint health or muscle injury is not worth it.

Milder forms of HIIT are for the masses, intense HIIT is for the fitter ones among the masses and SMIT is for the very fit.

But I doubt any very fit women would be reading this post, because they most probably wouldn't have cellulite in the first place anyway.

So no matter what the magazine hype will say in the next few months and years (SMIT is a new kid on the block for anyone except competitive athletes), save your joints and just do a milder or more intensive version of HIIT or some nice playful fartleks instead.

Or do some uphill interval training, which will test your cardiovascular system and boost your metabolism, without injuring your joints or muscles.

Uphill interval running: the ultimate anti-cellulite exercise

For the ultimate in interval training, why don't you try uphill interval training, after a few weeks of normal interval training?

An ideal uphill interval running for beginners can be 100m uphill sprinting followed by 100m of walking down to the starting point very, very slowly. 150m and 200m sprints are also great, but not suggested for beginners.

Or, if you run on a treadmill, you can walk/run uphill, at full inclination (usually 10º or 15º inclination), for about a minute and then take about three minutes of recovery time comprising very slow uphill walk/jog.

Uphill running is safer for your knees than normal running, as a lot of impact is absorbed by the foot/leg tendons - not the knees - but places more strain on your achilles tendon, so make sure you stretch your calves comprehensively before and after running uphill.

How to perform uphill interval running to beat cellulite fast

As mentioned above, uphill interval training is the strongest anti-cellulite exercise available and can simply be performed as follows:

• All interval running training must always be preceded and followed by 10’ of jogging and 5' of stretching to avoid injury. For the same purpose, make sure you wear warm clothing on your legs.

• The actual training is very simple: just pick a hill and sprint uphill for 30’, followed by 90’ of very slow downhill jogging to your starting point

• Repeat this cycle 10-12 times and you have an amazing 20’ - 24’ high quality interval training session

• On a treadmill, set the elevation to 10-15º and sprint for one minute followed by three minutes of very slow walking. The longer sessions on the treadmill are necessary to avoid fiddling with the controls too often (unlike free running, the treadmill takes some time to increase/decrease its speed). In this case, just 5-6 cycles will be enough, as the sprinting sessions are longer and you will still do 20’ - 24’ of quality training.

• Of course, if your treadmill allows you to program your workout, the 30” / 90” interval time is ideal.

---

Part 4: Interval training: the science

Study reveals why interval training is so effective, especially for non-fit people

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become popular because it is a time-efficient way to increase endurance.

An intriguing and so-far-unanswered question is how a few minutes of HIIT can be that effective. New research has now shown that interval training (as little as 10 sets of 30" full-intensity cycling alternated by 4' of rest between sets, i.e. 8x more rest than sprint!) causes free radical damage on a muscle cell protein called ryanodine receptor 1 (RyR1).

This ultimately causes "mitochondrial biogenesis", i.e. the creation of new mitochondria (mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, the place where most of cell energy production occurs).

Simply put: high intensity interval training > more mitochondria > more energy production > more fitness.

As these changes depend on free radical damage, taking antioxidants (such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, CoQ10, Alpha Lipoic Acid, polyphenols etc.) stops this process, and this has been proven experimentally.

So practically you should not take antioxidants one day before, on the same day and one day after doing HIIT training. Furthermore these adaptations to HIIT did not occur on elite athletes, because they are fully adapted to high intensity training due to their daily gruelling training regime.

This practically means that interval training is ideal for unfit or moderately fit people. The only limitation is that you need to have generally good cardiovascular health (interval training is not a good idea for people with cardiovascular problems, as high intensity training puts a lot of pressure on the heart and may lead to too high or too low blood pressure).

---

Ryanodine receptor fragmentation and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ leak after one session of high-intensity interval exercise)

• Research paper link: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1507176112

• Abstract: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become popular because it is a time-efficient way to increase endurance. An intriguing and so-far-unanswered question is how a few minutes of HIIT can be that effective. We exposed recreationally active men to one session of three to six sets of 30-s high-intensity cycling exercise. Muscle biopsies taken 24 h later showed an extensive fragmentation of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ channels, the ryanodine receptor 1 (RyR1). In isolated mouse muscle fibers, this fragmentation was accompanied by increased SR Ca2+ leak, which can trigger mitochondrial biogenesis. The HIIT-induced RyR1 fragmentation did not occur in muscles exposed to antioxidant, which offers an explanation for why antioxidants blunt effects of endurance training. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a time-efficient way of improving physical performance in healthy subjects and in patients with common chronic diseases, but less so in elite endurance athletes. The mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of HIIT are uncertain. Here, recreationally active human subjects performed highly demanding HIIT consisting of 30-s bouts of all-out cycling with 4-min rest in between bouts (≤3 min total exercise time). Skeletal muscle biopsies taken 24 h after the HIIT exercise showed an extensive fragmentation of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release channel, the ryanodine receptor type 1 (RyR1). The HIIT exercise also caused a prolonged force depression and triggered major changes in the expression of genes related to endurance exercise. Subsequent experiments on elite endurance athletes performing the same HIIT exercise showed no RyR1 fragmentation or prolonged changes in the expression of endurance-related genes. Finally, mechanistic experiments performed on isolated mouse muscles exposed to HIIT-mimicking stimulation showed reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS)-dependent RyR1 fragmentation, calpain activation, increased SR Ca2+ leak at rest, and depressed force production due to impaired SR Ca2+ release upon stimulation. In conclusion, HIIT exercise induces a ROS-dependent RyR1 fragmentation in muscles of recreationally active subjects, and the resulting changes in muscle fiber Ca2+-handling trigger muscular adaptations. However, the same HIIT exercise does not cause RyR1 fragmentation in muscles of elite endurance athletes, which may explain why HIIT is less effective in this group.