Hello all,

I started doing 5/3/1 this week to gain strength and possibly recomposition and have been pleasantly surprised with how much weight I have been able to move at this point. I'm either getting stronger or I've set my training maxes WAY too light :).

Now to the question - the times I've done HIIT cardio on a self-propelled treadmill I've been on a cycle of walk two minutes and run one minute for 30 minutes. On this particular treadmill I walk at around 3-3.5 mph and "run" (for some of you my run might be a slow jog) at 5-5.5 mph.

Am I doing things wrong? Too little? Too much?

Thanks.

PS macros accoding to the calculator on this site in case folks ask:

BMR CALCULATION

Weight : 174 Pounds

Height : 5 Feet 9 Inch

Age : 51

Exercises : Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week

Sex : Male

BMR at Rest : 1679.52

BMR in Motion : 2603.26

MACRO CALCULATION

Goal : Lean Muscle Gain

Bodyfat % : 12

Grams of Protein : 1

Grams of Fat : 0.45

Calorie Goal : 2853

Protien Intake Goal : 155

Fat Intake Goal : 70

Carbohydrate Intake Goal : 401

BMR CALCULATION

Weight : 174 Pounds

Height : 5 Feet 9 Inch

Age : 51

Exercises : Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week

Sex : Male

BMR at Rest : 1679.52

BMR in Motion : 2603.26

MACRO CALCULATION

Goal : Maintain

Bodyfat % : 12

Grams of Protein : 1

Grams of Fat : 0.45

Calorie Goal : 2603

Protien Intake Goal : 153

Fat Intake Goal : 69

Carbohydrate Intake Goal : 343

Trying to live in between these two areas - not sure which one to commit to.

Hello,

This seems like a good start. As far as your HIIT goes, gauge your intensity by how it feels to you. The straight up mph on the treadmill doens't matter as much as how it feels to you. If you are just starting HIIT or getting back into HIIT after a long abscence start with a smaller difference between the low intensity and high intensity intervals i.e. low intensity interval =20-30% effort, high intesntiy interval=70-80% effort. For the high intensity interval you should not be able to get out more than 2 or 3 words without having to stop and take a breath. Hope that help!

HIIT is about giving your "all" in the burst phase, so as already said above, it's not so much about the speed info on the t-mill, but how it feels to you. It needs to feel like you are giving it all and you should be huffing and puffing in the slowdown phase.

I'd actually shorten the bursts a bit. like 20-30 seconds fullblast (and here i mean FULL effort) and 60 -90 seconds rest. That way you have better bursts and more intensity.

I also would probably not do it 30 minutes long. Rather for about 10-15 minutes, when you power full out in the burst phase that amount of time is already challenging enough. Especially when you do that on every workout day before? after? your workouts.

HIIT is also less about a long time opposed to slowpace cardio, but rather about setting high impulses in short intervals.

Doing too much cardio or too much conditioning (HIIT) can also be a problem when you want to work on your strength. Too much cardio or too much conditioning can negatively impact your strength gain and your nervous system and muscles are too pumped out and fatigued.

so you need to plan this a bit more wisely :) Shorter but more intense HIIT, or just once or twice per week.

And keep the initial power you have for the strength training first. =)

 I am a volume queen and transition to strength phases have tought me a lot no-no's i'll glady share with you ^^