Do you see anything wrong with trying HIIT in the pool? I was thinking of trying lap sprinting (regular crawl stroke) alternating with slower breaststroke - using the same work ratios of course. It’s harder to find a place nearby to sprint, so was wondering if swimming would be worth it. Speaking of sprinting, could you go a bit into the specifics of your sprint workouts, or point me to where you’ve gone into it before. Whatever you feel is important to know would be helpful if I do find a track. Thanks in advance…
If you are an advanced swimmer, I don’t see a problem with doing HIIT in a pool.
I just sprint right outside of my house...anywhere where there is some open land is a good place to sprint...an empty parking lot, a road without a great deal of trafic, etc.
The 12 min workout can be found on my cardio page: www.tcnj.edu/~marion4
Berardi spoke of his HIIT workouts in his Winning Formula articles, so check them out too.
Sometimes I just like going out and running 50-75 yards as hard as I can, walk back, and then repeat 12-15 times. It doesn't have to be complicated; a hard, intense workout will serve you well however you do it. Just stick with the overlying principle of incoporating periods of high intensity followed by low intensity and you should be fine.
-JM
Here is a great HIIT pool workout that I’ve done off and on when I have access to a good pool around 3.5-4 feet deep.
Freestyle swim as fast as possible (1 length)
Forward sprint as fast as possible (1 length)
Forward walk at a slow/moderate pace (l length)
Backward walk at a slow/moderate pace (1 length)
Repeat 10-15 times.
This is a very demanding workout that will really tax your system and it works out to be about a 1:3 work:recovery ratio. Overall a favorite workout of mine on hot days or when my legs are sore and I don't want to do typically land based cardio.