If it’s the kind of exercise you enjoy, then a bit of HIIT can certainly form a part of your overall exercise plan.
But.
If you’re doing HIIT several times a week and it’s the main part – or the entirety – of your workout plan, then it might be worth considering making a change.
I would argue that repeatedly doing HIIT sessions is likely not optimal for your body, especially over the longer term.
Often, doing HIIT regularly leads to injuries. This might be caused by simply doing too many repetitive, explosive movements too often; or perhaps a slip in technique when you’re tired. Both of these common routes to injury are more likely if your strength and mobility is below par too.
And injury risk aside, then the stress load on our bodies can be increased significantly with regular, intense workouts. Most of us have pretty stressful lives even before adding intense workouts into the mix. Stress management is increasingly talked about these days, which is awesome, because too much stress messes with our hormones and can make it hard to lose weight, regardless of the calorie deficit you’re in.
The trouble with us humans is that we believe that because some is good, more must be better – and with exercise (actually, perhaps with most things!) this isn’t true.
Of course it is healthy to exercise and get out of breath. But repeatedly doing that to full intensity will backfire at some stage.
But, if you really genuinely enjoy HIIT sessions, then you can include them as part of your workout routine.
Perhaps once a week is a good place to begin, and see how you feel over the next two weeks. Then, you could add a second session and give it a couple of weeks while you monitor the effects. You can continue to add sessions in this way while keeping an eye out for changes in your energy levels, your sleep quality, the ease with which you’re progressing towards your goals and your overall mood. If things start to head in the wrong direction in these areas, it’s probably a sign you need to back peddle a little as you’re doing more than your body is able to recover from – and powering through any more will start to produce backwards progress.