When to Add HIIT?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Due to family and work commitments, the only time I can consistently lift is early mornings. I drink half of my PWO shake as soon as I get up and am usually starting my workout within 20-30 minutes. I then finish the PWO shake, shower, eat breakfast, and head off to work.

I do full body workouts three times per week, and have been doing 20-30 minutes of fasted LISS cardio on the opposite days.

I want to start doing HIIT (I’ve read a ton of articles here and from other sources), but part of what I’ve read says that doing HIIT in a fasted state “will chew through muscle”.

So the questions are:

  • Is the 1/2 PWO shake prior to the workout enough to prevent catabolism if I did HIIT in the morning, or would that still be considered fasted?

  • Should I continue my three days of fasted LISS in the morning and add 2-3 sessions of HIIT at some other time? (I may be able to carve out 2-3 evenings/nights a week to to this.)

  • If I do evenings, would it be better to do it on the same day as my workout (13-14 hours after), or the evening before my next workout (10-11 hours prior).

Current stats: 44 years old, 6’, 165 lbs, ~15% BF, been working out consistently for 3+ years. I want to get down to ~10% BF, then try to add more LBM while keeping fat under control. Before I get bombarded with “BULK!” replies, I saw the rerun of Cole Miller vs. Junie Browning the other night, and thought “If he can look like that at 6’1” / 155, then I can probably look pretty decent at my development level if I cut some fat". I’ll resume gaining after I get some more definition.

2

[quote]nkb1964 wrote:
, 6’, 165 lbs, ~15% BF, [/quote]

I know you want to be “ripped” but you just dont have the muscle mass to do it. Eat more, lift heavier, drop the cardio ALL TOGETHER and you’ll be on the right track. Cardio is for panzies or guys that are overweight. YOU DEFINATELY AREN’T OVERWEIGHT. You can lift weight and do supersets, or circuits and get a much better workout than you are ever going to get spending 20 minutes on the treadmill. And at your weight HIIT would be the worst thing you could do.

Sure you can say "at 6’ 155 he looked great, so at 6’ 165 i’ll look even better, but at 6’ 175 think how much better you’ll look. Adding muscle is going to make cutting so much easier and the end result will be way better. Otherwise, by the time you are cut enough to see your muscles, you are going to be 140lbs and look like a 12 year old.

Hope this helps.

3

I agree. You will just look like you’re malnourished…you’re currently only carrying 140 lbs of lean mass…it would be one thing if you were 5 feet tall, but at 6 foot, my height, you would just look silly. Work on getting stronger and putting on some muscle first. My two cents.

4

I always added some HIIT when my bitch starts acting up.

Usually works. Good luck.