Why Your HIIT Workout Is Actually Exhausting You (And What to Do Instead)
By Remi — You don't need a meal plan. You need someone who actually explains why. ·
The HIIT Obsession
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, 'Remi, can I just do 20 minutes of HIIT every day to get shredded?' I’d have enough to open a community kitchen in the heart of Toronto. Look, I get it. We are busy. We are tired. We want the biggest 'bang for our buck' in the shortest amount of time. HIIT—High-Intensity Interval Training—is marketed as the ultimate shortcut. It’s the 'hack' for people who don’t have time to spend an hour in the gym.
But here’s the thing: your body doesn’t care about your time-saving hacks as much as it cares about your nervous system. In my practice, I see so many people treating HIIT like a daily religion, only to find themselves burnt out, plateauing, or just dreading the very movement that’s supposed to make them feel better. Let’s talk about why your HIIT workout might be doing more harm than good, and how to use it properly.
It’s Not About How Hard You Go; It’s About Why You’re Going
When we talk about HIIT, we’re talking about anaerobic training. We’re pushing the body into a state where it can’t keep up with the oxygen demand. That’s a stressor—a big one. In a Haitian household, we understand that you can’t run a household, or a marathon, on pure adrenaline and stress. You need fuel, you need rest, and you need a foundation.
If you’re doing high-intensity intervals five days a week, you aren’t training; you’re just constantly digging a hole in your 'recovery bank.' If you don’t have the money in the bank (sleep, nutrition, lower-intensity movement), you end up in debt. That debt looks like chronic inflammation, elevated cortisol levels, and that feeling of being 'wired but tired.'
The Physiology of the 'Why'
True HIIT requires you to hit near-maximal effort. I’m talking about that 'I might see stars' level of intensity. Most people who say they are doing HIIT are actually doing 'moderately hard cardio.' If you’re jogging, then doing some jumping jacks, then jogging again, you’re likely just doing a circuit. That’s fine! But it’s not HIIT.
True HIIT demands a specific work-to-rest ratio. If you aren’t resting long enough to let your heart rate drop significantly before the next burst, you’re missing the point of the adaptation. The 'interval' part is the most critical. It’s in the recovery that your body actually builds the metabolic capacity to handle that intensity again. If you never recover, you never adapt. You just stay perpetually exhausted.
How to Actually Integrate HIIT Into Your Life
I’m not here to tell you to stop doing HIIT. I’m here to tell you to respect it. Think of HIIT like salt in a recipe. A little bit elevates the entire dish. Using too much? You’ve ruined the meal. Here is how I work with my athletes to make it sustainable:
1. Cap the Frequency: If you are doing true, max-effort HIIT, cap it at one, maybe two sessions a week. That is plenty. Anything more and you are likely sacrificing the quality of your other training sessions.
2. Prioritize the 'Rest' in Interval: If your work interval is 30 seconds of all-out effort, take at least 90 to 120 seconds of near-total rest. If you feel like you can hold a conversation during your work interval, you aren't working hard enough. If you feel like you can't recover during your rest, you are working too often.
3. Build the Foundation First: You cannot build a skyscraper on a swamp. If you aren't already doing some form of resistance training (lifting weights) or low-intensity steady-state cardio (walking, light cycling), don't start with HIIT. Build your aerobic base first. Your body needs to learn how to move efficiently before it learns how to move explosively.
4. Listen to the 'Off' Days: If you wake up and your resting heart rate is higher than usual, or you feel that specific kind of lethargy that won't go away, skip the HIIT. Swap it for a walk, a light stretch, or just extra rest. Your body is telling you the bank is empty.
Finding Joy in Movement
Food is love, and movement should be an expression of that love, not a punishment for what you ate or a desperate attempt to 'fix' your body. When we treat exercise like a chore or a brutal penance, we lose the connection to why we’re doing it. We want to be strong for our families, for our work, for our own longevity.
If you find yourself constantly 'crushing' yourself, ask yourself if you’re actually getting stronger, or just getting better at enduring discomfort. There’s a difference. True fitness is about resilience, not just how much sweat you can wring out of your shirt.
Stop chasing the 'burn' and start chasing the 'better.' You’ll find that when you respect the process, the results tend to stick around a lot longer.
What’s your current routine looking like, and how are you feeling at the end of the week? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear how you’re balancing the intensity. Let’s talk about it.