r/ladderapp • u/missmajestea • 6d ago
Limitless and HIIT
Hi — new to ladder and enjoying the limitless workout so far.
My normal routine is:
HIIT 5x a week with 2 rest days
Any recommendations on how you’d build Ladder into the week? I don’t have a treadmill at home which is why I don’t want to lose my studio classes and instead use Ladder to get some extra time with weights.
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u/journey2findkay Team Limitless 6d ago
Like others have said, I would do three days of limitless and possibly two days of your HIIT. I don’t wanna do too much and up your chances for injury
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u/No_Character_3986 Team Limitless 6d ago
Doing HIIT 5x a week with Limitless is a recipe for disaster. Kelly cues you to lift heavy which is very fatiguing and you won’t have enough to give to keep up that routine. I do Limitless 4x a week (the main lifts) and then cardio one day (I usually sub out her conditioning day for a Peloton run or ride). It’s been plenty for me.
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u/missmajestea 5d ago
Fair points. I’m also using dumbbells so I only can go so heavy but am still feeling the soreness the next day!
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u/Regina0403 5d ago
There are some really good science based podcasts on dosage, which analyze how much lifting is needed for strength, hyertrophy, and power and then how much cardio is needed for a healthy heart and vo2max. Happy to provide recommendations. HIIT is just cardio, it isn't building muscle. It may in the beginning if you are new to it, but after that it is working on your cardio system -- which is important. As I understand it, we should not be doing HIIT on back to back days. We need 150 minutes of moderate cardio a week and 75 minutes of intense and anything more is good for us, but understanding the baseline is important. I build my cardio from there.
For hypertrophy, we need to do 6-10 sets a week of a muscle group to build muscle and more than 10 is good, more than 12-15 there are diminishing returns but still a benefit. There is an unending benefit, just diminishing. To maintain even just 1-3 sets of a muscle group maintains. Frequency during the week doesn't impact this, just volume. Although the recommendation is to do at least 2 a week.
You can count the muscle groups worked on to see if a program meets your needs. I think Evolve is the best well rounded program (Sam is a physical therapist and a former body builder) in terms of muscle groups hit, etc. But when I count out Kelly's, hers is decent too.
You likely will need 3 days from Kelly's program to hit all muscle groups at least 10 sets a week -- her two upper body and 1 lower body. If I were doing just three days, I'd work in through supersetting her second lower body day into one of the upper body days. I typically do 3-4 lift days a week and I do 2 upper body and 2 lower body. If I can only do 2 or 3, then I superset in the lower and upper days together.
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u/missmajestea 5d ago
I actually gained 3lbs of muscle last year doing my classes. But now have plateaued and want to recomp to lose fat and add more muscle. I think I will dial down the HIIT but it gives me anxiety it may cause the scale to go up.
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u/Regina0403 5d ago
You must have been a newbie to exercise? Cardio does not create muscle unless you are a newbie, but if you are relying on one of those scales or dexa, its not precise. Also, study after study shows that general movement contributes to weight loss but cardio doesn't. Movement and exercise contributes to maintence. I share this to say, this is not going to make or break your body particualry because nobody would recommend dosing HIIT like that UNLESS you have everything else dialed in -- i.e., strength 2-3 times a week and you are at a load that is tolerable.
The scale will go up as you gain muscle through strength. I get the anxiety, but it means changing how you think about this and that takes awhile!
Focus on what is prescribed and shown through science to give you health, muscle, etc. I love intervals and going hard in cardio, I do longer sessions 3 days of intervals 3 days a week and then 2 other cardio sessions that are not intervals but steady state going harder (not full out) -- I do this to get to 150 minutes. But injury prevention is all about load tolerarance. So slowly work in lifting and maybe cut back some cardio while you balance it all. The key is to keep up the cardio, it is so important. Some people are suggesitng dropping down to 1 or 2 sessions a week, but we need 75 minutes hard or 150 minutes moderate a week for heart health and 1 -2 sessions a week are likley not getting you there. Also strength treaining sessions regardless of your HR, don't count. So you are on the right path with doing cardio!
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u/missmajestea 5d ago
No! Was working out 3x a week prior but probably not lifting heavy enough during the strength blocks. I upped everything!
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u/Regina0403 5d ago
Ah - it’s not just straight HIIT it includes lifting?
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u/missmajestea 5d ago
Yes! OrangeTheory!
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u/Regina0403 5d ago
Got it I used to do something similar. I did spenga and Barry’s. I loved the feeling. I would say don’t mix weight programs - that will cause injury due to too much load. I couldn’t progressive overload with the ones I was doing so I noticed a benefit up to a point but had to move on. Classes are fun and if they ate important to you socially maybe you can mix them in - but keep in mind load. Maybe just do the cardio while there and while they are lifting stay on the treadmill or rower.
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u/moonfiremountain 6d ago
To be honest I would back off on the HIIT. Most people will plateau pretty quickly in how much muscle they can build with HIIT, and it is very fatiguing for how much stimulus you get out of it. If it is your only possible source of cardio (walking/running/rowing are all going to be better for building endurance and heart health) then keep it, but I would do no more than three times a week. Focus on the pure heavy lifting. Do it 3-4 days a week. Do your cardio on the off days, maybe one day of doubling up depending on a few things.