Hi Everyone! Thanks for your comments. I always appreciate your feedback. I see Chris has already provided some explanation earlier in this thread and I will just add some further friendly explanation to some of the newer comments that were brought up regarding his response. My responses are the bolded responses.
Regarding the response: "I totally agree with that, but Low Impact HiiT 1 & 2 are cardio/metabolic-endurance workouts".
I need to clarify that Low Impact Hit and Plyo HiiT 1 & 2 are NOT endurance workouts, they are high intensity interval workouts. Interval workouts will not follow a steady state cadence because steady state cadences generally reflect an endurance workout. Hence the reason for the fluctuation in speed throughout the Low Impact Hiit workouts. I agree the Dixie Cup shuffle feels great when done to the beat (which I have done to the beat in some of my other workouts) but when they ARE done to the beat they become steady state and no longer reflect the high intensity interval effect that Low Impact Hiit 1 & 2 workouts promise to deliver in 20 minutes.
Regarding the response: "If we aren't moving to the music, there is dissonance: disturbance, a lack of symmetry between what we hear and what we do. At this point, through all the years we have all faithfully exercised to DVDs at home, we are all so trained to coordinate our action to a set beat, whether lifting or jumping, that a beat that is too fast or too slow creates a further complication for the brain which is trying to coordinate physical effort and agility. Personally, an excess of sensory input that does not align simply causes frustration and migraines, not runner's high and euphoria."
Hiit workouts are all about shock training and taking the body out of the comfort zone to provide an increased metabolic response. Hiit workouts are not about finding the harmony in a workout. While I agree that the workouts you mentioned above have their balanced and euphoric place (and I LOVE LOVE LOVE those workouts too), Hiit workouts are all about changing things up and creating an atmosphere of muscle confusion for the body so it has a hard time adapting. Once the body adapts and finds a comfort zone in a workout the results will not be as impacting as they once were. So in the case of Low Impact Hiit 1 & 2 drastic change is a good thing. Especially when you want the best metabolic reaction for your body in 20 minutes or less.
Regarding the response: When I run, walk, bike, or rollerblade, I create playlists with faster and slower tempo music that motivates me to go faster & keep on the beat for the length of a song. When a slower song comes on it allows active cardiovascular recovery and I just focus on moving with the beat so I don't go too slow. That makes my brain and body feel good.
This mentioned format is definitely a nice format for a basic interval workout. But there is a big difference between matching movement to music in a DVD Hiit workout with rapid exercise changes verses matching movement to music for when you run, walk or rollerblade. The main reason being that in varied exercise Hiit workouts, everyone's body fatigues at a different speed at about 30 t0 40 seconds into the movement. Therefore participants will start to slow down at different times making it impossible to provide a tempo to match a movement. The only way I could match the move to the music would be to create an exercise that kept a steady doable cadence for the duration of the movement which now puts the workout in an endurance category verses an high intensity interval category. Even if I could do this (which I couldn't) each exercise is so short in duration the playlist wouldn't even allow for a song since no song is 60 seconds in length. Speeding up or slowing down the same song would sound so annoying that it would be distracting and not enhance the workout. You might be saying that the current way is equally distracting to the workout but trust me you would prefer the way I have it vs the speed up or slow down method of one song. If you truly want short music segments to match the varied exercise movements consider using my original Boot Camp workout which was designed to do this. I didn't use that format for the Low ImpactHiit workouts because the 20 minute format and exercise selections that I chose didn't make sense to do so.
Regarding the response: Maybe it's because I workout on carpet that I feel can not do some of the movements of this workout at the same off tempo speed as Cathe, or maybe my brain does not want to move that fast when the music beat is slower. Most of this workout was off tempo, so why not just use faster tempo music? Others seem to recognize this too:
I addressed this in my answer above when I said when doing varied exercise Hiit workouts, everyone's body fatigues at a different speed at about 30 t0 40 seconds into the movement. Therefore participants will start to slow down at different times making it impossible to provide a tempo to match a movement.
You will find that most "all out" HiiT workouts nearly always ignore the beat. I try to match the exercise to the music whenever possible, but some exercises are just more beneficial when done a little faster (or even slower ie: explosive alternating side lunges with a weight) than the beat and therefore its best to let the music motivate you - not guide you.
I hope this helps
