HIIT or LISS during a 1g test blast, which one actually keeps the leanness without crushing recovery?

[Jock]

On 1g test for this blast and trying to keep the body fat in check without wrecking my lifting. Ive always done steady state but a couple of guys at my gym swear by HIIT for staying lean on cycle. My worry is the sprint work eating into recovery when im already pushing heavy 5 days a week. For the guys running a proper blast, do you stick to LISS or fit HIIT in, and if you do how many sessions before it starts hurting your lifts. Dont want to be doing cardio that just leaves me flat under the bar.

[Beantown Rick]

On a gram of test I'd keep it mostly steady state. HIIT pulls from the same recovery you want going into your heavy sessions, run it 3 or 4 times a week and your lifting is the thing that suffers. Steady state at 130 to 140bpm for 30 to 45 min, 4 or 5 times a week, barely touches your recovery and the calorie burn is predictable. If you really want some HIIT keep it to 1 or 2 short sessions on your off days. Honestly though the leanness comes from the diet, plenty of lads obsess over which cardio while running a sloppy diet and end up the same nowhere either way.

[GODZILLA]

Good discussion here. For most guys on a heavy blast the steady state is the safer bet, it keeps the conditioning without eating into your lifting recovery. If you do want the HIIT in there, keep it to one or two short sessions a week and put them on your off days.

[CapeTown CT]

On a gram of test I would keep the bulk of it steady state, 130 to 140 bpm for 40 minutes 4 or 5 times a week, it barely touches your recovery and you still lift heavy the next day. HIIT pulls from the same nervous system bandwidth as your big lifts, run 3 or 4 sessions of it on top of proper training and your numbers start going backwards. If you want the metabolic hit keep one or two short HIIT sessions a week, 15 to 20 minutes on a light or off day, and leave it there. Truth is on a blast the leaning out is coming from the diet anyway, get the food dialled in and the cardio choice barely matters.

[TEXMEX]

You're overthinking the cardio when the diet is what actually leans you out on a blast. I run steady state at 135bpm for 40 mins 4-5 times a week and it does the job without touching my lifting recovery the next day. If you want HIIT keep it to one or two short sessions on off days, three plus a week on top of heavy training is where my numbers in the gym start dropping. Get the food dialled in first, then the HIIT vs LISS thing barely matters.

[BIGDADDY]

Diet first. Cardio is for the heart not the leanness. Anyone telling you otherwise has not actually been lean.

[Jock]

Honestly the practical answer is steady state 4-5x a week at 130-140 bpm, plus one short HIIT session on a non-lifting day if you want to mix it up. That covers the calorie burn without eating into recovery on a 1g blast. But the bigger point is your diet does most of the work here, you can pick either cardio style and the leaning out won't happen if the food is sloppy. Dial that in first, then the cardio choice is just preference.