Maybe wrong place to ask, but is there guidance based on modern evidence on what makes a workout "high intensity", and how to structure a routine of them without leading to over-training or injury, especially for people who have excess fat?
I row and cycle casually.
Most of the ostensibly-evidence-based, in-vogue advice that I hear is to do a large volume of work (1-2 hours per day) at between 65% and 80% of maximum heart rate -- not very high intensity. This same advice recommends a very limited amount of work (1-2 hours per week at most, or even none at all!) at any intensities above that.
You see this all over /r/rowing ("steady state"), and on the Science of Ultra podcast (discontinued but has lots of pragmatic advice distilled from research). [0] The low-intensity, high-volume approach was actually pioneered in 1970s East Germany. [1]
That advice is mostly intended to help already-healthy people get fitter, but I'd be surprised if the science would lead people who have excess fat to work at a harder intensity than people who don't, especially when accounting for the increased injury risk and wear on joints.
[0] https://www.scienceofultra.com/podcasts/139
[1] http://footnotes-catalan.blogspot.com/2011/05/rowing-machine...
I row and cycle casually. Most of the ostensibly-evidence-based, in-vogue advice that I hear is to do a large volume of work (1-2 hours per day) at between 65% and 80% of maximum heart rate -- not very high intensity. This same advice recommends a very limited amount of work (1-2 hours per week at most, or even none at all!) at any intensities above that.
You see this all over /r/rowing ("steady state"), and on the Science of Ultra podcast (discontinued but has lots of pragmatic advice distilled from research). [0] The low-intensity, high-volume approach was actually pioneered in 1970s East Germany. [1]
That advice is mostly intended to help already-healthy people get fitter, but I'd be surprised if the science would lead people who have excess fat to work at a harder intensity than people who don't, especially when accounting for the increased injury risk and wear on joints.
[0] https://www.scienceofultra.com/podcasts/139
[1] http://footnotes-catalan.blogspot.com/2011/05/rowing-machine...