Morning HIIT / Sprints

Spoke to a PT in my gym last night and he suggested that I move from steady state cardio for 45-60 mins to HIIT / sprints. I'm fully aware of the benefits of HIIT, but with my cardio being morning based due to weights in the evenings, as I find evenings weights sessions far better in terms of overall gains because of having a days worth of food behind me, he suggested that having a banana before I do my cardio would suffice and not result in body tapping into muscle for energy. Is this right? if not, what should I do? have breakfast and then give it 30mins-1hr. I'd prefer to keep my cardio morning based and have my weekends off, so I have 5 week days to work with 
 
Any and all suggestions welcome and appreciated 
 
Thanks Antelope 

Yes but they forgot something: some easily digested/well tolerated protein (~20g of whey generally) with of course plenty of water. They work together to be muscle sparing (not a huge issue anyway), but also increase the quality of the training and improve recovery. 
 
A coffee or green tea ~30mins before never hurt either.

Thanks Drew - 
 
So I could have a banana, whey protein and a green tea. 30 mins later perform HIIT/sprints without the worry of muscle breakdown?  Great if that's the case. 
 
I plan on doing 2 HIIT/sprint sessions per week in the mornings and then 2 steady state sessions, as i think 4 HIIT/sprints would ruin me :-) Would you suggest with steady state that I do the same thing, banana, whey + green tea? 
 
If I leave the green tea out, how long should I give it between the banana and whey before I train? I don't want to find myself spewing :-) Should I have something immediately after or straight to my breakfast 
 
 

Time wise that is up to your consitution but be cautious I would look at more that 30 mins!
Yes eat something after, treat interval training a little like weight training (which is actually another form of interval training)
You can do the SSCV fasted or unfasted, whatever works for you. Green tea can be consumed either way and may help to increase training quality.
You're right lots of sessions will be tough to bounce back from, the idea with intervals etc is quality over quantity. start low (number of sessions and number of intervals) and work up.

Thanks Drew, just on the first sentence, depending on my constitution, you're suggesting I wait for at least 30 mins before the session? 
 
I will start slow for sure, as I think sprints are going to be brutal to start and I don't want to overdo them to the point where it hinders my weight sessions. 

Thanks Drew, just on the first sentence, depending on my constitution, you're suggesting I wait for at least 30 mins before the session? 
 
I will start slow for sure, as I think sprints are going to be brutal to start and I don't want to overdo them to the point where it hinders my weight sessions. 

I have worked with people who can't keep water down whilst training. Others could have a full roast dinner and go for it, it depends upon you but yes, I would aim for >30mins gap. Sipping water in the intervening period.

nice one Drew, appreciate it. Lets give all this a whirl in the morning :-) 

Fark me, sprints are killers. I was dead as a dodo after 5 sprints :-) 

... lol. Yep!
 

antelope
 

would suffice and not result in body tapping into muscle for energy. Is this right? if not, what should I do?

 
As Drew has suggested do not worry about this.
 
The body will not break down muscle to fuel intense (nor any other for that mind) exercise. If the body has to 'decide' to either break down muscle tissue or stop you working hard there's only one option it'd reduce your work rate for you. Not to mention the fact that breaking down muscle tissue would take too long to fuel exercise even if reducing important and complex tissues was a good choose for the body to make. 
 
Futher if your performing HIE and you suffer from fatigue the mechanisms will be such (during HIE; neurological, ADP accumilation and H+, glycogen depeletion etc) that there is simply now way it would reach the stage where muscle tissue is used. Muscle tissue is even sparred during the first stages of starvation. 
 
Drew's advice is sound as ever.
 
His haircut isn't :)

Awesome feedback fellas, I really appreciate it. So much contradicting views and opinions out there it's hard to know what to believe. Great that I can do my morning cardio without the worry of hard earned muscle being sacrificed, even though the training ruins me like Ron Jeremy used to ruin his co stars :-) 
 
I am finding sprints take me longer to recover though and I get muscle soreness from doing them, but I'm hoping this will ease over time and the sprints get easier the more I do them, without overdoing them. 
 
LOL @ haircut comment  

... every post, every thread is about my hairduct. I thought you were a rocker Iain?
 
Yes, as with anything tough the body is going to take some time to adapt, it's this adaptation that is where the magic is. Muscle loss is a product of getting the big picture wring over the days and weeks so again, don't worry here.

Long hair is cool, when wearing denim, leathers and lyrca... mullet not sold on! ;) 

I think I need to see this much talked about haircut 

Good thread! Another advocate for a small meal 50/50 pro/carb and a lot of caffeine. My poison is sugar free red bull which isn't ideal