Interval Training – The Biggest Bang for your Exercise Buck!
Want to burn fat, build muscle and improve your cardiovascular system, in the shortest time possible? Talk about getting the biggest bang for your exercise buck! Not only does interval training satisfy all these requirements, but you can bank on it being fun, too. You don’t need to spend long hours running or biking to get the body you want—use intervals to get in super shape in less time than you thought!
WHAT IS INTERVAL TRAINING?
Interval training involves alternating between high and low intensities for specific lengths of time during a workout. Because the high-intensity (work) portions of the intervals are so intense, they can be performed for only a short period and need to be followed by a lower-intensity (recovery) phase before the next high-intensity phase begins. One benefit of interval training is that you’ll cut your exercise time almost in half—but it will seem like you’re doing even more work because of the speed and intensity of the workout.
We used to think that exercising at a low intensity for a long period would burn the most fat, but many studies have shown that as exercise intensity increases, so does total caloric expenditure. And get this: With higher-intensity exercise comes a stimulation of fat stores and a gain in lean muscle.
With the increase in lean muscle and the extra postexercise oxygen consumption needed from the additional energy expenditure, your metabolic rate will remain elevated after exercise. Think of it as quality vs. quantity. You can spend 45 minutes on the StairMaster at level 4 and burn some calories at the gym, or you can invest 20 minutes doing stair intervals at Levels 4 and 8 and burn some calories during the activity, then keep burning calories at a higher rate the rest of the day!
TRAINING WISELY
Using any interval training program more than 3 days a week will likely lead to overtraining and injury. To avoid this, remember the motto quality, not quantity, which also applies to the length of each interval session. A five-minute warm-up, five-minute cool-down and 20 to 30 minutes of intervals is really all you need to burn fat and increase your level of fitness.
Beginners should start their high-intensity intervals at 10 to 15 seconds and can progress up to 30 to 90 seconds intervals, but shouldn’t exceed more than 120 second per interval. If you can go that long, you probably aren’t exercising hard enough!
At first, start with recovery intervals that are five times the length of your work interval. So, if your work interval was 30 seconds, the recovery interval should be 21/2 minutes. If your work interval is up to 2 minutes, you may need a recovery interval of 10 minutes. Decrease your recovery intervals when your fitness level increases. As your stamina increases, shorten your recovery period to equal to or no more than twice your work period. Try 30 second work intervals with 30 to 60 second recovery intervals, or 2 minute work intervals with 3 minute recovery intervals.
It helps to have a good aerobics base before you begin interval training, but resistance training may actually be even more valuable to prepare the muscles for the high power production necessary.
ADJUSTING CARDIO INTESITY
It’s easy to adjust your intervals with any of the cardio machines: Treadmills, LifeCycles, StairMasters, and elliptical CrossTrainers. You may either maintain your speed and just crank-up the intensity level or elevation on the machine, or you may maintain the level and increase your speed for your work intervals. Either way works. Most of the machines also provide interval or hill programs which will take care of this for you.
MEASURING INTESITY BY HEART RATE
Judging your exertion by monitoring your heart rate is sometimes inaccurate because heart rate doesn’t always correlate with effort. If you use a heart-rate monitor, though it’s a simple method.
Your recovery phase should be at 60% of your estimated max heart rate, while your work phase should be between 70 to 90% of your estimated max heart rate. To estimate your max heart rate, subtract your age from 220.
For example: A 30 yr. old’s estimated max heart rate is 190. Multiply this by 60% and 80% to get your targets. This 30 year old should perform work intervals around 152 bpm and recovery intervals at 114 bpm. A 50 yr. old should perform work intervals at around 136 bpm and recovery intervals at 102 bpm.