Interval training consists of bouts of high intensity exercise followed by brief periods of active recovery. Because of the high intensity bursts, interval training helps you burn more calories in a shorter period of time. I generally do my intervals with two minutes of intense exercise followed by one minute of recovery.
Interval training provides many benefits as it works both your anaerobic and aerobic systems. Your anaerobic system is used primarily for activities that require strength, speed and power such as body building or the 100 meter dash. These anaerobic activities last between a few seconds up to about two minutes; they are short, intense bursts of activity. This system works without oxygen but the byproduct is lactic acid. (The build-up of lactic acid in the muscles is what creates the soreness you feel after a good workout.) Because this system works without oxygen, it creates an oxygen deficit in the body (which is why anaerobic activities can only be maintained for a short period of time before the aerobic system kicks in).
The aerobic system is used for any activity lasting more than about two minutes (so it’s used a lot). Activities like running, cycling and swimming that require a great deal of oxygen to perform, are great examples of activities that utilize the aerobic system.
As far as interval training goes, your high intensity phase will have you using your anaerobic system for two minutes (or however long your intense phase is, but no longer than two). You’re creating that oxygen deficit and building lactic acid in the muscles. Your active recovery (one to two minutes) gives your body a chance to “catch-up” with its necessary oxygen demands as well as breaks down some of the lactic acid. This type of training greatly improves your cardiovascular efficiency which is your ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles. Interval training also increases your tolerance to lactic acid, meaning more of it can build up in your bloodstream before you need to stop or slow down.
In order to do an interval workout, you need to know at what intensity you are working. Perceived exertion is a great and easy way to measure this. The easiest one to use is a scale of 1-10; 1 being very low physical activity and 10 being maximal exertion. The scale breaks down as such:
· 1- very light activity: anything other than sleeping
· 2-3- light activity: can maintain for hours-easy to breathe and carry on a conversation
· 4-6-moderate activity: feels like you can exercise for hours-breathing more heavily and can hold short conversations
· 7-8- vigorous activity: on verge of being uncomfortable-short of breath-can only speak one sentence at a time
· 9-very hard activity: very difficult to maintain exercise intensity- can barely breathe and only speak a single word
· 10-maximal effort activity: feels impossible to keep going-completely out of breath and unable to speak
During the intense phase of the workout, you want your perceived exertion to be between 8 and 9. During your recovery phase, you’ll want to be around 5 or 6. Interval workouts can be done almost anywhere. On the track you can alternate between sprinting and jogging. A sample interval workout for the track could be to sprint around the track once followed by a jog one time around. You can also do these workouts on the treadmill. You could either change the speed or incline for the intense intervals. The same could be said for cycling, by changing the resistance and/or speed, of the elliptical by changing the resistance and/or the incline. The important thing is that you are paying attention to your rate of perceived exertion and being aware of the time of each interval.
Here is a sample interval workout that I frequently use:
5 minutes of warming up
2 minutes- intense interval
1 minute- recovery interval
Intense/recovery intervals repeated for desired length of workout
5 minutes of cooling down
I keep this going between 45 and 60 minutes. The minimum amount of time for an interval workout should be about 20 minutes. If you are a beginner, you can lengthen the amount of time you spend in your recovery phase. Starting with 1 minute intense and 2 minutes recovery is also an option if you are new to this type of workout.
No comments:
Post a Comment