Interval Training (cont.)
Can I do intervals inside or outside, with or without exercise equipment?
Yes, intervals work indoors or out. Your body won't know the difference between
running sprints on a track or the treadmill,
cycling on the road or on a
stationary bike (spinning classes are great interval workouts), or working on an
elliptical or any other exercise machine. You can do intervals with
swimming,
rowing, cross-country skiing, or any other sport you like. Intervals work as
long as you get your heart rate pumping and follow the ratios.
How often should I do intervals?
Intervals are intense, and so I recommend
only one or two sessions per week to start, with at least three days in between for
recovery and growth. You can do more than one or two after six weeks of training.
What are the advantages of interval training?
There are several advantages.
1. Fitness and performance improves quickly with interval training, typically in
just a few weeks. I've known athletes who reported an improvement in speed after
just two interval workouts.
2. Recovery time improves with interval training.
Recovery is critical for athletes in sports like tennis, basketball, soccer or
hockey, where the sport demands continuous stops and starts, or an endurance
bike ride or road race where you hit hills and need to catch up quickly at the
top in order to keep your pace. You'd never perform well if you sprinted all-out
or climbed a hill and then needed two minutes to recover (also known as sucking wind). It
would never work.
3. Research confirms that interval training improves fitness
similarly to traditional aerobic training in much less time.
a. In one study comparing interval training to traditional training, subjects
increased their fitness and the activity of many of enzymes that contribute to
using oxygen efficiently with two and a half hours of intervals over two weeks
compared with 10 and a half hours
of traditional endurance training over the same time period.
b. In another study
comparing the two methods of training, subjects increased the use of stored
glucose (glycogen) and fat by the same amount after five days a week of training
for six weeks, but the interval subjects trained only one and a half hours per week compared
with four and a half hours per week for the endurance subjects.
c. Some interval training
schedules can be too rigorous. In a study of subjects who did interval training
every day for two weeks, the oxygen capacity increased, but anaerobic capacity did
not. The investigators suggested that this was due to overtraining and
exhaustion from daily interval sessions.
d. To reduce the effects of
overtraining, investigators had subjects perform six, two and half-minute interval
sessions over a two-week period, with one to two days of rest in between sessions, to
promote recovery. Interval sessions consisted of four to seven "all-out"
30-second sprints on a stationary bike with a total of four minutes of recovery.
This training regimen increased fat burning and doubled endurance capacity with
just 15 minutes of intense cycling over a two-week period!
Interval sessions are tough, and you must "dig down deep" to find the
motivation to push yourself, but the payoff is big. Find a training partner if
you need help pushing yourself. Commitment to a partner will get you out the
door when you don't feel like it, and a little healthy competition never hurts
to increase performance.
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