Interval Training

Interval training is a great tool to boost your endurance or to try to drag yourself off that plateau your diet has put you on. It can also be very intense. Before you think about interval training you need to be strength training for a while. Our circuit strength training is a kind of baby interval training.

Interval training is a workout where you spend short intervals of around 1 to 3 minutes exercising very hard, going anaerobic (heart rate of ~ 85% to 90%). Then you recover, moving slowly on a recovery station, for an interval of about 1, 2, or 3 minutes until your heat rate comes back down to the aerobic zone (70% to 80%) or even the fat burning zone (60% to 70%). Then you start working again. A full workout will have around 4 to 10 intervals pushing your heart rate up and 4 to 10 intervals bringing it down. You also will have a 3 to 5 minute warm up and 3 to 5 minute cool down.

Interval training should be used as a short-term workout. You can substitute interval training for strength training or your aerobic workouts, but you only want to do it every other day. You can interval train for about 8 weeks before you need to take a 2 to 4 week break from it. Then, if you want, you start interval training again.