Paul Miller Personal Trainer Havelock North shares a beginners guide to interval training for optimal fat loss
Are you tired of time consuming, long, slow and boring cardiovascular workouts that flat out just don’t work? Then interval training is the answer for you.
According to a study by Tremblay in 1994 two groups were divided up; an endurance group and a high intensity interval group. The endurance group did steady state cycling 4-5 times per week for 20 weeks. The high intensity group were made to do short bouts of 30 to 90 seconds high intensity interval training for 15 weeks. As you might expect the endurance groups total energy cost was higher than the Interval training group. However the interval training group burned 9 times more fat than the endurance group and that was with 5 weeks less training.
Scientific research clearly shows that interval training is significantly more effective than steady state cardiovascular exercise. And what’s more, you can get incredible results in less than half the time you would with conventional methods. Before we jump right in I would like to give you a word of warning; Interval training is hard, you have to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone to reap the benefits. The key to interval training is short bursts of high intensity followed by an active recovery.
Interval training can be done with literally any machine or exercise, though there are some that are definitely better than others.
The biggest mistakes people make when interval training.
- Trying to do too much too quickly. Start conservatively; it’s better to get through all the rounds than blow out on your first round.
- Trying to do complicated exercises. Leave the grasshopper lunges with a double twist to the so called experts. Focus on the basics first. If you are unfamiliar with an exercise don’t be scared to ask for help. Perform exercises with bad form will lead to imbalances and injuries.
- Too little recovery between working sets. If you don’t need to take your recovery you’re not working hard enough. Or in other words the harder you rest the harder you can push.
Basic bodyweight interval training guidelines
Equipment basics
- A space where you have at least enough room to swing a cat (that’s not one of the exercises though!)
- A stopwatch/interval timer (I recommend the gym boss interval timer)
- Not essential but a heart rate monitor can be a great tool to measure and see how hard you are actually working (quite often you think you are working harder than you actually are)
Beginner’s workout
Warm up – 5 minutes light jogging
Main interval 30/30 (30 seconds of high intensity work followed by 30 seconds of recovery)
1. Prisoner squats 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
2. Mountain climbers 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
3. Star jumps 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
4. Sprint on the spot 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
It will take you 4 minutes to complete one circuit. Repeat for a total of 4 rounds (16 minutes)
Cool down – 5 minutes walking on the spot or marching
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