Yeah! It's Spring!
The sun is shining, birds are singing, and flowers are blooming... what a great time to add some spring to your fitness program. Call it spring, jump, bounce or sprint... I’m talking about cardio-interval training and it is a great way to wake up and shake up your body.
Interval Training
Interval training involves timed bouts of higher intensity movement followed by timed bouts of lower intensity recovery movement. Typically these bouts are done in a ratio of 1 to 2 (1:2), 1 to 3(1:3) or 1 to 4 (1:4). That would mean that if you did high intensity movement for 30 seconds, you would follow that up with 1, 1.5 or 2 minutes of low intensity movements.
So here is an example. Do 30 seconds of jumping jacks (that would be about 20 jacks), then follow this with a march or walk in place for 1 minute (that would be about 120 steps in place), now repeat that same work/recovery interval four times over. During the work bout, you can choose to do any move that makes you breathe heavy, or better yet, breathless in the 30 seconds. That would be moves like jumping rope, running in place with high knees, lateral leaps, squat jumps, etc.
You can also choose to do any light movement that helps get your heart rate and breathing back under control during the recovery bout. That could be knee bends, walking around the room, heel presses forward, step touches, etc. You can use the same two moves, or change them every bout.
Get That Heart Rate Up
The key is to get the heart rate up fast and then bring it back down gently. Don’t start a new work-bout until you feel that your heart rate and breathing
rate are back down to a low or moderate sensation of exercise exertion. This type of training can help you break out of a training rut. It burns a high level of calories. It has also been shown to lift the metabolism for longer periods post training than traditional steady state training (training at a moderate intensity).
Start Slowly
Keep in mind that the less fit or accustom you are to high intensity training movements the shorter you should make your work-bouts and the longer you should make your recoveries (for example 15 seconds work to 1 or 2 minutes of recovery). On the other hand the more fit you are the longer you can make your work-bouts and the shorter the recovery (for example 1 minute all out movement followed by 1 to 2 minutes of recovery). You will never want to exceed 90 seconds in all out effort and your ratio should not be less than a 1:1 or 1: 2 work to recovery ratio.
Start off by adding 2 to 4 of these bouts to your regular cardio workout time. After a few sessions you can slowly build up to 6 to 8 intervals. For every interval bout you do you can shave off about 5 minutes of your regular workout time. So if you do 4 bouts that would be 20 minutes off a 60-minute walk.
To check out some great spring moves go check out the ‘work your butt off’ workout at the following link www.workyourbuttoff.net.
Happy Spring!
The sun is shining, birds are singing, and flowers are blooming... what a great time to add some spring to your fitness program. Call it spring, jump, bounce or sprint... I’m talking about cardio-interval training and it is a great way to wake up and shake up your body.
Interval TrainingInterval training involves timed bouts of higher intensity movement followed by timed bouts of lower intensity recovery movement. Typically these bouts are done in a ratio of 1 to 2 (1:2), 1 to 3(1:3) or 1 to 4 (1:4). That would mean that if you did high intensity movement for 30 seconds, you would follow that up with 1, 1.5 or 2 minutes of low intensity movements.
So here is an example. Do 30 seconds of jumping jacks (that would be about 20 jacks), then follow this with a march or walk in place for 1 minute (that would be about 120 steps in place), now repeat that same work/recovery interval four times over. During the work bout, you can choose to do any move that makes you breathe heavy, or better yet, breathless in the 30 seconds. That would be moves like jumping rope, running in place with high knees, lateral leaps, squat jumps, etc.
You can also choose to do any light movement that helps get your heart rate and breathing back under control during the recovery bout. That could be knee bends, walking around the room, heel presses forward, step touches, etc. You can use the same two moves, or change them every bout.
Get That Heart Rate Up
The key is to get the heart rate up fast and then bring it back down gently. Don’t start a new work-bout until you feel that your heart rate and breathing
rate are back down to a low or moderate sensation of exercise exertion. This type of training can help you break out of a training rut. It burns a high level of calories. It has also been shown to lift the metabolism for longer periods post training than traditional steady state training (training at a moderate intensity). Start Slowly
Keep in mind that the less fit or accustom you are to high intensity training movements the shorter you should make your work-bouts and the longer you should make your recoveries (for example 15 seconds work to 1 or 2 minutes of recovery). On the other hand the more fit you are the longer you can make your work-bouts and the shorter the recovery (for example 1 minute all out movement followed by 1 to 2 minutes of recovery). You will never want to exceed 90 seconds in all out effort and your ratio should not be less than a 1:1 or 1: 2 work to recovery ratio.
Start off by adding 2 to 4 of these bouts to your regular cardio workout time. After a few sessions you can slowly build up to 6 to 8 intervals. For every interval bout you do you can shave off about 5 minutes of your regular workout time. So if you do 4 bouts that would be 20 minutes off a 60-minute walk.
To check out some great spring moves go check out the ‘work your butt off’ workout at the following link www.workyourbuttoff.net.
Happy Spring!
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