Do you hate long boring cardio sessions at the gym? Are you looking for a more efficient way to get lean and strengthen your body? Or do you simply want to polish-up on some of your aerobic fitness levels? These ten interval workouts will definitely help with all three!
Interval training is similar to weight lifting or jogging. Interval workouts are a form of conditioning where short bursts of high intensity exercises are interspersed with brief periods of rest. You’ll improve cardiovascular health, burn fat and build endurance – all of which are essential for a healthy active life in the long run. In addition, interval workouts can help you achieve your body goals much faster than simply performing steady-state cardio sessions alone. To give you an idea about the benefits of interval training, here’s a list of some of the health and fitness benefits you can expect from performing these types of workouts:
1. Improved Cardiovascular Health – Increases your heart and lung capacity, improves blood flow and reduces the risk of developing or dying from heart disease.
2. Improves Muscular Endurance – Gives you a stronger more-defined body because you’ll be burning fat and building muscle at the same time (known as “the afterburn effect”).
3. Muscles Recover Quicker – Reduces muscle soreness and reduces the time required for muscles to recover, enabling you to build muscle faster.
4. Increases Your Metabolic Rate – Helps you burn more calories even when resting because your body will continue burning fat for an extended period of time after you finish exercising (known as “the afterburn effect”).
5. Fat Loss – Burns off more fat than steady-state cardio workouts, improves your body’s ability to use fat as an energy source and increases your metabolism, making the process of losing weight much easier!
6. Increased Confidence & Self-Discipline – Improves self-discipline and will power. Once you’ve performed interval training for a few weeks, it’ll be hard to go back to just doing steady-state cardio again because you’ll know how much more effective interval training is when it comes to losing weight and getting lean.
7. Improved Focus – Makes your workouts more efficient by focusing on short explosive work-outs as opposed to long boring cardio sessions.
8. Increased Speed & Power – Explosive exercises such as jumping jacks, plyometric box jumps and medicine ball slams will improve your speed and power when doing sports. You’ll get a competitive advantage over others by getting faster recovery times from your sprints or training bouts so you can perform more work in any given session.
Interval training will allow you to exercise harder without getting tired so you can burn more calories and build muscle at the same time. For example, a 30-minute high intensity interval workout burns more calories than a 60-minutes steady-state cardio workout of moderate intensity. In addition, these workouts give your metabolism a major boost so that you continue burning fat for hours after you finish exercising. Interval training can also help you lose weight faster by increasing your body’s ability to use fat as an energy source and boosting your metabolic rate.
As if that wasn’t enough, interval workouts also increase the willpower in those who perform it by strengthening their self-discipline and will power. Once you’ve been doing interval training for a few weeks, it’ll be tempting to go back to just performing steady-state cardio again because you’ll know how much more effective interval training is when it comes to burning fat!
Interval workouts also build muscles at the same time by increasing your body’s ability to use fat as an energy source. If you want to build lean muscle, lose weight at the same time and increase your speed and power when doing sports, interval training is definitely for you!
What’s the difference between aerobic interval training and anaerobic interval training?
Anaerobic Interval Training uses shorter bursts of more intense exercise. It’s designed to provide quick boosts in energy levels and short term increases in the body’s ability to use oxygen. It usually lasts from 30 seconds to 3 minutes and can be done with or without breaks.
Aerobic Interval Training is also known as High Intensity Interval Training (HIT). It involves alternating periods of high intensity exercise with periods of low intensity exercise. The high intensity periods are typically no longer than 3 minutes and the low intensity period can last up to 2 minutes.
The intensity of an interval workout is a percentage of the maximum rate at which your body can perform.
For example, if you could run 1 mile in 4 minutes or walk a mile in 10 minutes on a treadmill, then 50% represents half way between walking and running. So that would be your target heart rate zone for HIT: 50%.
Steady-state cardio or low intensity training is typically around 65% of maximum, high intensity or anaerobic interval training can be anywhere from 75% to 100%, and aerobic interval training which usually falls into the 70% to 85% of maximum heart rate range.
If you want to build lean muscle, lose weight at the same time and increase your speed and power when doing sports, interval training is definitely for you!
What are the benefits of high intensity interval training?
First, it’s a lot more effective than steady-state cardio when it comes to burning fat. That’s because it takes less time to burn the same amount of calories and achieving a cardiovascular workout effect at the same time.
Second, research shows that high intensity interval training trains your body to use fat for energy during recovery from exercise so you can burn more calories. For example, one study showed that one session of HIT increased subjects’ fat metabolism by 90%! That means that the subjects’ bodies used fat stores to produce energy at a higher rate for up to 24 hours after the workout!
When you exercise with high intensity interval training, your body immediately starts burning fat because it thinks it’s in a crisis situation and needs to burn stored glucose and fatty acids to produce more energy. This is how it works: Your body uses sugar (the carbs) from food as its main source of energy. When you run out of sugar, your body starts burning fat for fuel. So if you use interval training to exercise, it forces your body to burn stored fat for energy instead of the carbs in your food and drinks.
How long should an average interval workout last?
The time for your interval training workout will depend on what type of interval training you’re doing. For example, if you’re doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIT) or Aerobic Interval Training, the intensity of your intervals will be a percentage of the maximum rate at which your body can perform, so it could be anything from 50% to 100%. That means that the total duration of the high intensity intervals could last anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Meanwhile, with Anaerobic Interval Training, the high intensity periods are typically no longer than 3 minutes and the low intensity period can last up to 2 minutes.
Some people say that some exercises are better for interval workouts, but you can use any type of exercise for interval training. The main difference is that when you exercise with high intensity interval training, your warm up and cool down periods are counted as part of the total time. So if you’re doing an activity that involves a warm up and cool down period, such as cycling or running, then it’s no different from regular aerobic training. You can also do workouts at home because all you need is your body and a timer. When you’re doing interval training workout at the gym, be mindful of the hazards like overtraining, fatigue, lack of motivation and burnout so that you can exercise in a safe way and enjoy the results!
What are some things to keep in mind when doing interval training?
The main thing to remember is that if you’ve never done any type of interval training before, or don’t know how to do it, the best thing is to get in touch with a fitness professional because they can help you avoid injuries and make the most out of your workouts.
If you are searching for more motivation when working out interval training can help in a big way by keeping you constantly challenged and it’ll provide results that are more effective than doing only one kind of workout. That being said, make sure to choose the right interval training for your fitness level and goal!
You don’t have to feel guilty for not going to the gym because you’re still getting in a great workout at home with interval training! Find out how it works and why it’s such a great way to burn calories.
When working out interval training can help in a big way by keeping you constantly challenged and it’ll provide results that are more effective than doing only one kind of workout. That being said, make sure to choose the right interval training for your fitness level and goal!
Recent Comments