Interval Training: The Great Workout Shake-Up
By Melissa Joulwan My favorite breakfast is 100% Bran cereal with dried cranberries and milk, along with a side order of honey ham. I love it! Would I want to eat it everyday? No way! I’d get bored. Really bored.
The same thing happens to our bodies when we give them the same exercise diet day after day. Our muscles, including our hearts, get “bored” and stop improving in strength and endurance. I’m going to introduce you to interval training, a workout technique that will keep your mind and body engaged to make you stronger, faster, and endlessly energetic. Endurance is one of the key components to a fit life because it keeps you going on the playing field, as well as in the board room, the carpool, the grocery store, and wherever else you find yourself.
Heart Rate
I believe that success is not measured by numbers on a scale, numbers on a timing clock, or even placement numbers on a list of race finishers. Having said that, I encourage you to get to know a very important number that will help you gauge your fitness — your resting heart rate.
Resting heart rate (RHR) is the number of times per minute your heart beats when you’re completely at rest. The average woman has an RHR of around 60-85 beats per minute; the champion cyclist Indurain has an RHR of 30. That’s right! His heart beats once every other second. All of his cycling has given him a very strong heart. Along with this lower RHR, he also has an increased stroke volume; you will, too. Lower stroke volume means that with every beat of your heart, a higher quantity of blood is pumped more easily through your body.
Taking RHR
On a weekend morning, or some other time when you can wake up without the alarm, before you move one iota, take your pulse for one full minute — that’s your resting heart rate. Twelve weeks after that first test (and after 12 weeks of following the new training program explained below) take your resting heart rate again. It should be lower … and that means you’ve improved.
The goal with all of this RHR business is to improve your sports performance and endurance. The idea is this: if on “Day 1″ you can run a mile in, say, 10 minutes at a particular level of exertion, by the end of the 12 weeks, you should be able to run that same mile either FASTER at the same exertion level, or in the same amount of time at a LOWER exertion level.
Maximum Heart Rate (Max HR)
To determine the range of heart rates at which you should workout, you need to also know your maximum heart rate. The old method of subtracting our age from 226 to find our max HR has proven to be pretty unreliable. Max HR tends to vary according to sport, so you’ll need to find your Max HR via a little test. If you can afford it, a heart rate monitor is one of the best investments you can make in your fitness and health. If you don’t have a monitor, take a 15-second pulse on the inside of your wrist or the side of your neck, then multiply by 4 to get your 1-minute HR. Though less accurate than a monitor, this is an OK substitute.
DO THE MAX HR TEST WITH A FRIEND! You’re going to be pushing yourself to exertion; it’s good to have someone around to make sure you’re OK. After a solid warm-up, do the activity of your choice continuously for 2-4 minutes, checking your heart rate several times. Gradually increase your exertion level until you are going full-out and your heart rate is no longer increasing.
Record the highest HR you see on your monitor. Rest for 10 minutes and do it again. Average your two Max HR measurements to find the HR on which you’ll base your target HR. Your target heart rate for an activity depends on whether you want to exercise in your aerobic or anaerobic zone.
Aerobic vs. Anaerobic
One of the best ways to wake up your workout is to alternate between your aerobic and anaerobic zones. Aerobic exercise is defined as being “in the presence of oxygen.” What that means in practical terms is that you’re working, probably sweating, breathing deeply and heavily, and starting to feel that buoyant, “I’m so awesome”-feeling of endorphins. The key is that you are not breathless. In contrast, anaerobic exercise is so strenuous that your muscles are working beyond their oxygen capacity; you will feel slightly breathless in your anaerobic zone. Traveling back and forth between these two zones is an excellent way to improve your fitness level and to jump start yourself when your progress hits a plateau.
Generally speaking, your aerobic heart rate zone is 50%-80% of your maximum heart rate. Above 80% of your maximum, you will be anaerobic. For example, if your maximum heart rate for running is 190 beats per minutes, your aerobic zone would be 95 (50% Max HR) to 152 (80% Max HR) beats per minute. Your anaerobic zone would be 153 to 180 beats per minute.
How to Shake-Up Your Workout
Now you know the terminology, but you may be wondering about the practical applications of all of these numbers. There are a number of ways to incorporate new training principles into your workouts:
Intervals Interval training allows you to bounce back and forth between your two training zones to challenge your heart and burn more fat — research shows that intervals burn 40% more fat than training at a steady heart rate. To add intervals to your workout, alternate between 2-3 minutes of aerobic work and 1-2 minutes of anaerobic work. If you’re a walker, you might alternate walking at your regular pace for 2 minutes with a light jog for 1 minute. Runners or cyclists might try fartleks: chose a landmark in the distance (a telephone pole, a fire hydrant, a streetlight) and sprint to the landmark. Drop back to a slower pace until your heart beat slows a bit, then pick a new landmark and sprint again. Though many sports are just now catching on to the idea of interval training,good swimming workouts have always been based on intervals; by challenging our hearts we not only improve endurance, we also pick up speed.
Use the terrain and weather Hills and headwinds, the two dreaded “H” words for runners and cyclists, can actually be a blessing in disguise — they automatically incorporate intervals into your workout. By training in these unfavorable conditions from time to time, you can increase your leg and heart strength for greater endurance and fat-burning power. Next time the wind is whistling through the trees, bundle up and face the wind head-on, or head FOR the hills instead of away from them. You may be surprised by how much fun — and how effective — it can be.
Don’t just exercise, TRAIN Motivation can be a problem for all of us; the best motivation I’ve found is to set a training goal and devote myself to reaching it. Pick a race or community fun run, select a challenging hill and vow you’ll ride your bike to the top one day, promise yourself you’ll shave 5-10 seconds off your 100-yard swim time, try to walk forty minutes instead of thirty … choose a goal and work toward it. You’ll not only have that extra motivation you need to stick to your workout routine, when you reach your goal you’ll look in the mirror and see the strong athlete you’ve had inside you all along.
Melissa Joulwan, melissa@gogirlmag.com, is the creator and Editor of Go, girl!, a bi-weekly magazine dedicated to getting women of all ages and fitness levels involved in sports. Visit Go, girl! at http://www.gogirlmag.com/
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