Whether you train at a fitness facility or at home, you may periodically find your
endurance exercise program a little monotonous. In fact, you may feel like you're
simply marking time on the treadmill or just going through the motions on the
stationary cycle or step machine. You may also notice a lack of improvement, or
even a loss of fitness as the same exercise routine seems more difficult to complete.
Whereas strength training provides variety as you move from machine to machine
and work different muscle groups, endurance exercise sessions require a lot of time
doing the same movements and maintaining a sustained effort level. Basically
nothing changes from the beginning to the end of the aerobic activity period. I've
noticed that most regular endurance exercisers don't even look at the video displays
that provide performance feedback during the workout. Instead, they cover the
display with their newspaper, magazine or towel, so that they can't see how much
time they have yet to exercise. Generally, they are doing the exercise because they
know it is physically beneficial, but they do not find it mentally interesting.
Although there are occasions where a relatively steady pace is essential, such as
running a 5K or 10K race, there are more interesting and effective means for
conducting your exercise sessions. My preferred approach is known as interval
training, and it provides almost unlimited variations in workout designs.
Basically, interval training involves interspersing more demanding and less
demanding exercise segments within the workout. The training variables include (1)
how hard to make the more demanding intervals, (2) how easy to make the less
demanding intervals, (3) how long to make the more demanding intervals, (4) how
long to make the less demanding intervals, and (5) how many intervals to perform.
For example, instead of treadmill walking at a steady 3.5 mph pace for 30 minutes,
you may try 5 intervals of 6 minutes each. Let's say you begin with 6 minutes of
slower-paced walking at 3.0 mph to warm up. You then perform 6 minutes of
faster-paced walking at 4.0 mph. Because this is a more demanding pace than you
normally do, you follow-up with 6 minutes at the more relaxed 3.0 mph pace. As this
permits plenty of recovery time, you can now complete another 6 minutes at the
faster 4.0 mph pace. Finally, you cool-down with another 6-minute segment at the
slower 3.0 mph pace.
Overall, you have accomplished about the same workout as usual, namely, 30
minutes of treadmill walking averaging about 3.5 mph. However, the 2 faster-paced
segments actually enhanced your physical development by requiring a higher work
effort than your body normally produces, even for a total of only 12 minutes.
Perhaps just as important, you should find the interval training workout more
mentally stimulating due to the variations in walking pace. Many people prefer
interval training to steady state exercise because it places a different perspective on
the workout duration. For example, when you keep the same pace for 30 minutes, it
may seem that the time passes very slowly. However, when you perform
higher-effort intervals, you may find that the slower-paced recovery intervals pass
almost too quickly and that the total workout time seems considerably shorter than
usual.
In the previous treadmill walking example, the harder and easier intervals were
equal in duration, 6 minutes each. However, as you become better conditioned, you
may make the higher-effort intervals longer and the lower-effort intervals shorter.
Consider the following interval training approach to a stationary cycling workout in
which the more demanding segments are twice as long as the less demanding
segments:
28 minutes total training time
Another means for enhancing the exercise effort within a similar
half-hour time frame is to perform more intervals. Because each interval is relatively
brief, the training intensity can be increased for the harder workout segments. For
example, an interval treadmill running session could be programmed as follows for
people with relatively high levels of fitness:
28 minutes total training time
If exercise time is a concern, interval training can provide a pretty challenging
workout in a rather brief duration. Shortening the hard intervals to 2 minutes each
increases the anaerobic energy component and requires less total workout time to
experience an excellent training effect. The following sample exercise program for
stationary cycling intersperses 2-minute intervals of high and low training effort.
20 minutes total training time
Interval training can be a very effective and efficient means for achieving higher
levels of cardiovascular fitness. It presents almost unlimited variations with respect
to the exercise protocol, and provides a more interesting workout than standard
steady-pace training. Because interval training can be more physically demanding
than even-paced exercise, be sure to check with your physician before giving it a try.
You may also want to consult with a personal trainer or fitness instructor to design
an appropriate interval training program for your present level of cardiovascular
fitness.
NEWSLETTER of March
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