AREAS OF INTEREST: INTERVAL TRAINING, RESISTANCE TRAINING, TIME MANAGEMENT, BURN FAT, INCREASING MUSCLE.
by: Tom Seabourne Ph. D
To save time, combine socializing, teaching, and exercise. Walk your dog, hike with your kids, play basketball, soccer, hit baseballs, or play tennis. After you and your partners are wary of chasing balls, improve your spatial awareness using your mediball and rebounder.
And to make your workouts even more efficient pack your gym bag the night before. Include carbohydrate drinks and energy bars so you needn’t waste time or money at vending machines. Combine lunch and mail-call so you can savor a 30-minute workout. Call meetings with your colleagues on the jogging trail.
When you honestly do not have time for a full-blown workout, try interval training. You can make interval training specific to your sport. Or you can use intervals to improve your fitness. To begin, make intervals equal to your normal steady-state program. Follow this with a rest/recovery segment performed at a lower intensity.
Short sprints can replace long slow distance workouts. Spend five minutes warming up at an easy pace. Then gradually increase your intensity until you are moving at about seventy percent of your maximum speed. You may feel a slight burn in your legs. And your lungs may open up for the first time in years. Hold this pace for about a minute. Then slow down to your normal tempo for two minutes. Increase your speed again to seventy percent for another leg exploding, lung expanding, minute. Cool down to a relaxed pace for another five.
Use intervals for walking, running, cycling, or in-line skating. The faster, more intense, velocity may be uncomfortable at first. Your heart rate and breathing will skyrocket. Soon you will crave it.
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Add one/one-minute interval each week until you are sprinting a maximum of ten/one-minute cycles. If you do not relish watching the clock, simply speed up between telephone poles.
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Then slow to your normal rate until you reach the next pole.
Interval training burns fat and builds endurance, speed, and recovery. You will complete your workout sooner, and it is a pleasant diversion from your long, slow, distance stroll. Intervals allow you to perform more work increasing your Excess Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). EPOC, the “afterburn”, is the absolute number of calories you consume, long after you have completed your workout.
Interval training also improves your muscle’s ability to tolerate lactic acid. You become accustomed to short periods of training, just below your anaerobic threshold. This helps you learn to delay the onset of fatigue.
Climb on your exercise bicycle. Warm-up for 3 minutes. Pedal at 70 percent of your maximum for 5 minutes. Take a one-minute easy-pedaling break. Perform another 5-minute interval.
After your warm-up, run the length of a track at 65 percent of your maximum speed. Jog slowly around the curve. Use this program if you are highly fit and athletic. Your rest interval is active recovery. This allows for the removal of lactic acid.
Speedplay is a form of interval training that is based on how you feel. It is less systematized than normal intervals. You govern how hard you want to work. You control your intensity based on your tolerance. Speedplay may be more enjoyable than timed intervals.
| Interval weight training may be performed using your PowerBlock on a circuit. Perform 1 set of 10 repetitions at 60 percent of your maximum. Take about 30 seconds to finish each exercise. Your rest interval is the period between exercises. Recovery time is minimal, as it includes only the seconds required to set your next weight. Your goal is to complete 10 repetitions on all exercises with limited rest between sets. |
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