Interval Training – To Time Poor for Training? Maybe Not!

Society today is a fast pace environment. Keeping up with the basic tasks necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of living takes a lot of personal time away from us. Working hours have increased; family pressures including raising kids and meal preparation are increasingly taking time out of our days. With the necessary sleep required and the fixed hours in a day this means that something has to give. Unfortunately with statistics showing the increase in people who are overweight or obese and have  it seems that diet and exercise seems to be the big loser to these changes.



However all is not lost and having an athletic body and being physically fit is not a pipe dream. You may ask how that is! I need to exercise x hours a day and eat less produced foods to become more healthy which is correct, however changing up your exercising and working on interval training may be the solution.

Interval Training is an athletic technique that was designed for Olympic athletes to train. The Interval Training methodology was designed to complete the workouts in short bursts with a short break or rest in between the exercise routines. Studies have concluded that interval training can be twice as effective as normal exercise. Also it has been found that interval raining can double your body’s endurance and increase your strength and oxygen intake by 10%.

Interval training when initiated was deemed to be too intense for the general population to handle and could cause excess spikes in blood pressure and fatiguing the body. However recent studies have shown that the elderly and people with health problems have been able to successfully implement these techniques. Please note that before completing any strenuous activity you should check with your health professional first to make sure that you are ready to complete Interval training exercises.      





Advantages of Interval Training

1. Fitness and performance improves quickly with interval training, typically in just a few weeks. I've known athletes who reported an improvement in speed after just two interval workouts.
   
2. Recovery time improves with interval training. Recovery is critical for athletes in sports like tennis, basketball, soccer or hockey, where the sport demands continuous stops and starts, or an endurance bike ride or road race where you hit hills and need to catch up quickly at the top in order to keep your pace. You'd never perform well if you sprinted all-out or climbed a hill and then needed two minutes to recover (also known as sucking wind). It would never work.
   
   
3. Research confirms that interval training improves fitness similarly to traditional aerobic training in much less time.
   
   

• In one study comparing interval training to traditional training, subjects increased their fitness and the activity of many of enzymes that contribute to using oxygen efficiently with two and a half hours of intervals over two weeks compared with 10 and a half hours of traditional endurance training over the same time period.
   
• In another study comparing the two methods of training, subjects increased the use of stored glucose (glycogen) and fat by the same amount after five days a week of training for six weeks, but the interval subjects trained only one and a half hours per week compared with four and a half hours per week for the endurance subjects.
  
  
• Some interval training schedules can be too rigorous. In a study of subjects who did interval training every day for two weeks, the oxygen capacity increased, but anaerobic capacity did not. The investigators suggested that this was due to overtraining and exhaustion from daily interval sessions.
  
  
• To reduce the effects of overtraining, investigators had subjects perform six, two and half-minute interval sessions over a two-week period, with one to two days of rest in between sessions, to promote recovery. Interval sessions consisted of four to seven "all-out" 30-second sprints on a stationary bike with a total of four minutes of recovery. This training regimen increased fat burning and doubled endurance capacity with just 15 minutes of intense cycling over a two-week period!
  
  
• Interval sessions are tough, and you must "dig down deep" to find the motivation to push yourself, but the payoff is big. Find training partner if you need help pushing yourself. Commitment to a partner will get you out the door when you don't feel like it, and a little healthy competition never hurts to increase performance.
  
  

Disadvantages of Interval Training

Intervals are tough on your body. If performed too often they increase the risk of overtraining. Overtraining is uncomfortable and a set back and so it's important to prevent it by allowing time for recover and growth between sessions. I recommend at least two days of rest between sessions and even more if you suspect you are over trained. Symptoms of overtraining are
•    loss of strength speed, endurance, or other elements of performance,
•    loss of appetite,
•    inability to sleep well,
•    chronic aches and pains or soreness,
•    chronic colds or respiratory infections,
•    overuse injuries like tendinitis,
•    unusual fatigue,
•    occasional increase in resting heart rate,
•    irritability, and
•    Malaise and you don't feel like exercising anymore.

If you have any of these symptoms and it's from overtraining and not a medical condition (for which you should see your doctor), then you will need to either take a break from working out (generally seven to 10 days) or experiment with fewer intervals. Don't worry about losing your fitness if you take a break. Virtually everyone comes back stronger after a break.

Are you to time poor to complete exercise? Do you want to get back your fitness so you can keep up with the kids? Do you want an increase in energy? Try Interval training as a source of training that can help you to maximise your results and minimize the time taken for you to be able to achieve an effective exercise routine. Who knows this may be the breakthrough that leads to your new healthier life. I bet your kids and family will enjoy your new lease on life.