KABOOM! Needing those intervals...

We've all seem them (or been them): the moms who are a slave to the same machine, the same jog, the same swim, the same workout day after day. They start looking remarkably similar to a hamster in a spinning wheel.

From Personal Training pics

Their dedication is enviable, however their results are -- well -- M.I.A. They are getting in their 30-60 minutes of required cardio a day, so what gives?

Interval training, or speed training, is not just for serious athletes who plan to give Marion Jones a run for her money at the next Summer Olympics—oh wait, she won’t be there, something about drugs and medals stripped. Anyway, it is a perfect recipe for moms who are short on time and long on desire to burn some serious fat. It also is an amazing effective use of your exercise time and you get the most bang for your buck.

From Personal Training pics

What
Intervals are basically when you have a period of time where you perform an activity at a high level of intensity, followed by a period of time where you perform an activity at a lower level of intensity. You repeat this pattern throughout your cardio workout.

Why
Interval training has been proven to burn fat faster and more efficiently than just plain Jane cardio. It continues to burn fat up to 48 hours after you finish your run, get out of the pool, walk away from the spin bike – you get the picture. Contrast this with plain Jane cardio – the kind where you pick a moderately difficult pace and stay there for your entire workout: the calories stop burning the minute you stop doing the exercise. Interval training is similar to weight lifting in that it turns your body into a lean, mean calorie burning machine. Crunch! It speeds up your metabolism, increases your performance (you’ll go faster, stronger, longer), builds your endurance, beats boredom, YOU SEE RESULTS FASTER.

How
This is easy. My kindergartner is learning it now -- patterns:

ABABABAB.
ABCABCABC.
Easy, hard, easy hard.
Slow, moderate, fast, slow, moderate, fast.
Etc...

There is no one interval set that is superior to another – changing it up regularly is the key. I’ll give you an example of my elliptical interval training workout I did this week:

Total workout was 45 minutes:

1. 3 minutes - Warm up at Level 5
2. 2 minutes –Hard, Level 10
3. 1 minute – Very hard, Level 12
4. 1 minute – Recover, Level 5
5. Repeat the above numbers 2-4 until around 42 minutes
6. 3 minute Cool down, Level 2

KABOOM!

Calorie blaster! In fact, as I type this, I just burned more calories as a direct result of that Interval Training workout! Can’t you tell? Why, thank you!

**Just a note, we all are at our own levels of fitness. Of course, the numbers on your elliptical machine will not match my machine. My purpose of showing you my personal workout was not to tell you that you have to run out and copy it exactly. It merely is an example for you to follow, and one that you can adjust the levels to your ability accordingly.

Interval Training is not just for machines at the gym. It can be used for ALL your workouts: jogging, swimming, biking, stair climbing, jump roping, hiking, etc.

Another example:

1. 10 minutes of easy running. (The warm up run)
2. 1 minute hard, one minute easy x 5.
3. 5 minutes of easy running.
4. 1 minute hard, one minute easy x 5.
5. 10 minutes of easy running. (The cool down)

If you are an endurance athlete (or a wanna be), interval training still very much has its place in your workout schedule. If you want to increase your speed and distance, you’ve gotta challenge your body with a few interval training sessions a week.

If you just want to be in shape or shed a some pounds, interval training should be a part of your cardio routine as well. Because it is so time efficient, use interval training for all of your cardio sessions.