May 15th, 2008 Milan
If your cardio workout looks like this:
Steady pace on treadmill:
- Walk briskly at 4.5 mph or jog at 6.0 mph for 30 minutes (RPE 6)
- Walk for 2 - 5 minutes at 3.5 mph (RPE 3) to cool down
Total time: 36 to 40 minutes.
You should mix it with some interval-cardio-workout:
Interval workout # 1:
- Warm up for 5 minutes at 3.5 mph (RPE 3-4)
- Sprint for 1 minute (7.0-9.0 mph) or walk briskly on a incline (4.0-4.5 mph; 7% incline) (RPE 7.5-9)
- Recover for 2 minutes at 3.5-4.0 mph (RPE 4-5)
- Cool down for 5 minutes at 3.3 mph (RPE 3-4)
Total time: 31 minutes.
Interval workout #2:
- Warm up for 5 minutes at 3.5 mph (RPE 4-5)
- Sprint for two minutes (6.5-8.0 mph) or walk briskly incline (4.0-4.5 mph; 7% incline (RPE 7-8)
- Recover for 2 minutes at 3.7-4.0 mph (RPE 4-5)
- Cool down for 5 minutes at 3.3 mph (RPE 3-4)
Total time: 38 minutes
Interval cardio training is a great way to add intensity to your workout and maintain it interesting and challenging.
You should not interval train more than 3 times per week.
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May 15th, 2008 Milan
Perceived exertion
You can determine intensity of your exercise from Perceived Exertion Scale, which is designed to estimate the intensity of exercise based on how you feel as you are working out. It correlates well with the target heart-rate zone formula.
On the Perceived Exertion Scale:
- low-intensity level corresponds to 5 or 6, so if you walk as your workout, it should feel somewhat difficult
- mid-intensity level corresponds to 6 or 7, walking should feel difficult, but not extremely so
- high-intensity walking, running or any other cardiovascular exercise corresponds to levels 7 to 9, so high intensity cardiovascular exercise should feel somewhere between difficult and extremely difficult
Perceived exertion scale
1. Resting
2. Extremely easy
3. Easy
4. First feelings of exertion
5. Somewhat difficult
6. A bit more difficult
7. Difficult
8. Very difficult
9. Extremely difficult
10. Maximum exertion or “Can’t take it anymore”
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December 24th, 2007 Milan
Higher intensity in your workout can help you loose weight faster and achieve better fitness level:
- Canadian researchers reported that just two weeks of interval training boosted women’s ability to burn fat during exercise by 36 percent
- Levels of human growth hormone - which assists in building muscle and eliminating fat - skyrocketed 530 percent in subjects after just 30 seconds of sprinting as fast as they could on a stationary bike, according to British study
- Australian fitness researchers had 18 women perform 20 minutes of interval training on stationary bike - eight-seconds sprints followed by 12 seconds of recovery throughout the workout, three days a week. The women lost an average of five and a half pounds over 15 weeks without dieting, while a similar group performing 40 minutes of moderate cycling three days a week actually gained a pound of fat over the same period. Two of the heavier women who did intervals dropped 18 pounds.
Here is my simple cardio work out for you: you can run, bike, swim, elliptical train, even speed walk. What’s important is that during the interval, you push yourself hard enough that you can’t maintain the effort longer than 60 seconds.
- Start your first 60-second interval, if you are walking and don’t want to run, increase the incline on the treadmill 3 to 6 percent and speed up enough to feel that you’re working hard
- The effort should feel like 80-90 percent of your maximum for the first 3 sprints, than 100% (maximum intensity) the rest of the sprints
- After 60 seconds, recover at a casual relaxed pace, about 30 percent of your maximum (slowly) for 60 seconds, and then do it again for total of 10 intervals
- Finish with a 2 minute cool down
- The workout will take 30 minutes
Other important tips
- Your body needs time to adapt to the intensity of intervals. If you’ve been very sedentary, ease into the intensity by brisk-walking the intervals to start. For those unused to a fast pace, do just three moderate sprints for fist week and add one sprint every week until you do ten sprints
- Allow a day of active rest between interval workouts to give your body time off to recover. What could you do as a active rest? Walk outside easy for 30 minutes or swim in relaxed pace, bike slowly - active rest rule - your hearth rate should not go higher than 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate = 220 - your age. Our body actually recovers actively faster.
- As with any exercise program, talk to your doctor before starting
Keeping intervals interesting
It is very easy to vary intervals to keep workout even after a while interesting:
Three-two-one interval training
- Warm up - 5 minutes easy to moderate pace - (30-60 percent) of your maximum effort
- Increase intensity (70 percent) - 3 minutes
- Push a little harder (80 percent) - 2 minute
- Keep increasing your effort for 1 minute, and finish last 10 to 15 seconds as hard as you can go (100 percent)
- Recover - 5 minutes (30-50 percent)
- Repeat three-two-one interval
- Total work out time - 30 minutes.
Two by two interval training
- Warm up - 5 minutes - easy to moderate effort (50-60 percent)
- Hard (90 percent) intensity - 2 minutes
- Recover (50-60 percent) - 2 minutes
- Repeat these interval 5 times
- Cool down (40 percent intensity) - 5 minutes
- Total work out time - 30 minutes.
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