3 Reasons you Should be doing interval training
Interval training is a form of conditioning exercise that is repeated sets of exercises at ‘near maximal’ or ‘all-out’ intensity. This training is short bursts of working very hard, and can be done in many different forms - Rowing machine, sprinting, cycling, swimming, etc.
There are many benefits to interval training versus traditional lifting or long-duration cardio (eww…) - Here are several impactful benefits of interval training.
more Functional
Interval training relates to our daily lives much better than traditional cardio, which is running, biking, or swimming for >20 minutes to over an hour. There are not many times when we need to do that kind of activity in daily life - most of the time we have short bursts of more intense effort, followed by longer periods of less intense effort. Think shoveling dirt - working hard to shovel the dirt into a wheelbarrow, then lighter/easier effort pushing the wheelbarrow.
We should be training our bodies to work better in our daily lives, so we are able to do our normal tasks with more ease.
It is also important to consider how our bodies respond and adapt to the stresses (workouts) we put on them. This is called the SAID principle. If you run slow for a long time, that does not make you a faster sprinter, it makes you a good slow runner. However, if you practice running fast and sprinting, you’ll likely improve your speed. In an earlier blog post, Functional Training, we discussed the different energy systems our body utilizes. There are three main energy systems our body uses, a short-term (<15 seconds), medium-term (30-90 seconds), and long-term system (>3 minutes). If we structure our interval training, we can improve one of these energy systems specifically, improving it’s effect.
More Efficient
Time is a huge factor in our days, we all only get 24 hours (except on daylight savings time…). Using intervals, a workout can easily be under 30 minutes long, and can be extremely effective. A couple things that happen after interval training:
Burning more calories after the workout
Using more muscle - can cause muscle soreness
Improved muscle efficiency
Same effects as long-duration training in less time
Let’s talk about the third point ‘Improved muscle efficiency’ - In our muscles, we have mitochondria. These are the ‘powerhouse of the cell’ and produce energy that our muscles can use to contract and do more work. Interval training causes an adaptation in the muscle to create more mitochondria and to make them work more efficiently.
Many endurance athletes will do interval training before a big competition to decrease overall workload and to get the benefits of improved mitochondrial efficiency.
Makes training more fun
There are many forms of exercise you can use when doing intervals. My personal favorite is a rowing machine, but can also be deadlifting for a certain amount of reps quickly, resting then doing it again. It can also include biking, sprinting, etc. Plus you’re going to work really hard for a short amount of time, then get to rest. That’s way better than just suffering for 30+ minutes… I’m obviously biased.
My belief is exercise should be enjoyable to some extent. Getting on a program or training routine that you enjoy starting and doing each day, you’re more likely to do and will more likely continue doing it long-term. Too many times, people get on a training routine they are not ready for and they get burned out, sore, or even injured. This usually leads to someone stopping their training altogether.
How do we structure these intervals?
There are endless ways to structure intervals, but we’ll make it simple by having ON and OFF times. ON - work | OFF - Rest.
It’s important to get near full recovery of your breath after each interval before starting the next,, in order to maintain a high-effort for each interval set. The shorter the rest time, the energy system targeted is either the long-term or medium-term. Longer rest times are targeting the short-term system.
Examples:
30 seconds ON | 1.5-2 minutes OFF
1-minute ON | 1-minute OFF
15 seconds ON | 1.5 minutes OFF
This article was written to discuss some of the benefits of interval training. It just scratches the surface of the effects and benefits, but the goal is to encourage people to try a different form of exercise that will not only improve your fitness and health, but also make exercise different and enjoyable. We firmly believe in interval training for many of the benefits we discussed above.
If you have any questions about interval training, or what we do at BYLT Physical Therapy, please reach out via our website, by phone, or email.
Below are links to studies and articles that dive a little deeper into the effects of interval training:
Physiological Adaptations Article
Martin Gibala - I had the pleasure of listening to this man in person, and he is a wealth of knowledge and one of the leading researchers on this topic.
