The Beginner’s Guide To Interval Training

Interval training is one of the very best ways that you can rapidly improve your health, work up a sweat and tone your muscles at the same time. Made up of a series of high intensity activities, interspersed with longer, more gentle exercises, interval training is designed to test your heart’s ability to fully oxygenate your body and fuel your muscles. It might be painful at the time but after a few weeks of the regime, you will be remarkably more fit and healthy. Getting into interval training can get a little adjustment and if you’re a beginner, it pays to take your time about the whole thing. If you want to push yourself to the limit and enjoy a whole new level of health, then step right up; we’re going turn up the intensity.

1. Warm Up Properly

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Any good workout should start with a sufficient warm up. Not only will doing so help to stretch your muscles and increase the flow of oxygen around your body but also, it can reduce your risk of injury and help your body to slowly adapt to the change in intensity. Try doing a number of leg, arm, back and neck stretches, followed by a few minutes of light jogging before you really get going. Your body will become much more limber and you will better prepared to really get to work in your routine.

2. Choose Your Workout

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Interval training can be applied to practically every sport and workout routine and so before you get going, it’s worth thinking about what type of exercise will suit your body type. If you’re looking to build endurance and cardiovascular health, you might want to try interval training as a series of running or swimming sprints, followed by longer, steadier phases. If you prefer to build muscle mass, you can try incorporating the training into your existing regime, performing a number of repetitions at high intensity, followed by periods of rest. Stick with whatever works for you and adapt it to meet your level of fitness.

3. Up The Intensity

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As you become more secure with sprint and rest sessions, you can start to move onto more structured interval workouts and across the board, there are many that will really test what you have got. The CrossFit interval workout might just be the hardest there is, pushing your physical capabilities beyond anything you might have experienced before.

The workout is as follows:

Burpees

Jumping Jacks

Lunge Jumps

Medicine Ball Slams

Back Squats

Mountain Climbers

Try performing each exercise for 30-45 seconds at a time (depending on your fitness level) with a 15 second rest between each exercise. After each set, rest for 2 minutes and repeat another 3 to 5 times. If you’re feeling tired, you can try taking a slightly longer rest and reducing the amount of time you perform each move for; it’s all about building your strength.

4. Record Your Results

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If you’re training for a specific event or want to track your development, recording your results after each set is a great idea. If you’re performing a number of sprint sets, try getting a friend to time how long each set takes you to perform over the course of the session, totalling up the numbers each week. If you’re weight lifting, record how many repetitions you can perform during each “sprint” set, being careful not to push yourself too hard. As you progress, you might notice your ability to perform more increasing and see a massive decline in your feelings of fatigue.