There are a plethora of fitness gadgets and pieces of equipment that we can purchase but my primary belief is that we need to keep fitness as simple as possible; all you need is a timer. Interval training is a technique that is comprised of a short burst of intense activity followed by an even shorter period of low level activity or rest. You can basically use this technique for any exercise you do in order to increase your heart rate, increase the amount of calories burned and also increase strength too! Let’s give you two examples of how to use intervals:
1) Walk/Jog:
- Warm up by taking a light walk for about 5 minutes.
- Increase the intensity so that you are either jogging or walking briskly to the point where you can’t talk for 5 minutes
- Walk for 1 minute
- Repeat as many times as you would like or for a half hour.
2) Resistance Training: (we use this all the time at Blitz Conditioning!)
- Instead of counting the repetitions, set your timer to 45 seconds of exercise and a 15 second rest
- Find 4 exercises that hit different muscle groups and perform each one of them in a circuit by performing one exercise right after the other while giving a 15 second rest between each exercise
- Give yourself a full minute rest after completing the 4 exercises
- Repeat as many times as you need
Interval training is a versatile method of stepping up the intensity and ensuring that your exertion is consistently high. Try adapting your regular workouts to this technique and tell me what you think!
About Chris Tse