If you master the secrets of interval training, you can maintain or even improve your health and fitness level even with reduced training time. Interval training is an exercise method that alternates between high-intensity workouts and low-intensity recovery. Studies have shown that in a short period of time, interval training can improve fitness and burn more calories more effectively than steady-state cardio workouts.
You can start with the following three interval training methods. It’s important to understand that interval training is quite intense. Therefore, before starting interval training, you should spend several weeks to a month on cardio training to build up your endurance. Incorporating these interval training plans into your workout routine once a week can help you burn more calories, significantly enhance your fitness, and enable you to run faster.
Plan 1: Major Cardiovascular Improvement Training
This is one of the most effective interval training methods to boost your fitness and health. This training approach helps you burn a large amount of calories in a very short time.
How to do it:
1. Warm up for 15 minutes;
2. Then run or bike for 3 minutes at 90%–95% of your maximum heart rate (subjectively, this should feel like an intensity of 8.5 to 9 out of 10). Follow this with 3 minutes of active recovery (you should still be moving, but at an easy pace). Repeat the above process 3 to 4 times;
3. Finish with 10 minutes of cool-down.
Additional benefits of this workout: This training method acts like weightlifting for your heart, strengthening your cardiovascular system and promoting overall health.
Plan 2: Sprint Training
Short-distance sprints are great for tightening and tuning up your legs, glutes, and core. This type of training enhances your muscle strength, which helps you move forward more powerfully, and also makes non-interval training feel easier. So go ahead and challenge yourself with this speed workout, and burn even more fat.
How to do it:
1. Warm up for 15 minutes, and include a few 20-second sprints at the end of the warm-up to prepare for the speed workout;
2. Then run or bike almost at full effort for 30 seconds, followed by 3 minutes of active recovery. Repeat the above process 5 to 6 times.
3. Finish with 10 minutes of cool-down.
Plan 3: Cardiovascular – Sprint Pyramid Training
This training builds on sprint training and is a faster and more fun method. In this approach, after each high-intensity bout, you recover for the same amount of time.
How to do it:
1. Warm up for 15 minutes, and include a few 20-second sprints at the end of the warm-up to prepare for the workout;
2. Run or bike: you should have an intended effort level (between 8 and 10).
The workout should follow this pyramid structure:
30-second sprint, 30-second recovery;
1-minute sprint, 1-minute recovery;
2-minute sprint, 2-minute recovery;
4-minute sprint, 4-minute recovery;
2-minute sprint, 2-minute recovery;
1-minute sprint, 1-minute recovery;
30-second sprint, 30-second recovery;
3. Finish with 10 minutes of cool-down exercises.
Additional benefits of this workout method: This interval training is overall a calorie-burning workout that benefits both your cardiovascular fitness and muscle toning.