I have a confession to make.

Unlike this awesome dog here, I’m not a fan of running.

I used to run cross country in high school, and I’ve tried to get excited about running about a dozen times since then.  After reading Born to Run, a fantastic book, about running, I even had myself convinced that I was going to LOVE running.  Every time I get started, about ten minutes into my run, I just get bored as hell!  I know some people love running, it makes them feel good, and it’s their primary form of exercise – I’m happy for you (and the info here will help you too!)

I’m here to tell you that if you don’t like running, you don’t need to be spending hours a day on a treadmill or out jogging around your neighborhood to lose weight. In fact, those hours of running could actually be causing you a litany of healthy issues that I can help you avoid.  There’s a type of advanced training that not only burns calories more efficiently than straight cardio, but it can also increase your aerobic breathing capacity MORE than straight cardio while also increasing your a capacity for max sprinting ability.

(warning – interval training shouldn’t be done by people who haven’t exercised before.  You should be in somewhat decent shape before attempting interval training).

What do I have against cardio?

Other than being boring, I find steady cardio to be highly inefficient: I simply don’t have time to go out for runs that last longer than hour.  Not only that, but I always found myself getting injured (shin splints like whoa) or sick when running long distances over a long period of time.  Rather than go into the remaining reasons why I don’t like cardio, I’ll hand the reins over to Mark from Mark’s Daily Apple, who presents the best argument I’ve ever read on the subject – A case against cardio (from a former mileage king.

Now, if you LOVE running and think I’m an ass for even suggesting that running isn’t the greatest thing ever, this article will still provide you with some solid information, I promise.  If you have no interest in running but still want to burn calories and get in shape efficiently, maybe today’s Interval Training post will get you started down the right path.

What’s Interval Training?

Interval training is when you vary your speeds and intensity throughout a shorter run. So, you might jog for three minutes, and then push yourself hard for a minute, repeating this cycle for a certain amount of time (usually around 20 total minutes).

This type of training not only burns calories and builds up your oxygen capacity while exercising, but it can also produce an ‘afterburn’ affect
that can leave your metabolism operating at a higher level of efficiency for hours and hours and hours after you’re done exercising.

This means you’re burning calories while you’re sitting on your butt watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia reruns on Comedy Central.

Why interval training?

Your heart is a muscle: if you keep it beating at a constant rate, never expanding it outside of its comfort zone, it will never grow.   If you do 100 benchpresses with 10 pounds and don’t feel it, your chest will never develop.  Same thing with your heart…if it’s not feeling the exertion, it doesn’t have to work harder, and nothing has changed.  However, when you throw some intervals in there, your heart will have to work harder, pump more blood, and work harder to return to normal levels.  Have a high stress job?  Wouldn’t you rather have  a heart that is used to rapid changes in blood pressure and needs?  That’s the kind of heart I want.

Interval training promotes a healthier physique.  I know this is pretty superficial, but who doesn’t want to look good?  Compare the best sprinters in the world to the best marathon runners in the world – which would you rather look like?  One is super muscular, built for speed, and looks like he could outrun a cheetah at a moment’s notice…while the other looks like a stiff breeze might blow him over.  Obviously there’s more too it than just sprints vs. distance – weight training also plays a HUGE rule.  However, it’s a lot easier to get weight training in when you don’t have to run for 2-3 hours a day.

Interval training improves both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. As referenced in this post from Mark’s Daily Apple, Dr. Tabata’s “famous study on moderate and high-intensity interval training helped legitimize a movement – away from chronic cardio and toward high-intensity workouts. This studies showed that high-intensity intermittent training actually improves both anaerobic (intensity and muscle building) and aerobic (slower, oxygen consuming) body systems, while aerobic exercise only improves aerobic systems.”  Two for one!

note: Tabata training is highly advanced – you’ll still see similar results with interval training compared to Tabata training, but perhaps not to that extreme.

How to interval train

Let’s take you through a sample running guide for interval training.

Three  days a week of running is sufficient – if it’s done right, your body will need 48 hours to recover between exercises, and actually burn fat on your off days, when you’re sitting at your computer or playing videogames.

This will be your routine for three weeks:

• 5 minutes of warmup...light walking, bump the speed up a little bit to get your legs warmed up…then stretch.  Don’t stretch until you’ve warmed up.  Think of your muscles like rubber bands…you quickly pull a rubber band that hasn’t been used yet and it’ll snap.  Warm it up, get it used to activity, then stretch it, and you’re golden.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (70% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (75% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (80% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (85% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (90% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 30 seconds of increased pace (100% of maximum effort)..2 minutes of decreased pace.
• 5 minutes of light jogging and stretching. When you stretch afterwards, your muscles expand, allowing the nutrients you’re about to eat to fill in the gaps that are now empty from exercise.  Also, it keeps your muscles loose, so there’s a far less chance for injury.

Now, because this is your first time doing intervals…it might be tough to get through the routine.  If it is, concentrate on doing the intervals as strongly as possible (really push yourself on those 30 seconds fast sections)…and if you can only get through 3 or 4 intervals, stop there.  The next time, aim for 5 intervals, then 6, then 7.

The reason I don’t tell you how fast to run for either, is because it’s different for each person.  If you’re really out of shape, your 90 seconds might be walking, and your 30 seconds might be jogging.  If you are in shape, your 90 seconds might be jogging and your 30 seconds might be sprinting.

You should be close to death by the time you complete this cycle…okay maybe not that bad, but you should be dripping in sweat.   If you’re not, then you were faking it, and you’re only screwing with yourself.

Applying interval training to things beyond running

If you’re on a treadmill, running intervals becomes slightly more difficult. Most of them have an “interval setting.”  If not, you’re going to want to aim to set the speed in your down time to something safe, and be CAREFUL on setting your top end speed.  If it’s too quick, you’ll end up looking like Bam on Jackass shooting yourself off the thing into the wall.  Make sure you have a camera on hand in case this happens.

If you’re on a exercise bike, even better.  just try to really really push yourself on that 30 second segment, whether its with increased speed and/or resistance.

Now, this is only 15 minutes of heavy exercise, and when you think about it…it’s really only three minutes of HEAVY exercise.  Add in another 5 minutes of cool down, walking/jogging slowly..so 25 minutes total.  After two weeks at this routine, cut your “decreased effort” time down from 2 minutes to 90 seconds.

-Steve

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