How to Do Interval Training

Video Transcript

"Interval training is perhaps the most efficient way to work out regardless of fitness level. If you're doing a cardiovascular program, I'm going to encourage you to incorporate interval training. If you're just a beginner exerciser, then your length of time that you're doing you're cardiovascular activity, and you're cardiovascular activity can be walking or running or swimming or riding a bicycle. You might start out with just ten minutes, but in those ten minutes you can do some intervals, which means you're going to speed up and then slow down. Now interval training can be set to, a, thirty seconds. I'll do thirty seconds of speed work, and I'll recover for twice as long, which would be a minute. Or it can simply be, you're out on the street, you're walking, power walking or jogging, and you say "I'm going to run to the red house, and then I'll walk to the blue mailbox." So interval training has been in existence for a long time. Athletes use interval training all the time to increase their speed. So, it's very beneficial to do a steady state heart rate training, but it's also beneficial to do interval training where your heart rate goes up and down. So, if you speed up for a little bit, your heart rate's going to go a little higher. You're going to say "You know what, I can hold that intensity for so long." So slow down for a little while. You will actually burn more calories over the same period of time with interval training as you would with a steady state heart rate training, cardiovascular. So, this is Alice Monsaert. I'm going to encourage you to get up, get active, and try interval training the next time you do your cardiovascular workout."