Personal Trainer Tip – Interval Training for Results and Weight Loss
The studies all point to the benefits of implementing interval training into your workouts.
At the end of this blog there are links to other blog with more of the science behind Interval Training. We are trying to keep this blog simple giving you the WHY and HOW of interval training to help with your health and fitness results.
What is interval training?
Interval training is a type of discontinuous physical training that involves a series of low- to high-intensity exercise workouts interspersed with rest or relief periods.The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise (high heart beat), while the recovery periods may involve either complete rest or activity of lower intensity.
Basic Benefits of Interval Training
- You’ll burn more calories.
- You’ll improve your aerobic capacity.
- You’ll keep boredom at bay.
- You don’t need special equipment.
How to Incorporate Interval Training Into Your Workouts?
Combining both resistance training and cardio into your weekly workout routine is certainly been proven to help with weight loss and decreasing your body fat. At our Coppell Group Personal Training program (Get You In S
hape), we incorporate both resistance training and cardio into our workouts for 3-4 fitness sessions each week. We also suggest 2-3 off-days cardio days getting in 20-40 minutes of interval training in the form of Cardio.
This post simply lays out the WHY we suggest doing it and HOW to incorporate it into the workout.
If you are in the Coppell Get You In Shape Program, you can tell we do a lot of this in our group personal training fitness sessions. It’s certainly good to know WHY interval training works. Interval training allows you to exercise at higher levels of intensity compared to continuous exercise. When you alternate between short bouts of very high intensity exercise with lower intensity exercise, your body is able to process lactic acid build-up, therefore reducing fatigue. You are then able to burn calories and fat at a faster rate compared to less intense, longer aerobic exercise.
We will mainly focus on the off-day Cardio and what we suggest doing for off-day cardio to incorporate it on days you are not doing resistance training.
When it comes to getting results, losing weight and losing body fat, we try to keep it simple by showing you that training smarter rather than training harder seems to work better.
A distance runner generally does high mileage each day compared to sprinter’s who certainly incorporate interval training.
The idea is that your body has to work harder in less time because of the demands that are put on it going in the HIGH INTENSITY. This is why some people use the term HIT or High Intensity Training for Interval Training.
In the end, we try to train smarter and not necessarily harder. I’ll use this example of WHY it works. Try going for a walk for 15 minutes a day for 7 days in a row. For most people just getting started on a health and fitness program, this is certainly something they can do. Actually after the third or fourth day, your body should be responding well because it’s used to that 15 minute walk. You body does not have to adapt to any changes because it has gotten used to that 15 minute walk. Your heart rate just stays the same for 15 minutes. I see this all the time at Andy Brown East Park in Coppell, TX. Folks out every morning doing the same routine and never getting the weight loss results they are looking for. If we tracked your heart rate over that 15 minute period it would stay the same. Especially after the first few days.
Here is an example of implementing Interval training into that same 15 minute walk. Simply changing it up to walking one minute at your slow pace, walking one minute at your medium pace to one minute of walking at your fastest pace. After the third minute, you just repeat it and go back to your one minute of slow pace. Each round would be three minutes and you would complete five rounds in the fifteen minutes. This is interval training. What will happen is your body will HAVE TO ADAPT to going at different paces. Your heart rate will naturally start off slow in the slow minute and slowly get higher and higher over the three minute interval. After the third minute, your heart rate then would slowly go down before doing back up again as the paces change. Over the course of the 15 minutes, your heart rate looks like a roller coaster going up and down. This causes your body to WORK HARD to ADAPT to the changes. Simple put YOUR BODY BURNS MORE CALORIES in shorter amount of time because it is having to workout hard to adapt to the change in heart rate (heart rate going up and down many times in a short period of time) .
What are you doing for your cardio workouts? Are you getting on the treadmill or going for a run and staying at the same pace every workout? In the end, we highly encourage you to stop just getting on the treadmill, elliptical, bike or running and going at the same pace for your cardio.
At our Coppell Personal Training program, the Get You In Shape program, we try to keep it simple so that everyone knows what we are talking about. We say go at your hard or fast pace. Since everyone is at different fitness levels, we just want you to go at your hard pace.
A few keys that will help you train smarter and not harder
1. Always change it up. Don’t do the same workout, splits, timing, etc. Don’t let your body get comfortable and focus on making your body have to ADAPT to the changes.
2. Focus on Intervals – You can certainly just “follow the darn instructions” and pick one of the many interval workouts on this page.
3. Warm up and Cool Down – Take 10 minutes to warm up and cool down. This s key for both recovery and helping with injury prevention.
We also incorporate Interval Training into our resistance training and Group Personal Training (fitness boot camp) sessions.
Example of a typical workout week. All Cardio would be interval based.
Monday – Resistance Training + Cardio.
Tuesday – Off-Day Cardio implementing Interval Training
Wednesday – Resistance Training + Cardio.
Thursday – Off-Day Cardio implementing Interval Training
Friday – Resistance Training + Cardio.
Alternating Saturdays – Off-Day Cardio implementing Interval Training
Alternating Saturdays – Resistance Training + Cardio
Sundays – REST DAY
Here are some Interval Based Off-Day Cardio Workouts you can implement
Remember to always start with a 10 minutes warm up and 10 minutes cool down. The off-day cardio sessions should include a little more time to stretch and work on mobility. Just like anything else, if you are not very flexible in one area, work on it. Spend some more time in areas that are very tight for you. You can also add some core work in the off-day cardio. We also suggest you try getting in some extra core exercises with your off-day cardio.
Cardio Workout #1 – Melt off those Calories with Cardio
Higher fitness levels – Sprints – 30 seconds hard 2 min rest – 30 minutes
Lower fitness levels – Go at your fast pace for 30 sec. then slow pace for 30 sec
5-10 min cool down walk/jog
Cardio Workout #2
5 Minutes of Core – Pillar Bridge, Glute Bridge, Left Side Pillar Bridge, Right Side Pillar Bridge and SLOW Mountain Climbers.
Interval Cardio Circuits – 1 Min at your slow pace, 1 min at your medium pace and one minute at your fast pace. Repeat for 10 rounds or 30 minutes.
Cardio Workout #3
If in Gym –
5 minutes slow, 1 cardio equipment then 5 minutes of:
20 Seconds 100% effort with 40 seconds of slow or 50% effort
Rest for 3 Minutes (STOP).
5 minutes slow on another cardio equipment then 5 minutes of:
20 Seconds 100% effort with 40 seconds of slow or 50% effort
Rest 3 Minutes (Stop).
10 Minutes at medium pace on another cardio machine.
If outside –
5-10 minutes of warm up, 5 min Core exercises,
5 minutes in slow/medium pace
20 minutes of Hill Sprints or going at your hard pace
20-30 second Sprints (or hard pace) walk back to start (so your rest should be 60-120 seconds between)
If in Home -5-10 minutes of warm up and Core exercises.
1 min. Frog Jumps – Bend hips down and try to touch the ground with your fingers (keeping core tight), jump forward while bringing hips and arms up. Land and bring hips and arms back down before jumping backward and bring hips and arms back up again. Step forward and backward as an alternative to jumping
Rest for 30-60 sec
1 min. Cliff Climbers – high knee raises along with raising hands in the air. You can do this walking fast or jogging/running. Try bringing knees high every time and reaching high.
Rest for 30-60 sec
Repeat 2 exercises for 30 minutes
Cardio Workout #4
Recovery Day
5 min Core exercises
20-30 minutes at Slow Pace
10-15 minute COOL DOWN – Work on mobility/flexibility exercises.
Cardio Workout #5
Higher fitness levels – Sprints – 30 seconds hard 2 min rest – 30 minutes
Lower fitness levels – Go at your fast pace for 30 sec. then slow pace for 30 sec. 
Total time should be 20-30 minutes
Cardio Workout #6
30 Seconds of work, 30 Seconds off (rest)
Jump Ropes (or Jump rope in place), Log Jumps (like jumping over a log), Defensive Slides (4-5 feet back and forth), Jumping Jacks Fast, Squat jumps, Repeat two times (2 rounds)
Rest 2-3 Minutes
5 Minutes of Core exercises
10-15 minutes in slow to medium zone
Cardio Workout #7
2 Minutes in Slow, 2 Minute in Medium, 1 Minute in fast.
Try to get in 5 – 6 rounds or 25-30 minutes
Cardio Workout #8
5-10 Minutes of warm up, 5 min Core exercises, 5 minutes in slow/medium pace
1 minute Fast (hard or 100%) – 3 Minutes of rest (lower level fitness levels can change this to 2 min and 2 minutes) . 6-8 sets for 30 minutes
Cardio Workout #9
Recovery Day
5-10 minutes of core work – 1 min each of pillar bridges, kneeling opposites, ankle hugs, supermans, and scissor kicks
30-45 Minutes in SLOW Pace. This is a day just to get the blood flowing and burn some calories. Try to get at least 3 miles in.
Get You In Shape’s Blog on Interval training
Boost Your Workout With Interval Training
What is Interval Training
H.I.I.T. and different heart rate zones
Calories Burned with Resistance Training and Cardio
Resistance Training benefits over just cardio
Importance of Resistance Training
