Interval Training

Interval training is a good way to boost athletic performance and getting in shape. Stay within realistic parameters for your current level of conditioning, and you'll find it to be both among the quickest and safest ways to get noticeable results.

What is interval training, and how does it work? In a nutshell, you mix elements from aerobic and anaerobic exercises to gain benefits from both. With aerobic exercise such as jogging, you use oxygen to power the body in a rather lengthy, complex process. This is great for increasing stamina and burning body fat, for example.

Anaerobic exercise, i.e. weight lifting, jumping and so forth, uses instant energy stored in the muscles. It doesn't do much for burning fat per se, but it hikes overall metabolism and increases the brute strength and explosiveness of the muscles. Either type of exercise is good, but combining them makes for a nice double whammy. This way you get better stamina and explosiveness, your cardiovascular system gets trimmed with new capillaries and enhanced blood flow, and you get a nice metabolism boost.

One of the benefits of interval training is that it is extremely flexible. Almost no matter what your chosen sport, you can do this type of specialty training simply by alternating regular training with bursts of higher intensity exercise. For example, a bicyclist can make it a point to accelerate hard during uphills (or simply go all-out for a half-minute every five minutes, if the landscape is flat). A swimmer can make every third lap a full sprint while going normal to slightly slower than normal speed for the other two laps.

The anaerobic exercise that takes place during the sprint creates a kind of "oxygen debt" that forces you to back off and catch your breath. Some choose to rest entirely, but most settle for low-intensity exercise, such as jogging at a leisurely pace between the sprints rather than sitting down altogether. Hard data is scarce, but many trainers believe the latter is less stressful for the body in that it's less of a shock to the system with these repeated sudden bursts of intensity from a state of rest.

One popular form of interval training is "fartlek", a Swedish word that means "speed play." These are fairly long exercise sessions (often an hour or more) customized to your abilities, but the idea is to keep it interesting and fun. For example, you warm up, run fairly hard for a mile, walk or lightly jog for five minutes, then alternate between full sprints for 30 seconds / three to five minutes light jogging a couple times before starting over with the mile of fairly hard running. You can do two to four complete cycles, competing against a friend or yourself.

Another popular option is the walk-back sprint, where you decide on a distance, sprint full speed and then walk back to the starting point. Lather, rinse, repeat until you're good and exhausted.

The good news about interval training is that it is highly flexible and doesn't have the kind of continuous wear on joints and ligaments that most other sports provide. On the other hand, those spikes of intensity do tax your system so it is important to set the bar according to your abilities. If you're largely inactive today, you should phase into interval training by doing lots of walking and light jogging for a couple months at least, gradually cranking up the effort before introducing medium-intensity, short sprints to gauge your body's reaction.

Also, warming up is very important -- set aside at least 10 minutes for getting your blood flowing and some light stretching beforehand, and do at least five minutes of cool down and stretching afterwards. This will both prevent injuries and speed up recovery time significantly. Good luck!

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