We’ve recently made an effort to add more cardio classes to our schedule to help our clients meet their weight loss goals. One of the best ways to burn the most calories and fat is through an interval workout.

Intimidating at first, interval training is ideal for both beginning exercisers as well as trained athletes.  Here’s a little run down on what to expect from an interval workout at CORE:

What is Interval Training?

You’ll alternate short bursts of high intensity work efforts with periods of lower heart rate recoveries. Recoveries can be anything from lower intensity work efforts all the way to complete rest.

Benefits

• Burn more calories and fat than a cardio endurance workout
• Boost your metabolism
• Helps prevent overuse injuries due to repetitive motion
• Increase cardiovascular endurance and fitness level
• Lower resting heart rate

How to do it

Interval workouts do not have to be done while running. Any workout where your heart rate spikes and then lowers is an interval workout. For example, both running sprints outside or taking a class like SPINNING®, Piloxing® or Cardio BOSU® all count as interval workouts.

At CORE, we favor using heart rate monitors to gage your level of intensity during a workout. This is hands down the most accurate way to ensure you are working hard enough on the hard parts and recovering in between. A basic interval workout looks like this:

• Warm up 5-10 minutes to increase heart rate to 120 beats per minute (BPM)
• Begin a lower intensity work effort between 65% and 75% of your maximum heart rate (MHR)
• Alternate with high intensity work efforts between 75% and 90% of you MHR, start with short 30 sec bursts
• Continue alternating through the workout
• Cool down 5-10 min to return heart rate to below 120 BPM

To do this you must know your maximum heart rate. You can follow this basic formula to calculate your MHR:

• Subtract your age from 220 (Example for a 40 year old: 220-40=180 bpm)
• To figure your ranges, multiply the result from above by the percentage (Example 90% of Max Heart Rate: 180*.90 = 162 bpm)

Combining aerobic and anaerobic intervals will give a boost to your workout routine helping you see a higher level of fitness and fat burning.  It can even make your regular workouts seem easier – we’ll see you soon to try it out!