Fitness and Interval Training
Would you like to ramp up your fitness program? To lose weight faster and reach a higher level of fitness more quickly? You might try interval training.
Interval training uses both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Here’s how it works.
During aerobic exercise, you challenge your heart and lungs to work harder so that more oxygen is delivered to your muscles. During anaerobic exercise, which is higher intensity, you use the energy that is stored in the muscles. When you do that, lactic acid builds up in the muscles and you have an “oxygen debt.” That means that you have to send more oxygen to the muscles so they can metabolize the lactic acid. You pay back the oxygen debt during the aerobic phase of exercise.
When you exercise in intervals, your body begins to adapt by increasing the blood flow to your muscles and burning energy more efficiently.
When you do intervals, you alternate a slower exercise with a faster one. For instance, you might walk past one house and jog past the next one and then repeat the cycle.
There are a few things to remember about interval training:
- You should always check with your doctor before starting a training program, and this is especially true with interval training because you are increasing the demand on your heart, lungs and blood vessels.
- Never exercise to the point of extreme breathlessness or fatigue or chest pain.
- If you are very tired after exercising, you are working too hard during the intense intervals.
- Stretch before and after exercising.
- Start out slow and increase your level of exercise slowly. Don’t increase your level of exercise more often than about once a week, and increase either the intensity or the duration, not both. That means, either increase the rate at which you walk, or how long you walk, but not both.
Interval training is a challenge, but if you are in good health, it’s a good way to get fit and healthy faster.