How to Make Interval Training More Interesting and Effective

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of pharmacy technician certification. Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: [email protected]

Change Up Your Interval Training Strategy

Interval Training

I enjoyed going for a jog early each morning, for about a month or so that is.

When it started to become boring and monotonous, I discovered interval training. So I varied my routine to sprint and then jog for 300 meters and 100 meters respectively.

It kept me going for a while, but then, I began to lag and find excuses not to go.

There’s no doubt that it’s one of the best ways to lose weight and improve fitness, but if you want to stay the course with interval training, you must find ways to make it more interesting.

And to that end, here’s what I did (and what you can do too) to make interval training more interesting and more effective:

• Rope in a partner: This works for all forms of working out. When you do it with a buddy or your spouse, you tend to stick to it for a longer period of time.

  You also find motivation to keep going, because it becomes a competition of sorts, one that spurs you on to try and beat your partner in losing weight faster and in becoming fitter. Besides this, you don’t find excuses to skip your workout.

• Vary your routine: The mistake I made was to run around in circles, figuratively and literally. I used a 400 meter track for my workout and this became monotonous after a while.

  I decided to vary my routine, and so I tried cycling one day, running another, and jogging on the treadmill on the third. I also took to swimming and jogging on the streets. I found that the variety helped sustain my interest.

• Think of the benefits: When I stopped training for a while, my weight began to creep up and I could no longer button my jeans without sucking in my stomach. That was when I decided that I had to do something to keep my figure, the one I worked so hard to get.

  So I made it a point to exercise, at least four times a week. This allowed me to eat what I wanted instead of having to deprive myself of foods that would otherwise make me put on weight.

• Take up a sport: When you take up interval training, you become fitter and leaner. You’re also more flexible and agile because your muscles are well developed and toned. This helps you excel at a sport.

  I found that my racquetball skills went up by more than a notch when I switched to interval training. When you play a sport well, you want to keep improving your skills. And when interval training helps boost your stamina, you find that you want to keep going.

Before you being interval training, warm up for around 10 minutes or so and cool down when you’re done. Don’t train for more than 20 minutes a day as you’re going to be pushing yourself if you do.

Start out slowly if you’re new to this form of exercise so as not to injure yourself.

Tags: hiit, interval training, intervals

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