Interval Training - Revisited!

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."

- Hebrews 12:1

I've written about interval training and steady-state cardio in previous blogs including my most recent blog on how to combine interval training with steady-state cardio for the best fat loss results. However, I wanted to revisit the issue since it causes much confusion when someone is trying to lose fat or increase conditioning.

If you are limited in the amount of time you have to train, and you want to maximize your fat loss, then you will need to address your diet and resistance training program first.

As mentioned in the Hierarchy of Fat Loss, if you only have 3 hours to train each week, your diet and metabolic resistance training program will be the most important thing to address. However, if you have more time, you would want to include interval training and so on and so forth as described in the article.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I've also used the Tabata method. Although Tabata's may not be ideal for fat loss (although there could be that benefit over time), they are good for anaerobic conditioning. That's one reason why I recommend using them as a finisher after a weight workout. Tabatas are short, but intense and won't interfere with your weight training or strength and hypertrophy goals.

If your goal is to gain strength or size while maintaining your body fat levels (or possibly losing some fat), then short conditioning workouts like Tabatas work well.

I have also used the various methods posted in the Metabolic Acceleration Training blog for conditioning benefits. These are the methods that Alwyn Cosgrove has used with phenomenal results with his clients. And when it comes to research vs. real-world results, the real-world results prove their effectiveness.

There are also countless studies showing the benefits of intervals for fat loss and conditioning over traditional steady-state aerobic exercise. In fact, Alwyn Cosgrove put many of those studies in his Real World Fat Loss manual and DVD (many of which are also posted on his blog).

The reality is that there are not as many studies proving the effectiveness of the various metabolic acceleration methods he (and others) has used - but again, real-world results trump what the research says. And if he is training more than 200 people each year at his facility and has been doing so for more than 10 years and has found those methods to be the most effective for the thousands of people he's trained, that says something!

Not only that, but from my own experience and experience training others, these various methods work far better than what I see the majority of people doing in the gym.

Putting It All Together
Designing a HIIT workout shouldn't be too difficult. You're going to alternate periods of high intensity with periods of moderate or low-intensity for your recovery. This, of course, will be dependent on your fitness level and is fully adjustable as needed.

For example, if you can't sprint for the time required, you could jog or perform a fast walk for your "intense" portion of the interval and then walk for your rest or recovery portion.

Another benefit to interval training is that it doesn't require a lot of time. Many people will start out with as few as three intervals for a total workout time of 9-10 minutes (after your 3-5 minute warm-up). As for how often to perform interval training, I recommend anywhere from 1-3 days each week depending on the time you have available and your goals.

You can use a variety of methods for interval training (sprinting or jogging, jumping rope, weight circuits, bodyweight exercises, stationary bike, stair climber, rower, etc.) and you can use different work-to-rest ratios to make them more or less intense.

Typical work-to-rest ratios will be 1:2, 1:1.5 or 1:1. Which one you use will depend on your level of conditioning and goals. It would be a good idea to start with a 1:2 work-to-rest ratio and progress over time to 1:1.

Some of the most common work-to-rest ratios include the following:

• 30 secs "hard" (8-9 out of 10) with 60 secs "easy" recovery (4-6 out of 10)
• 30 secs "hard" with 45 secs "easy" recovery
• 30 secs "hard" with 30 secs "easy" recovery
• 45 secs "hard" with 90 secs "easy" recovery
• 45 secs "hard" with 75 secs "easy" recovery
• 45 secs "hard" with 45 secs "easy" recovery
• 60 secs "hard" with 120 secs "easy" recovery
• 60 secs "hard" with 90 secs "easy" recovery
• 60 secs "hard" with 60 secs "easy" recovery
• 90 secs "hard" with 180 secs "easy" recovery
• 90 secs "hard" with 90 secs "easy" recovery
• 120 secs "hard" with 120 secs "easy" recovery

From what I've researched (Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Ballantyne seem to have the most information), 60-second "hard" intervals seem to be the most effective for fat loss. But 30- and 45-second intervals are also effective. I've used intervals ranging from as little as 10 seconds (using a Tabata-type interval) up to 120 seconds.

A sample interval training program for someone new to this type of exercise would be as follows:

• Warm-up: 3-5 minutes (fast walk, jog, bike, bodyweight circuit, etc.)
• Interval 1: Perform 30-second "hard" (8-9 out of 10) interval
• Recovery 1: Perform 60-second low-to-moderate-intensity (4-6 out of 10) recovery period
• Interval 2: Perform 30-second "hard" interval
• Recovery 2: Perform 60-second low-to-moderate-intensity recovery period
• Interval 3: Perform 30-second "hard" interval
• Recovery 3: Perform 60-second low-to-moderate-intensity recovery period
• Cool down: Perform 3-minute walk, slow jog, bodyweight circuit or bike

That's just one way to start out using a 1:2 work-to-rest ratio and a 30-second "hard" interval with a 60-second "easy" recovery period. For more ideas, see my blog How to Perform Interval Training.

In addition, here's a good article that John Berardi posted on his blog today about the topic of interval training, steady-state cardio and how to progress: Exercise Progressions

If you have any questions, let me know!

Warp Speed Fat Loss - Days 23 through 28!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

I must once again apologize for not making consistent updates to my blog about the Warp Speed Fat Loss program. I've been so busy and have had such limited time that I haven't even had a few moments to update my blog for the last week.

I do have a confession to make. I have not trained since last Monday, June 2 (Day 22). As I mentioned in my last blog post, I did my best to stay healthy while traveling to and from the Perform Better Seminar in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, I became very ill after returning home and was sick, sore and too tired to train.

Not only that, but I was swamped at work and at home the entire week. I had a ton of work to catch up on during the week and had a few late nights at work as well as several late nights at home trying to organize some things around the house and catch up on a few chores and projects. I was lucky if I had 5-6 hours of sleep each night for the entire week. I finally had about 8 hours of sleep this past weekend (the end of the program).

However, although I wasn't able to train from Tuesday - Saturday, I still followed the Warp Speed Fat Loss meal plans. Ironically, I lost three pounds during that time period from following the diet only. Prior to this, I had only lost two pounds. That means a total weight loss of five pounds in 28 days on Warp Speed Fat Loss.

Now, that may not seem like much, but you have to remember that I was already fairly lean when I began the program (13-14%), and I have gotten quite a bit leaner while only losing a total of five pounds. This means that I actually gained muscle and lost fat at the same time.

Stacey had reached her lowest weight of 151lbs (a 5-6lb loss) at the end of the third week. However, because I was sick and didn't train during the last week, she took the week off from training. She continued to follow the meal plans during the week, but she did veer from the plan a few times. She ended up gaining back two pounds and ended up at 153lbs (still lower than her starting weight of 157lbs at the beginning of the program).

I have mentioned some of the training-related variety issues that we faced while following the Warp Speed Fat Loss plan in previous blogs, and I will talk about that more in my next blog along with some specific ideas and feedback that I believe to be crucial to the success of the plan.

Not only that, but I recently found out from Mike Roussell that we were not included in the Member's-only section of the site and never received many of the additional email updates and add-ons to the program. This has been fixed, and I just received access to the files as of yesterday!

There are several additional files that would have been helpful to have prior to beginning the program. At least I can go back and read the materials and watch the movie files and listen to the audio files and see if we were on track or missed something along the way that could have accelerated our progress.

Although we are technically finished with the 28-day program, we have decided to continue using the meal plans, but we have switched over to Alwyn Cosgrove's Afterburn 2 program. This is the program I had begun using prior to Warp Speed Fat Loss. It's also very similar in many ways as it utilizes circuits, intervals and a variety of rep ranges throughout the training program.

What I like about Afterburn 2 is that the training is 3-5 days per week (depending on the phase) rather than six days and it uses undulating periodization for the set/rep scheme throughout the same training week.

Also, as I mentioned before, our only true method of interval training is sprinting outside or the use of bodyweight or kettlebell circuits since we don't have access to cardio machines. With Afterburn 2, intervals are performed twice per week and the Tabata method is performed 1-2 times per week. There is also no steady-state cardio on this particular plan. I think this will help us since we have limited access to cardio equipment and will not have the constant pounding of sprinting or jogging aggravating our knees, shins, ankles and feet.

In the current phase, we'll be training three days per week with everything being performed in the same training day. So it looks like this:

Workout A & B (Alternate each workout throughout the week)
Week 1:
Mon - Workout A
Wed - Workout B
Fri - Workout A

Week 2:
Mon - Workout B
Wed - Workout A
Fri - Workout B

Repeat for Week 3 and 4

A) Barbell Complex 5x4 (different complex for Workout A and B)

B1 - B4) Weight Circuits (different exercises and sets/reps each training day)

C) Ab exercise 2-3 sets of 10 reps

D) Finisher x1-2 sets

Cardio A (intervals - 1:1.5 work to rest ratio for 8-10 sets) or Cardio B (Tabata method)

Although there are many similarities to Warp Speed Fat Loss, it is missing the steady-state cardio and uses different frequency and intensity for the interval training. But Afterburn 2 does add the barbell complexes and finishers. In the end, it basically comes down to the same thing: A lot of hard work that creates a huge metabolic disturbance in the body thus raising metabolism and EPOC while burning a lot of calories!

This should definitely help us continue to achieve our fat loss goals while not having to train as often as we did during Warp Speed Fat Loss. Because of our schedule, we can use a few extra days off during the week to rest and also take care of other chores, projects, volunteer activities, etc.

Since we are still following the meal plans and adjusting as needed, we should continue to burn fat and get good results! Also, I will post more about the Warp Speed Fat Loss program in my next blog and possibly a few more. Overall, I highly recommend this program. Although we didn't completely finish the 28 days as written, we did have great success with the program beyond just the fat loss (I'll talk more about that later).

Tabata Interval Training!

"I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified." - 1 Corinthians 9:27

Thursday's workout was short but very intense. After a 2 1/2-minute bodyweight warm-up consisting of squats, pushups, lunges, mountain climbers and a few other exercises, I used the Tabata method for a four-minute workout to help burn fat and elevate my metabolism. I finished with another 2 1/2-minute bodyweight cool down using similar exercises as the warm-up.

The Tabata method was developed by Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan in 1996. In the study, Dr. Tabata compared the effects of moderate-intensity endurance training (aerobic) and high-intensity intermittent training (Tabata intervals) on VO2 max and anaerobic capacity.

The results of the study: The moderate-intensity training group produced a significant increase in VO2 max of about 10%, but it had no effect on anaerobic capacity. The high-intensity training group improved their VO2 max by about 14% while increasing anaerobic capacity by 28%. Dr. Tabata's group also found that short-term intense interval training is highly effective in lowering the ratio of lean body mass to fat without compromising your muscle size. The study was done over a six-week period. Both groups worked out 5 days per week.

One of the hardest aspects of performing a Tabata workout is staying focused for the whole four minutes. It only takes 6-to-8 very hard 20-second intervals with 10-second rest periods to substantially improve both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity (while burning fat).

My exercise of choice for this particular Tabata workout was the burpee.

The burpee is an extremely effective conditioning exercise. It combines a pushup with a squat and a jump. Done at a fast pace, this is one of the best overall bodyweight conditioning exercises you can perform. A burpee utilizing the Tabata method makes it even more brutal! The work periods (20 seconds) may seem short, but done at a blistering pace, the effects build up quickly. A 10-second rest period is barely enough time to catch your breath. But if you push through, you'll be done in only 4 minutes.

In addition to the burpee, many other exercises can be used with the Tabata method. Ideally, you want to use an exercise that works as much of the body as possible. Some good choices include:

Sprints
Thrusters (front squat to push press complex)
Front Squats
Bodyweight Squats
Pushups
Jump Rope

If 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest is too difficult, there are a few ways to progress. For weeks 1-4, you can use the Tabata method once per week with 10-second work periods and 20-second rest periods. For weeks 5-8, you can perform 15-second work periods and 15-second rest periods and for weeks 9-12, you can perform the full 20-second work periods with the 10-second rest periods.

A word of caution: Tabata intervals are very intense and should only be used by those who already have a high level of conditioning and no health problems. Also, Tabata intervals should not be used too frequently. For one, they are hard. Two, because the workouts are short it's best to mix shorter more intense workouts like Tabatas with longer, intense workouts such as interval training and other high intensity interval methods (both anaerobic and aerobic).

For those of you who want to see the original abstract for the Tabata interval study, point your browser HERE.