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Lead Stories: Friday, September 5, 2008

Pressed for Time?
Try Interval Training

Posted October 15th, 2007 at 10:26 PM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Exercise

The following article is written by TFS Media’s Lindsay Hutton.

If you’ve been watching television lately, you’ve probably been bombarded with the latest fitness trends claiming the average person can get away with doing about 10 minutes of cardio a week and still lose weight. In a society where lack of time is the number one reason people give for not exercising, 10 minutes a week sounds too good to be true. Well, unfortunately it is, but while this claim is a stretch (a BIG stretch), there is some truth behind the “less is more” concept.

For those that are not familiar with interval training (in it’s basic form - it can be adapted for marathon runners, etc.), it consists of exercise that incorporates short bursts (think 30-60 seconds) of high intensity activity followed by a longer period of low intensity recovery. For example, a basic interval training program would consist of walking briskly for two minutes, sprinting for one minute, and alternating this pattern for 20 minutes.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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At what intensity should endurance athletes train?

Posted October 3rd, 2007 at 7:35 PM by Shannon Clark

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Exercise

One question that some endurance runners ask themselves is how much of their training they should be dedicating towards higher intensity runs and how much of their training is better off at low intensity. The common thought would be that since they are training for endurance, they should train in a similar manner. Some coaches and professionals however believe that training at higher speeds will help to improve their total body conditioning better and thus simply transfer over to a better performance during endurance related events.

Some researchers recently set out to run some tests on just this. The study was designed to compare the effect of two different training programs on endurance performance, one that comprised a great portion of training time in a lower intensity zone and a second that comprised more time in a higher intensity zone.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HesFit.com

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