While it’s true that getting in 10,000 steps and
being active at least 30 minutes a day leads to better health, I believe
that quality workouts are more important than quantity (as in, getting
in as many miles as possible in a week).
Research has proven that workouts that incorporate
high intensity interval training (HIIT) promote better fitness benefits
(i.e., weight loss, fat loss, muscle gains = a leaner, more fit body)
than steady-state workouts (which improve overall
cardiovascular health), such as walking at a moderate pace. HIIT
workouts are when you simply do intervals of hard work mixed with
intervals of short active rest, like a run/walk interval program where
you are running for a short distance or time and then
walking for a short distance or time, rinse and repeat. Even if you
only plan to walk, you can set a timer to do intervals of very fast
walking mixed with intervals of moderate pace for recovery. Another
example of HIIT would be strength training mixed with
short bursts of sprints or jumping jacks mixed in. No matter which type
of HIIT you are incorporating into your week, you will see much faster
progress in your body and in your progress as a walker or runner. Be
careful not to do HIIT every day, though. Your
body can suffer from doing this type of workout too often. To burn more
calories throughout the week, mix steady-state cardio and/or strength
training with your HIIT workouts.
Gymboss makes a great interval timer that you can
purchase on Amazon.com, and they even created a free timer app for your
phone that you can use to set your intervals to help you do your HIIT
workouts.
See http://www.builtlean.com/2010/
A sample beginner’s run/walk HIIT workout program
(without strength training, which I highly recommend you should be
doing, though!) might be:
Monday: steady-state moderate walking 3 miles
Tuesday: HIIT 1.5 miles with ½ mile warm up and ½ mile cool down
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: HIIT 1.5 miles with ½ mile warm up and ½ mile cool down
Friday: rest
Saturday: HIIT 2 miles with ½ mile warm up and ½ mile cool down
Sunday: steady-state moderate walking 4 miles
Total: 15 miles
(Or if you’re going to take my advice and start
strength training, do two days of HIIT, one day of steady-state cardio,
and three days of strength training for the best fat-blasting benefits.)
Many beginners just start with a time goal instead
of the mileage goal. In a run/walk interval program, you want to start
out with short run intervals paired with longer walk intervals, such as
30 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes
of walking for a total of 30 minutes each day, 3-4 days a week.
Eventually, you work your way up to longer run intervals paired with
very short periods of walking, such as 10 minutes of running with a
minute of recovery walking. Many people complete “Couch
2 5K” plans and run races this way, and it works well for them, while
some use this method of training as a stepping stone to running distance
races with no recovery. Jeff Galloway is the inventor of the
run-walk-run method of racing. He believes that this
is how our bodies are meant to cover distance. You can read more about
him at
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/
Cool Running offers a free Couch 2 5K plan and a phone app, too. Here is a link to their running plan:
http://www.coolrunning.com/
There are others available online, as well.
Photo courtesy of: www.stephaniekeenan.com
Article by Cyrena Shows. Visit Love the Fit Life for more great tips and advice.
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