Balance Blog

You may have been hearing a lot of about the pros of interval training lately. For example, this Associated Press story: “Interval Training Can Exercise Hours Sharply,” which says “intense exercise sessions could help people squeeze an entire week’s workout into less than an hour.”

So what exactly is interval training? Who does it? Can I do it? Does Balance Gym use it?  Thanks to Balance Trainer Ben Wiedemer, we can answer all your interval inquiries!

Q: What is interval training? 

A: At the very basic, interval training consists of short periods of high intensity work followed by periods of lower intensity work that allows the individual to recover.

Q:  Who has historically used interval training? Who uses this type of training now?

A: Historically interval training has been utilized mostly by athletes to improve their performance on the field, track, court etc.  In recent years, however, more and more non-athletes have embraced interval training, because it will dramatically improve an individual’s aerobic capacity to work at higher intensities.  At Balance Gym one of our goals is to help our clients improve their “work capacity”— or in other words— do more work (run, lift etc) in less time.

Q: Who would you recommend it to? 

A: Interval training is for everyone, particularly people new to they gym or those who have taken a bit of time off.  Interval training will help them to get “back in shape” or regain their previous levels of aerobic work capacity quicker then plodding away on a treadmill or elliptical. Furthermore, it should be a staple for any athlete, as any interval program can be designed to mimic the aerobic challenges the athlete will face on game day.

Q: Do you use it to train clients? What types of things do you do?

A: Absolutely! The simplest form of interval training would be to do sprints with a jog/walk back, i.e. sprint 50m then jog back to the start (this is the recovery phase). As soon as the client reaches the start they start the next sprint.  At Balance Gym, we often use the rowers  for our interval training, a typical row workout would be 10 rounds of one-minute sprints followed by one minute of recovery.

Q: If people wanted to get a taste of interval training at Balance, which classes would you recommend?

A: Certainly the Balance BootCamps are a great option, as are the spin classes, or the new Row Fit class at Balance Gym Thomas Circle offered Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 to 1:50 p.m.
So guys… have you used interval training before? How? Tell us in the comments below!