Interval Training for Beginners

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN
myTreadmillTrainer.com

Today, I am going to take you through a beginner interval training workout. Let’s say that you are not comfortable running for a long period of time, but you enjoy running on the treadmill.

Maybe you just need a bit more guidance. Maybe you want to push yourself a little bit more from a walk into a light jog.

I’m going to give you a sample of one of my workouts.

Start out on the treadmill in a nice, light walk. Just get the body warm and the muscles nice and elastic. You can walk at this pace for 3 or 4 minutes. What we want to do instead of walking or running for a long period of time is to break it up into intervals. Intervals mean reccurring bouts of different levels of intensity. Your low intensity will be a walking pace. At a walking pace, also known as a talk test pace or zone, you can carry on a conversation.

Walking is great, but after awhile you may want to get into a zone that is a little more challenging. If you can’t run for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, that’s ok!

What we’re going to do is chunk it down.

For instance, from a walk, take it into a very light jog. Go for just 30 seconds. There are a lot of different protocols you can follow when you are doing intervals. A very basic one for a beginner would be to do 30 seconds of a nice light jog followed by a minute and a half of walking. The ratio here is 3:1. You are resting for 90 seconds and working for 30 seconds. As you get fit, those ratios will change.

Once you have walked for 90 seconds, bring the pace back up for another 30 seconds. Get back into a zone where you’re in a nice light jog – nothing too crazy.

You want to get to a point where it’s going to become a little more challenging to carry on a conversation. If you can hear your breathing, a little bit of a huff and puff, that is where you want to be for that 30 second jog. That means you are outside of your talk test zone and that is where you want to be.

Again, when the 30 seconds is up, bring the pace back down into a walk for a minute and a half.

So, that is a simple interval that you can follow on the treadmill. You can repeat that for 10, 15, or 20 minutes, however long you want.

The beautiful thing is that you get to build up some confidence and allow your body to experience running on a more consistent basis because we’re breaking up the work. Instead of running for 5 minutes and being done, we can break it up over time with walking.

In the end, you can run longer and get fitter than you would otherwise!

=> CLICK HERE for the best interval training workout for beginners!