27 January 2010

Interval Training 2 (Duration Approximately 25 minutes)

Go to your local park, common or athletics ground or anywhere that has a hill or set of steps.

Jog around for 5-10 minutes performing mobilisation exercises (shoulder circles, heel flicks etc) and short controlled sprints (10-20 metres / 18 yard line on a football pitch) to fully warm up.

For beginners even a few steps 10-20 or a hill with a slight gradient will be beneficial to start off with and overtime you can make it progressively harder.

The more advanced your fitness the steeper or longer the hill should be or the more steps you should run up.

Once ready perform a 50% warm up sprint to the top of the steps / hill so that you familiarise yourself with the area and watch out for any potential trip hazards.

Then as active recovery jog or slow walk back down to the bottom making sure that you’ve rested for 60-90 seconds.

Then perform a 75% sprint to the top of the steps / hill and same recovery time on way down.

Then after that depending on your fitness level perform 15-20 minutes of step / hill sprints.

For beginners keep the sprints around 75-80% of maximum effort and for advanced exercisers go for 95-100% of maximum effort every time and adjust your recovery levels accordingly.

You’ll most probably become a bit slower and more tired towards the end of the sprints but still try to work hard.

Afterwards perform a good controlled cool down and stretch and if you want to make the session longer then combine with a continuous / steady state jog afterwards or sit ups, weights etc.