Ok, here's the skinny on what happened at the Gym last night. First I spoke to a weightroom instructor on the Aerobics vs treadmill issue, he said that the treadmill is more for endurance purposes even though it gives you a good cardio workout but that the Aerobics would be better for the same exact reason as you've advised, interval workout! Hes said the instructors increase and decrease the level of intensity frequently so you work your heart rate at the it's optimum level, he suggested that I can do 15 minutes on the treadmill before doing the aerobics and still do the lifting all in one workout. The only problem I am running into with this are the times of the Aerobics classes so I am not sure at this point that Aerobics will become a part of my regular schedule but I will still try to take it as often as possible.
Since I can't rely on the Aerobics becuase of what's explained above, I will -continue to make the treadmill workout my bread and butter, so to speak.
Last night, I started with 5 minutes 3.0 speed and 3.0 incline as a warmup, then increased the speed to 3.5 and the incline to 6.0 for 2 minutes [becuase that's how long it took for me to get a ltitle short of breath] then I
went down to 3.0 on the incline for 90 seconds [because that's how long it took for my breathing to get back to normal], I kept on doing this until the last 5 minutes when I did the work interval for 4 minutes then the 5 minute cool down to end the workout.
What I noticed about myself from the above workout is that I recover quickly and I think I need a little more intense work interval, at 2 minutes work interval I was taking really 75 seconds to get my breathing back to normal, at 4 minutes work interval I was taking close to 2minutes to get my breathing back to normal. What can you make of this pelase? Where am I going worng and what can I do to make it better please? Would appreciate your analysis and suggestion, thanks!
Well done !
First of all, as with anything new, you have to go thru an intial process of ' trial & error ' to find an interval protocol that you feel best meets your needs.
Remember, there are a few variables you can play with here when it comes to interval training, for example ,in your case it's the duration, speed and incline of your intervals when walking......
- vary the duration of the work interval up or down
- vary the speed of the work interval up or down
- vary the incline of the work interval up or down
- vary the duration of the recovery interval up or down
- vary the speed of the recovery interval up or down
- vary the incline of the recovery interval up or down
So, in your case, you started at...
work.......2 minutes at level 6 @ 3.5 mph
recover.....1.5 minutes at level level 3 @ 3.5 mph
...but found it wasn't taxing you enough. Fair enough.
That protocol is 1 to .75. IMO, you want to try and extend the time your heart is recovering under duress - the goal is to try and get your heart to ' adapt ' to be able to function effectively under more stress. So, with some other people, you may see the usual protocol closer to something like 1:2 - for some, it might be 1:1, 1:3, 1:4 depending on your fitness level etc. tc. . Again there is no hard and fast rule - so you simply have to play around with the variables ( I noted above ) for a bit. For example, let's say you want to try and stick to a 1:2 protocol and you want to try for 1 minute of work and 2 minutes of recovery. You might try, just as an example, options like.....
work - 1 minute at level 10+ @ 3.5 mph
or,
work - 1 minute at level 6 + @ 6 mph ( if your knees can handle it )
etc. etc.
now to recover, you might opt for an interval a bit more ' active '. You might try, just as an example, options like.....
recover - 2 minute at level 5 @ 3.5 mph ( assuming you do level 10+ @ 3.5 mph )
or,
work - 2 minutes at level 4 @ 4 mph ( assuming you do level 6 + @ 6 mph
...you get the idea. Generally speaking, the harder and longer you go in your work interval, the longer it will take you to get your breath back in your recovery interval. And of course, how hard you go in your work interval is a function of how fit your are - and how well your knees hold up !
