Interval training has gained in popularity over the last few years, but it is far from a new scientific practice. I actually don’t know who first coined the term ‘interval training’ but it’s been around as long as we’ve been doing exercise (i.e. since ancient Greek/Roman times), but it wasn’t really until the 1970’s that it started to be studied in sports science laboratories.

Interval training has gained in popularity due to a number of great research articles coming out that showed shorter more intense workouts were better at burning fat and delivering fitness capacity gains than one paced cardio sessions.(steady state cardio is the actual term).

It’s because of these studies that a new type of interval training has been popularised.

It’s called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

HIIT is the type of training that I use with a lot of my clients and in a lot of my programs as it gives great results. However, it does not mean that HIIT is the only type of interval training you can do.

Have you ever heard of Fartlek training?

It’s a Swedish word that means Speed Play.
Unlike HIIT it uses lots of different and varying levels of intensity to deliver results.

So your typical HIIT would look something like this:

Work Hard for 20 secs (resistance training or some form of cardio machine, running outdoors)

Rest 10 secs

Repeat for 4-5 minutes.

Rest 1-2 mins and then do another set of exercises.

A typical Fartlek Program might look a little like this:

5 mins easy jog

5 mins fast pace run

2 mins flat out pace run

100m strides (i.e.over striding type drills or skipping type drills), rest 30 secs x 5-10

5 mins easy jog

10 x Hill sprints with walk back recovery

Etc etc

Until you have completed a workout that lasts 30-50 minutes.

So not all of work would be carried out at a really high intensity.

You can also apply this sort of thing to a cardio workout on a fitness machine. So that you may just have small and less intense changes in the interval ‘paces’. If you are only able to walk for instance then you might do this:

Walk @ 6 km/h up a 7.5 gradient for 5 mins

Walk @ 6.5 km/h up a 5 gradient for 5 mins

Walk @ 5.5 km/h up a 10 gradient for 5 mins

Etc etc

By now you should be getting the idea that if you are not ready to do HIIT then you can still get some of the benefits by working at lower intensities. So there is no excuse to continue with your long, slow, boring, one paced cardio workout anymore.

So what's the myth I hear you say...well the myth is that interval training has to be of the high intensity type. You'll get decent results doing lower intensity intervals (maybe not as good as with HIIT) but then not everyone is at a level where they can do HIIT.

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