Interval Training Resources
Rediscover Your Native Fitness, Dr Al Sears
My first contact with the method was Dr Al Sears' book. Dr Sears has been practicing and
developing this method for 30 years. The book is comprehensive and eye-opening. Thoroughly recommended if book
tuition suits your style.
Buy it at:
http://www.alsearsmd.com/pace/
A number of trainers and nutritionists have developed programmes based around interval
training to help men and women develop a lean healthy body
Here are some of them:
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/get-ripped-abs.html
http://www.turbulencetraining.com/index_aff.shtml
You can try the P90X system which used to called Power 90 Extreme, now it's just P909X. It
promises to get you from "regular to lean, bulked up or ripped" in 90 days. That's girls as well - lose that tum
and shape up!
This is a set of DVDs which develop your muscle/fat balance around the interval training
method. They use 'muscle confusion' to stop your improvements plateau-ing.
If a programme will keep you on track - this could be it!
Here's a Youtube of someone's development over 90 days using this
programme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZciY7ymPmU
It's distributed by beachbody.com
http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/best_sellers/p90x.do
Check these out if you want, and see if you take to them. It is essential to have some sort of
guide and one of these may appeal rather than the Dr Al Sears book which has been my guide. It's a question of what
appeals to you.
Equipment
Spirometer. Why not get a spirometer to measure your lung capacity? That way you can see
how it improves after your first 6 weeks and second 6 weeks of interval training. Lung capacity normally shrinks as
you are: use interval training to reverse that trend!
I bought one from eBay for about £15 ($25). This included shipping from the USA.
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A machine to "do interval training for you"
If you have $14,000 to spare, you might like to buy a ROM exerciser (from California).
Apparently, Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone have one.
Because it works on several muscles groups a day, and gives you alternate muscles groups
for alternative day, you only need 4 minutes a day exercise. Very California - but I sort of want one. (I also need
a room and $14,000)
http://www.fastexercise.com/
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Free Resources
Here is a taster of Al Sears' method - a 6 minute workout you can print out on 2 sides of
a4. And don't be fooled into thinking it's lame - it's a real stinker!
http://www.alsearsmd.com/fat-burning-exercise.html
Here is a video of a home workout using just your body weight to give you a thorough
interval training workout - you can do this anywhere, with zero equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9bIN7MrZhI
This guy is doing a similar method but with shorter sets. He also used quite a bit of
equipment. But it's interesting to see, and might give you some ideas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Daom_Qqbo
Here's a tougher routine, again with little equipment. It's called a HIIT workout - High
Intensity Interval Training. Again, you might get some ideas for yourself. As with the approach above, it uses 20
seconds of exertion and 10 seconds of rest, then onto the next activity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZxTANP1JX8
Here is some background information about Interval Training
http://exercise.about.com/cs/cardioworkouts/g/intervaltrainin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_training
A history of training methods for athletes
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article005.htm
"Franz Stampfl, an Austrian living in the U.K. applied interval training principles to his
coaching and it was his methods that guided Roger Bannister to the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. "
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