- There are many types of interval training, and according to a recent study published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, finding the type you enjoy the most will boost your motivation to do it regularly.
- If you tend to focus on one type of activity, like cycling, intensity-style training provides a nice burst of cross-training, and that can help prevent injury.
Maybe you’ve tried high-intensity interval training (HIIT) as a way to balance out your riding and didn’t love it. But have you tried SIT?
A recent study in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise found that adding interval exercises into an everyday routine can have major benefits even for inactive people—but not all interval training is the same.
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Researchers looked at 30 young adults who didn’t exercise regularly, and asked them to complete three cycling trials in a lab setting on separate days. They did HIIT on one day, and sprint-interval training (SIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on the other days.
HIIT consisted of sessions performed at about 80 percent of a participant’s maximum heart rate. SIT shortened up the bouts of activity in an “all-out effort” approach, while MICT had a lower maximum heart rate and longer periods of low-intensity rest. All sessions were the same duration—around 20 to 25 minutes.
Even seemingly minor variations, like changing your rate of exertion, can have a significant effect on your motivation to work out, researchers concluded. The takeaway, they suggested, is that people respond differently to various levels of intensity, and those responses influence participation.
The short version: Find the one you like best.
“The old saying is that the best training for you is the one you’ll actually do,” trainer Aaron Leventhal, C.S.C.S., owner of Minneapolis-based Fit Studios, told Runner’s World. “With interval training, that means finding the work-and-rest-time combination that makes you feel challenged but doesn’t leave you dreading the next workout.”
The other benefit of intensity-style training for those who tend to focus on one type of activity—like cycling—is that it provides a nice burst of cross-training, and that can help prevent injury, he added.
“Different types of movement can do an enormous amount for increasing your range of motion, engaging different muscle groups, and protecting your joints,” he said. “That can all have an effect on lowering risks related to repetitive activity that tends to use the same muscles repeatedly.”
Toward that end, it’s helpful not just to do HIIT sessions, he added, but also to mix those up, too. With just 15 to 20 minutes of work showing benefits, that could involve a blend of four or five exercises done in multiple sets, and best of all, that session could act as a dynamic warmup for your next long ride.
Elizabeth Millard is a freelance writer focusing on health, wellness, fitness, and food.
