Rochester NY Personal Trainers Advice on Interval Training for Beginners
Whenever someone asks me how they should start out to exercise, I tell them to just get moving!
Try to get some physical activity everyday—try walking or jogging around your neighborhood, strength training, any sports you enjoy, take an aerobics class, swim, or whatever works for you. If you can do that, you’ll get healthier before you know it.
Any exercise program that promises instant results in a week or two is either lying to you or expects you to exercise 5 or more hours a week. Because if you don’t change your lifestyle or habits, you’ll just go back to your old habits or get burned-out from overdoing your exercises. Don’t expect quick results when you get active, but you’ll see long-term benefits if you stick with it and you’ll have fun along the way too.
By the way, what you eat is just as important. Make small changes to your diet. Try drinking water instead of soda on your first week, then go for leaner cuts of meat (or go vegetarian) on your second week. Perhaps you can cut out fried foods on the third week, and eat more fruits and veggies by the fourth, and so on and so forth until you’ve made changes to your diet. The nutrition guidelines will guide you in planning your meals, making the right choices, how to read nutrition labels, etc. Click here to download your nutrition guidelines.
Here are my recommendations for beginners who want to start an exercise program:
Word of caution--before you start any exercise program, always check with your doctor first.
Your body needs time to adjust to exercise. If you overdo it you’ll get injured or burned-out. Besides, neither one of these is good if you’re going to stick with it the long term. Take small steps such as 10 minute work-outs twice a day, then moving it up to 15 minute work-outs the following week.
Interval training for Beginners:
Interval training is a great way to get intense exercise without overdoing it. It can also be a lot more fun than those long, boring steady-state cardiovascular exercise I mentioned in the previous article.
Start out with a warm-up of light cardiovascular exericise such as walking or riding on a stationary bike for about 8 minutes. Personally, I prefer to warm up with body-weight exercises such as walking lunges, prisoner squats, kneeling push-ups, and modified pull-ups. If you’re in a gym, you can warm-up on circuit machines with little or no added weight. Warm-ups should be about 5-10 minutes.
After the warm-up, pick up the pace for 30–60 seconds, then walk at a normal pace for 1–2 minutes to recover. Depending on your level of fitness, picking up the pace could mean a fast walk, a light jog, running or sprinting. If you feel faint or light-headed, slow down and stop. The feeling of nausea or lightheadedness will not immediately go away and it would be better to just cool down and stop.
Start off by doing a 10-minute interval, then cool down to a normal pace for 5 minutes. All together you should set aside about 30 minutes of exercise.
Another form of interval training is to alternate body weight exercises with the cardio. For example, pick up the pace for 1-2 minutes, then get on your knees (or toes) and do 8-10 push-ups. You can also try single leg squats – lift one leg and squat with the other. This is a great core work-out as well. If you are at the gym, you can use any of the strength training equipment to assist you with the strength training part. Ask a fitness trainer to show you how to use the equipment properly. Proper form is essential in any strength training routine.
Gradually add more intervals until you’re up to 40 minutes. You can also, slowly increase the length of your intervals. Instead of 30–60 seconds, do 60–90 seconds on the high intensity part. Intervals are a great way to burn calories (assuming of course that you are eating fairly healthy and not overeating) strengthen your leg muscles and core, and just get healthier overall.
Personal Trainers of Greece, NY will help you get all the benefits of exercise. We check form, alignment, and change workout routines regularly. Our weight loss program also includes nutritional advice or diet, weekly weight monitoring and monthly body assessments.
