By, Martina Spencer, Discovery Learning Assessor

Are you stuck with same old routine and bored out of your mind? Then try interval training! I had been thinking about it for long time and knew all benefits, but have never been brave to apply this type of training in to my cardio workouts.

However, on my holiday last year, I was forced to experience a full on interval training with no warning!!

I was holidaying in Cuba and decided to for 5k run one morning. As you might know, Havana has lots of nice 5* hotels on the outskirts of the town, and each hotel has long driveway from the main road, leading to hotel reception. There is gate on the bottom of the driveway, and there is little cabin near the entrance for security people to keep away from direct sunlight and unbearable heat.

I put my trainers on and off I went, running along main road. When I got to the next hotel, the security guy was smiling at me and I felt so great being outside……life is great

That’s when I saw the little dog getting ready to chase me out of his territory. My face froze in horror. I like dogs, but those cute, nice and fluffy ones….not the vicious hungry Cuban dogs who will bite my heels if they catch me! I started sprinting to save my life!! I knew its only 200 meters until the gate so I put in the effort and escaped from the yappy dog. I could relax, until I reached another security cabin from the next hotel…and guess what…another dog chasing me again so had to run for my life again!! I must say, at the time it was really scary, but I actually enjoyed it because my workout wasn’t so boring.

Not convinced by interval training? Here are few facts which might convince you:

1. Interval training has been the basis for athletic training routines for years. The first forms of interval training, called “fartlek” involved alternating short, fast bursts of intensive exercise with slow, easy activity. Fartlek was casual, unstructured training that perfectly fit its English translation: “speed play.”

2. Interval training works both the aerobic and the anaerobic system.

3. Interval training also helps prevent the injuries often associated with repetitive endurance exercise, and they allow you to increase your training intensity without overtraining or burn-out

4. If you are counting calories burned, high intensity exercise such as intervals are better than long, slow endurance exercise

Next time you go for your run, try interval training and see all benefits yourself!

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By, Caroline Newton, Discovery Learning Programme Director

I have been going to gym about 4 times a week for a while now and have started to get bored. So, I dug out my old workouts and came across the PHA training system that I used to use. I dusted of the cobwebs and decided to try it again to kick start my training again. The reasons why I came back to these systems was because it is fun, time efficient, ideal for toning up muscle, it works the whole body, excellent calorie burning workout and a excellent CV session.

PHA is short for ‘Peripheral heart Action’ and key aim of the approach is to train at high intensity without lactic acid building up and developing local muscular fatigue. It is specifically designed to keep the blood circulating through the whole body without it localising in one area. It is similar to circuit training, but your choice of resistance exercises are on the opposite ends of the body (e.g. upper body and lower body), therefore preventing blood becoming localised and lactic acid building up. The objective is to allow one muscle group to rest, while working another at the same time keeping the heart elevated, therefore eliminating the need to do a separate aerobic workout later.

There are a number of variations for the PHA depending on your goal and what you want to achieve. But the basic sequence of exercise is similar for most goals which is:

• Compound leg
• Compound upper body push exercise
• Compound leg (separate exercise from the first exercise)
• Compound upper body pull exercise

Run through all the exercises in sequence one after each other without rest until you get to the last exercise in the sequence. You can then have a rest 1-2 minutes then. The rep ranges and number of sets you do of the sequence will depend on the goal you wishing to achieve. But you would normally do about 3-4 sets of the sequence of exercises. You will have about 2-3 separate sequences of exercises in one workout (depending on your time).

I wanted to focus on my Muscular Endurance, CV fitness, toning up and weight loss. So my goal was to keep my heart rate up between 75% and 85% max heart rate.

Therefore my routine looks something like this:

• Front squat (20-25 reps)
• Dumb bell chest press on ball (20-25 reps)
• Persian one legged squat (20-25 reps)
• Bent over row (20-25 reps)
• 500m row (on ergometer)
• Repeat 3 times

Then move onto:

• Travelling lunges (20-25 reps)
• Press ups (20-25 reps)
• Hamstring curls on TRX (20-25 reps)
• Back row on TRX (20-25 reps)
• 500m row (on ergometer)

Repeat 3 times

Finally I finish off with a core circuit with 4 abdominal exercises back to back repeated 3 times.

By the time I finish this workout – I feel truly worked. I have lost 3 kgs in the last 3 weeks by performing this 3 times a week plus a personal trainer session and an extra CV session mixed in! I will keep you informed of my progress and hopefully more weight will come off!

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