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!

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!

By, Andrea Hughes, Discovery Learning Sales Team

I can’t believe it.  I look outside my window and I just cannot believe my eyes.  The sun…it’s burning bright in the sky…in London!! It’s finally happened.  The sun has proven it hasn’t forgotten about us!

Well, this has been a great summer so far and I can’t say I’m not enjoying it! Well, there are some things that I’m not enjoying.  The main one—the lack of good air conditioning in this city! The worst of which is my gym! I go in at 6:30 in the morning and basically walk in with the Gym Instructor and that’s when he switches on the air conditioning.  Well, it takes the gym about an hour to get cool and by the time it is I’m dripping in sweat (I mean, gracefully glowing), and it’s almost time to go home!

So, I’ve thought up some alternatives to training in my increasingly hot gym, and they also help us appreciate this amazing weather we’re experiencing.  My solution is to train outside! Obviously you have to be careful not to train when the weather’s at its hottest, but there are plenty of ways to train while still being comfortable and enjoying the weather!

Here are some ideas:

• Do your cardio outside, but make sure to run/walk/skip/hop in the morning or early evening before the weather gets too hot.
• Swim! Why not find a nice lido near you so you can get a great cardio workout and work on your tan at the same time?
• Grab a TRX and go! Training with a TRX offers a great full body workout and, the best part is, you can do it anywhere! You can hook it to a tree or post and go! It’s a great way to enjoy the weather and an even better way to keep fit!
• Kettlebells! You might want to keep this one closer to home as they might be a bit heavy to lug all over town, but they’re great because they provide the weight you need when training and they’re portable.  Always a favourite with outside training.
• Outdoor boot camps. These are so great because it’s practically like a PT session with someone pushing you, but for less money! And, if you’re a PT yourself, these are so popular at the moment because people are tired of the gym!
• Any other exercise that you can do on the go! Some ideas are: lunges, squats, press-ups, step ups, chin ups and duck walks.  All of these are effective exercises that can be done while appreciating this beautiful weather!

So, what are you waiting for? You and I know that this weather won’t be around forever—before we know it we’ll be in dreary November and we’ll all be complaining about the rain! Enjoy it while you can and get out of the gym to train! Now, if we can only figure out a way to move this office outside then we’ll be in business…

By, Louise Court, Discovery Learning Tutor and Assessor

I have worked in the fitness industry for over 10 years, and my passion has always been teaching fitness classes.

Once I passed my Exercise to Music (ETM) qualification the easiest way to get work was to apply to all the fitness centres, sports clubs and leisure centres in my area and get my name on the aerobics cover list.  The purpose of a cover list is to provide contact details to the aerobics co-ordinator of a centre (they are in charge on the aerobics timetable) of all the local ETM instructors in the area.  When the regular aerobics instructor is ill, the aerobics co-ordinator will call all the names on the list to get the class covered.  This is a great opportunity to get your name known in a centre and also to earn extra money.  For an aerobics class, you will be paid approx £20 – £25 per hour (depending on where you live).  If you deliver a fun, effective class and you are reliable, they are more likely to use you more frequently.  Permanent classes will come up and the aerobics co-ordinator could offer you the class.

If you are not yet qualified, but are interested in teaching classes please look at Discovery website www.discovery.uk.com/aerobics-instructor-training-course and look at the ETM course.