On the 8th Day, God Created the Schwinn Airdyne

I completely agree with Mike Boyle that there is no better piece of equipment for interval training than the Schwinn AirDyne (and it's a bargain when compared to other commercial cardio equipment). I love the AirDyne bike because the faster you pedal, the more wind resistance you get, and conversely, the slower you pedal the less you get. It's perfect for interval work. There are no buttons to push, nothing to adjust and you really cannot cheat. Plus, the dual action nature of the bike gets more muscles involved. 

Here are some of my favorite AirDyne workouts:

Basic Intervals

I'll usually start beginning clients with this format. Here is our progression:

• Week 1: 5 15 sec. intervals with 45 sec. rest in between. We add an interval each workout until they are performing 8 intervals and then we switch to...
• Week 2: 5 20 sec. intervals with 40 sec. rest in between. We progress in the same format, working up to 8 before switching to...
• Week 3: 5 25 sec. intervals with 35 sec. in between. Same progression format, working up to 8 intervals before the last progression...
• Week 4: 5 30 sec. intervals with 30 sec. in between. 

I give my clients either RPM or watt goals for the interval work periods. For males, I want 75-85 RPM. For females, 65-75 RPM.

Reverse Tabata Protocol

After a client has gotten some time under their belt performing traditional intervals, and have went through the above progression, I'll move them on to reverse tabata's. I don't have many clients perform the true Tabata protocol on the AirDyne, because, frankly, not many of them, regardless of fitness level, could handle it (and they probably wouldn't come back for their next workout which impacts my income :). However, I do like the reverse Tabata: 10 sec. all out work periods alternated with 20 sec. rest periods. We progress it like this:

• Week 1 6 :10/:20 intervals (3:00)
• Week 2 8 :10/:20 intervals (4:00)
• Week 3 10 :10/:20 intervals (5:00)
• Week 4 12 :10/:20 intervals (6:00)

The RPM or watt goal is a bit higher for this protocol, as the work periods are shorter. After the client has progressed through reverse tabata's, I'll give them a break from the shorter, more intense intervals and we'll move to longer duration intervals. See below.

1/2 Mile Intervals

I stole this from Mike Boyle and modified it a bit for the general fitness client. Here is the progression:

• Week 1: 3 1/2 mile intervals with 2:00 rest between each. I want the 1/2 mile performed in 1:50 or under. I use a Gym Boss interval timer, set for 1:50, and the client watches the display screen to gauge the distance. 
• Week 2: 4 1/2 mile intervals with 1:45 rest between each. I will generally keep the 1/2 mile goal at 1:50 or less, maybe drop it down to 1:45 but not always.
• Week 3: 5 1/2 mile intervals with 1:30 rest between each. At this point, I'll knock the 1/2 mile goal down to 1:45. 
• Week 4: 6 1/2 mile intervals with 1:30 rest between each. Same 1:45 1/2 mile time goal.

At this point, I'll go back to the nasty short to mid range intervals and use the following protocol. I'm warning you: in my opinion, this 4:00-5:00 protocol is way worse than a regular Tabata protocol.

The Ladder

• Minute 1: 10 sec. sprint alternated with 50 sec. rest (a coast)
• Minute 2: 20 sec. sprint alternated with a 40 sec. rest 
• Minute 3: 30 sec. sprint alternated with a 30 sec. rest
• Minute 4: 40 sec. sprint alternated with a 20 sec. rest
• *Minute 5: 50 sec. sprint alternated with a 10 sec. rest

*The 5th minute may or may not happen based on each individuals desire to put up with extreme discomfort and/or their level of fatigue.

As with the other protocols, I give the client RPM goals for the work bouts. Once I have a client to a point where they are performing these types of interval workouts, they are pretty damn fit. At this point, I can throw some other challenges their way. See below.

2 Miles in 5 minutes

This may not sound like much but I dare you to try it. You need to cover .4 miles every minute. The first 2 minutes are bearable but the last 3 will test your will and mental toughness.

5 Miles in 13 Minutes

This is a bonus workout for my blog readers who are "hard core". I've never had a client try this, primarily because I've never had one (including pro athletes) who could do it. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done physically in my life (my best effort is 12:51 BTW). It was worse than squatting 225 for 50 reps back when I was in college. I really thought I was going to have to call EMS after I finished this. I do this "test" 1-2 times annually just to keep myself honest. If you think running a sub 6:00 mile is hard, try this. You'll have to average about .385 miles every minute. This is a slightly slower pace than the one needed to achieve 2 miles in 5 minutes, BUT IT IS ABOUT 2.5 TIMES LONGER!

Hope you enjoyed this blog. If you don't have access to an Airdyne, it's a relatively budget friendly addition to a home gym, and it's quite space efficient. Go buy one! Click on the picture of the Airdyne below to purchase (yes, I make a commission on this:):



If you train in a commercial gym, use it. If your gym doesn't have one, tell management to buy one. Now, go give some of these workouts a shot!

http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com

Is Interval Training Necessary? It Depends.

Received the following question from a blog reader-

PJ:

Love the blog man. As a self employed husband and father of 3, your information has helped me immensely in regards to getting in time efficient and effective workouts. My question is this: my primary goal is just to continue to get stronger. Thanks to your no BS approach to nutrition, I've really gotten my diet in line and lost a lot of body fat over the last 6 months. I'm happy with my level of leanness, and found just keeping my calorie intake at or below a certain level (while keeping the protein intake plenty high) does the trick. So, I really just want to focus on getting stronger while maintaining my level of body fat and weight. This being said, I don't want to neglect my heart health either...but I'm not really interested in getting in extreme condition...it's just not one of my primary goals at this point. I know you are a big interval training advocate, but do I really need to do it, given my goals? Thanks in advance.

Jeff from North Dakota

Jeff:

Very good question, and, actually, you pretty much answered it for yourself. BASED ON YOUR GOALS, no, I don't think you need interval training. I think traditional cardiovascular work, for 30 minutes, 3 times per week, at about 70% of max heart rate, will do just fine. The one thing you have to be careful with in regards to interval training is, if you are really trying to get stronger, it can delay or stop progress altogether. It is demanding, and makes recovering from strength training workouts much more difficult. Can you MAINTAIN strength and do hard interval work multiple times weekly? Sure. BUT, trying to get stronger while hitting hard intervals 2-3 days/week is usually going to lead to compromised results. I hear people talk all the time about how moderate intensity cardio can impede recovery from strength workouts and make gaining strength and muscle difficult, but I completely disagree: too much high intensity interval work is the real progress killer when it comes to gaining strength and muscle.

Now, if you would have told me your primary goal was fat loss or getting in stellar performance condition, I would have told you, yes, you do need to include interval work. However, as you stated, your goals are far different. Keep in mind you can't OPTIMALLY enhance more than 1 or 2 fitness related qualities at the same time. However, you can try to enhance one quality (strength in your case), and maintain the others through smart programming (which it sounds like you are doing). All too often, I see people trying to increase strength and size, decrease body fat, eat in a caloric deficit, and run a 5:00 mile all at the same time. This is a recipe for disaster.

Some methods work very well for achieving certain goals or enhancing certain fitness related qualities, but don't work so well when trying to improve other qualities. The key thing, which you've done, is to identify what is important at this point: this is something most people NEVER do. Once you've identified what you are trying to optimize, choose the methods which work the best for achieving the goal. If you want to maintain other qualities, choose methods which will allow you to do so, BUT METHODS WHICH DON'T COMPROMISE THE MAIN OBJECTIVE. Sounds to me like you've already intuitively done this. Good luck on your quest for strength.

Why I love Interval Training

Readers of my blog know I love interval training for both conditioning enhancement and fat loss. Check out the article below recently posted on Clarence Bass' site about the benefits of interval training (it's even effective and safe for cardiac rehab patients!):

INTERVAL TRAINING