Winter Workouts: How to Make Interval Training Your Cardio Cure for the Cold
Leaves are changing, the sun is setting earlier, and the winter weather is slowly creeping in. This is my favorite time of year, but it can lead to some constraints when it comes to getting your fitness in. Taking your training outside will become harder during these months so we typically find more people in the gym which can require a little bit of creativity and excitement when we want to get our cardio in. There is nothing more monotonous than running on a treadmill or pedaling a bike that gets you nowhere for hours on end. A great way to change things up is through interval training, but for those who are not in the know…it can be a daunting task trying to figure out exactly which protocol works best. Thankfully, there is some new science out there that says it might not matter.
Usually when I get into the office each day, I check my email to see a list of updates from various journals about recent science that’s been published. While I don’t read all of it, this morning an article came through that piqued my interest. A group out of Norway published a piece regarding three different HIIT prescriptions and their ability elicit the desired response of spending time at a higher VO2 (which means you get more bang for your buck). In layman terms: they wanted to figure out how much harder some intervals were than others. They tested a protocol of 3 x 8-min bouts where one group did a 30-sec “on”/15-sec “off”, one did a 8-min constant effort, and one did a 60-sec “on”/60-sec “off” protocol. What they found was that, as a group, the 30/15 group had a slightly higher stimulus than the other two groups. But the interesting thing was that, on an individual level, there was no real difference across any of the three groups. Now, granted, these were well-trained professional cyclists so the actual numbers are not necessarily applicable to most people. But it’s still telling that when these human Ferraris all rode the same protocols, they all had different responses. Not quite what you’d expect.
So what can you take away from this as you start to hibernate into the pain cave during the cold weather months. Frankly, it doesn’t really matter what you do. Despite what many folks with high-profile platforms say, there is no one protocol that drives any greater adaptation than the other. In fact, you’ll likely build a much more robust level of fitness if you vary the protocols you do. So whether you want to sprint for 30-seconds and rest for 15, or ride consistently for eight minutes, all that really matters is that you hop on the saddle and keep pushing. Try not to lose the signal among all the noise. Consistent training over the next few months will be what ensures that you come out the other end of winter better than what you went into it as.
Currently toeing the line between theory and application. With a passionate interest in exercise physiology, data analytics, and critical thinking I find enjoyment in solving the puzzle that is human performance. A lifelong athlete, I’ve spent the last 15 researching the cardiorespiratory limits of athletes while also spending time in the trenches taking the research to proof of concept training athletes to the highest level.