MAX Interval Training

Everyone wants a ‘silver bullet’ for their training – a simple and easy technique they can use in order to develop muscle and burn fat in equal quantities. Something they could do every day that would guarantee them successful gains in the areas they wanted. Well the good news is that such a ‘silver bullet’ exists – there is one easy solution to your training. It’s called regular really hard work. And that’s precisely what MAX interval training can do for you. Sometimes it is also referred to as HIT – or High Intensity Training.

What Is Interval Training?

MAX interval training is a type of interval training that promises to push you to your maximum levels of exertion. For this reason it’s sometimes also called the insanity workout – because it contains insane amounts of work on your part compared to regular interval training.

For those who are unfamiliar with interval training, it is essentially a form of training where you vary your exertion in several intervals. For instance instead of running for 30 minutes you might divide this into two minutes of jogging, one minute of sprinting and five minutes of walking and repeat this several times. This then works your cardiovascular fitness harder and burns a lot more calories.

What Is MAX Interval Training?

With MAX interval training however you are going to increase the amount of high intensity intervals or their duration. This then means that you will spend more time sprinting and less time jogging – the jogging then becomes simply your resting period until you can go again. This involves three phases – a regular jogging pace, a flat out pace, and a recovery pace. If you then cycle between these paces you will be performing MAX interval training.

A MAX interval workout then will usually be:

Regular Pace – Flat Out Pace – Recovery Pace

You would then use each for say one minute so that you are sprinting for one minute, recovering for one minute and then jogging for one minute. You might alternatively want to do each phase for two minutes for instance, or for thirty seconds. You might even decide to spend the majority of time flat out, and to just rest for a fraction of the time. It is this way much like doing sets of repetitions in the gym where there is just a brief pause between the periods of exertion.

If you want to vary your MAX interval training then bear in mind that the high intensity phase doesn’t necessarily have to be sprinting – alternatively you could increase the intensity by increase the gradient on your treadmill so that you are running up hill, or by adding resistance on your stationary bike.

Strengths and Weaknesses of MAX Interval Training

The main benefit of this kind of training is that you will be burning a lot of calories in a very short space of time. By spending more time training with high intensity you don’t need to spend as long jogging slowly. This means that for someone busy wanting to make a big difference in a short space of time. At the same time it will help you to burn fat and build muscle more than even an extended period of regular intensity training as it will encourage the production of hormones such as growth hormone which burns fat and builds muscle.

However bear in mind that not everyone will be suited to this kind of intensity and that it requires a certain amount of fitness to start with. This is not for those who are elderly or very overweight as it can place too much strain on the heart.

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  1. This is a good article thank god I had found it finally. I will give this a good go whilst doing my jogging and do what you had explained at the top for people who like to do running. Thank you for this article 🙂

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