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Healthier Than 10,000 Steps

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That’s interval walking training (IWT) – a fitness trend that’s becoming more popular, for good reasons.

It’s perfect for us ordinary adults who are no longer athletes, but who want to stay healthy and alive for many more years.

 

“Interval training” itself is nothing new. It’s a major part of working out for both track and swimming. 

According to the first swim coach I had to use it on us, it started because coaches said why make athletes run or swim for long distances if their races are much shorter? Why not have them run or swim their races, over and over again?

 

That means, we’d line up and swim – for example – fifty yards, then stop. Rest for a set period. Then swim another fifty yards. Twenty times.

Therefore, “interval training” does imply going hard for a certain distance, then resting or going slower.

The key is that you do NOT just keep going and going at a minimal (or even fast) pace. 

You alternate fast (or, at least, fastER) with slower or total rest.

Over the years, we’ve found such workouts improve fitness levels and race times much more effectively – and efficiently – than just jogging jogging jogging or walking walking walking.

 

Tabata Workouts

In the 1990’s, the head coach of Japan’s Olympic speed skating team hired Dr. Izumi Tabata, a professor at Ritsumeikan University to look at their training program.

Given their sport, the speed skating team already spent a lot of time on intense sprints. Dr. Tabata studied the effects, and was perhaps the first to systemitize such workouts. And he documented how effective they are for increasing both aerobic and anerobic fitness.

The workout Dr. Tabata settled on is often described as lasting only four minutes. This isn’t quite exact. One round does last only four minutes, but a full workout consists of three rounds, with a minute of rest separating them – for a total of fourteen minutes.

 

Obviously, that’s still a lot less time than most workouts. You can finish a full, Olympic-athlete style workout while your friends are still changing clothes in the locker room.

The full Tabata protocal is to sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds – repeated eight times. That’s four minutes – one round.

“Sprint” does mean “sprint.” That’s running hard at nearly 100% intensity.

 

Twenty seconds doesn’t sound like a long time, but it feels like it when you’re going all-out. And ten seconds isn’t enough time to catch your breath, let alone fully recover, so each interval repeat gets more and more difficult. 

And, don’t forget, team members run those eight rounds a total of three times – with only one minute between sets in which to rest.

Plus, don’t forget, we’re talking Olympic-level athletes, not us ordinary folks who just want to get fit and stay healthy for life.

 

High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT

This took the Tabata protocol and reshaped it for ordinary people who want to get fit, fast. 

You can do it many ways, but you complete four or five intervals, sprinting for a full minute – or complete eight to ten intervals, sprinting for thirty seconds. Allow around four minutes of rest between intervals.

You can run or swim, but also ride a bicycle, pedal a stationary bike, do jumping jacks, and so on.

Do HIIT two to four times per week, giving yourself plenty of time to recover from each workout.

 

However, HIIT comes with obvious drawbacks.

High Intensity Interval Training is . . . Highly Intense

To run at an all-out, 100% pace for even twenty seconds is harder than it sounds if you’ve never done it – or the last time was so long ago you’ve forgotten what that stress feels like.

Many people can’t sprint that long – or at all. Even if they can, it increases their risk for injury, in both the short and long terms.

That’s a great deal of pressure on the muscles and tendons of your legs, and on your knees.

 

Enter Interval Walking

You walk at a comfortable pace.

At set intervals, you pick up that pace. That does NOT mean an all-out, 100% sprint. It does mean you force yourself to walk faster than comfortable, to where it’s difficult to speak.

You walk at that faster pace for a set time, then return to your relaxed pace.

Keep going.

 

Turns out, varying the intensity of your effort promotes greater fitness for your muscles, heart and lungs than a steady pace of jogjogjog. Yes, you want full-speed HIIT if you’re still young or you’re already pretty fit and trying to stay that way or you’re in athletic training mode.

But if you’re an ordinary adult who hasn’t worked out for years – if ever – interval walking can help you maintain and even improve your cardiovascular health.

Forcing your heart rate up, then down again, improves heart rate variability, a significant biomarker of heart health.

 

The Japanese are Pioneering and Systemitizing Interval Walking

They conducted a study over five months that compared exercise effectiveness for three groups:

1. Control group who did nothing different

2. Group who walked the fabled 10,000 continuous steps per day, four days per week

3. Group who performed interval walking, four days per week

 

Group 1 demonstrated no change in systolic (upper number) blood pressure.

Group 2 lowered their systolic blood pressure by two points.

Group 3 lowered their systolic blood pressure by nine points.

 

How about dystolic (lower number) blood pressure? 

Group 1 – no change.

Group 2 – lowered their dystolic blood pressure by two points.

Group 3 – lowered their dystolic blood pressure by five points.

Compared to the group that walked ten thousand steps, Group 3 experienced a 12% increase in hamstring strength.

Group 3 also lowered their depression index by 50%.

 

What’s really huge: the interval walkers had a 10% improvement in peak oxygen intake, VO2 max. That’s a true increase in health and fitness.

Clearly, while walking 10,000 steps a day is beneficial, IWT is even more effective at improving your health. It also takes a lot less time: 30 minutes versus one hour and forty minutes.

 

How to Perform Interval Walking

Obviously, pick a time and place that’s convenient – and wear suitable clothes, especially comfortable walking shoes.

1. Stretch and warm up.

2. Walk at your usual, comfortable pace for three minutes.

3. Speed up. Continue walking (NOT running or jogging) at a faster pace, opening your chest and pumping your arms. Keep pushing faster until you’re slightly out of breath.

Continue this fast walking for three minutes.

4. Continue to alternate: 3 minutes of normal walking with 3 minutes of fast walking.

5. Continue until end of thirty minutes.

6. Do this four days a week.

You always have at least one foot on the ground, so this is safer, and much easier on your body than running.

That’s the plan the participants in the Japanese study used – and all of them were middle-aged and up adults, including some who’d already suffered cardiac events.

 

Start Where You’re At Right Now

If thirty minutes – alternating 3 fast, then 3 slow – is too hard for you, just adjust the intervals.

There’s no law that says you can’t walk fast for ten seconds, then slowly for thirty, and so on.

Pay close attention to your body, especially your heartbeat.

Push it by alternating your pace, but don’t overexert yourself.

If you can’t do the thirty minutes as described, start for a shorter period, then gradually increase the intervals as you gain strength and endurance.

 

https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/article/walking-10k-steps-a-day-fact-fiction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjEAwWuWHng&t=523s

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/tabata-vs-hiit-whats-the-difference

https://grokker.com/fitness/interval-training-hiit/tips/history-of-tabata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z71aHZ4scMs