Sorry 'bout the late reply

The benefit of interval training is that your body will respond to the
varying stimulus of increasing and decreasing the intensity of your
work out. Your body will get fitter at the various levels which will
be better for your fitness.

Some cardio machines have preset interval training settings, which I
wouldn't normally use. A suggestion would be, if you are doing a 10
minute workout, to start at a comfortable walking speed. increase the
level every 30 seconds to a minute - each minute will be ok. increase
the level in increments, such as 3.5 km/hr to 4.0, (0.5 per minute)
then continue to do this until you get to a pace of fast walking and
where you can't go any faster without breaking into a jog. most people
get to about 7.5 to 8 km/hr. then continue at that speed and for the
last minute or two drop back significantly until by the end of your
workout you get to your starting speed. that is just one way of doing
interval training.

Standard level would be like doing one speed for the whole time.
Some people do this, but it can get boring, plus the body will get
used to that speed over time and then you would need to increase the
speed anyway. If your aim is to sprint a marathon, you might consider
going the one speed for a long period, but the level in that case
would probably be quite high, a level which you would not be able to
increase much higher.

For fat-burning, you should do 60-75% of your max heart rate. this
means you need to calculate your MHR first (220-your age - this is
very general and is not exact for every individual but it will do)

so if you are 30 your MRH would be 190. so 60-75% would be 114-142.5
heart beats per minute. You can measure this by taking your pulse for
15 seconds and times by 4 or you can use a heart rate monitor on your
cardio machine or wrist watch monitor and chest band (such as POLAR).

If you are fitter, your fat-burning zone may be a little higher like
say 125-155.

So we say 60-75% of Maximum Heart Rate.

The reason for this is that if you go too fast, you will not use as
much of the energy stored in your body fat, but rather, you will start
to use more of the energy found in your muscles.

Personally, though, as long as you do some sort of weights resistance
training, going at a high intensity should also be ok. you will begin
to get quite thin, very fit, and so you should be eating well and
building up some muscle mass so you won't look too thin.

OK, Cheers, and hope your training goes well. I'd be interested to see
how you go,a nd to hear more about your fitness specifics.

--- In thesupergym@..., "sinden_e" <sinden_e@y...> wrote:
>
> is it better to do interval training or a standard level? and what
> burns fat training at a steady speed for a long time or a high speed
> at a shorter time?
>