Interval Training and After Burn

[midwestj]

Originally Posted by cjohnson728

Is there any way besides the perceived exertion scale to calculate where you should be with your intense intervals? It seems so subjective (I hate the pain scale from 0 to 10, also). Can you estimate when you're at the highest level from your heart rate, or is the delay in getting to that heart rate an issue?

Try riding on a stationary bike, and keeping your revs at 80-100. To increase your "intensity" increase the resistance on the bike, not your revolutions. The 1-10 scale is really the most effective way to go where 10 being a resistance you can only maintain a short time (1-2 minutes max) and 1 being a leisurely pace.

If your interval goes 9-3-9-3-9-3 then go from 9 resistance to 3. If you are in great shape then maybe you would do 18 for intense and 6 for slow, you sort of have to gauge it. Try one workout at the baseline resistances and see how it works you.

Heart rate is not really effective because someone in bad shape will have their heart-rate rise very quickly and lower very slowly, and their heart rate is probably on the high end doing heavy exertion activity like intervals. Whereas someone in great shape will have their heart rate drop much faster during rest and most likely won't be as high during the most intense work. I would stick to the 1-10 scale.

[rpmcduff]

One study that I read talked about raising the heart rate to 70% of max during the high intensity interval. The rest period lowers the heart rate and then the cycle is repeated.

Hope this helps.