| Coach's Thoughts Most research is on college kids or seniors because they have time. Busy 30-60 year olds are working and raising kids, so they're not usually available to participate in studies.
I however am niched in this 30-60 year old demographic and see that sprint intervals can work for most of these people, most of the time, but not always, and sometimes steady-state training and/or both is the way to go based on a myriad of reasons (like sleep, hormones, stress, work, family, life, death, ...).
In any event, people who weighed more lost more body fat. Non-weight bearing cardio can decrease body fat in the lower body and core if its interval based, but it'll do nothing for the arms and you might gain body fat in the core if you do stead-state exercise.
- Sprint intervals may make you want to eat better and hold off hunger longer.
- Sprint intervals take up less total time (20min vs 40min)
- Steady state intervals help to build your aerobic base so you can do sprint intervals, though sprint intervals thoughtfully designed can help you build both an aerobic and anaerobic conditioning.
- All sprint and steady-state participants used heart rate monitors. This is the now. Get one. I've got one member testing a program, while using a heart rate monitor, that I'm considering introducing to our members for next year and another private client using a heart rate monitor on custom programs I've designed for her.
Final Thought Schedule your self-care. Do it. Mix in both sprints and steady state. Use a heart rate monitor to learn and make your workouts more interesting. Remember weight bearing is better than seated cardio, but if you're going to do seated exercises, do sprints for shorter or go long for steady-state, but in both instances, balance out the sitting w/ a full body strength and conditioning program to address the softer arms and core that happens with prolonged sitting.
Learning and still a fan of bicycling,
Coach Mike
p.p.s. Save the date. June 9 for the next Personalized Treadmill Workout!
|
