Interval Training and Indoor Cycling: The Best Bang for Your Buck!

OCTOBER 3, 2013 

One of the many reasons I fell in love with indoor cycling again recently is that without a doubt you get the best bang for your buck in the cycle studio!  Maximizing the minutes we are spending working on our health and fitness in this chaotic and overscheduled life we lead is important.  Indoor cycling offers one of the best (the best if you ask me) cardiovascular workouts you can get.   Why?   Growing research shows that steady, moderate exercise isn’t the best use of your workout time. Studies are showing that intervals of higher-intensity efforts are just as effective as long endurance workouts at improving health and fitness.   This is the kind of information that is music to my ears!  Get in, do work, and get on with your crazy day!  Jason Karp, PhD states, “one of the main reasons for all of the attention being given to interval training in the fitness industry is that it can improve fitness quickly, which is great news for busy people who don’t want to spend 2 hours in the gym”.

For example, a new study published in the Journal of Physiology showed that 6 weeks of three 30-minute interval workouts, totaling 1.5 hours a week, produced the same benefits in the way the body uses insulin as about 5 hours per week of steady pedaling.  “It is a massive time savings, and you still achieve effects that are totally comparable,” says study author Aton Wagenmakers, Ph.D.

Not only are you saving time training with intervals, you are also connecting with and strengthening more muscle groups.  Interval training recruits more muscles than steady-state exercise.  Working intervals utilizes both our fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles, while steady-state uses mainly your slow-twitch muscles.

So if you are looking to maximize your time, burn calories and stay fit, get into Cycle Lab and Work Your Ride!  The feeling of success and reward of completing a challenging series of interval sets will keep you coming back for more.  An addiction you can be proud of!

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