Interval training is where you perform a short series of exercises---often high intensity---with periods of rest or low-intensity exercise to recover, according to Vern Gambetta, director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. By manipulating the factors of interval training, such as duration, intensity and rest periods, you can do the same exercises but with different effect and results. Weight training is one of many methods that athletes and coaches use for interval training
Significance
Many anaerobic-based sports, such as football, wrestling and volleyball, require bouts of high power and strength output with periods of low activities and rest. The stop-and-go method of these can tax your stamina, which is your ability to resist fatigue. Interval training mimics the energy systems and movement patterns used in particular sports, allowing you to physically and mentally adapt to the activity over a period of time. This allows you to play longer with less recovery time.
Benefits
Besides building up muscular stamina, endurance and strength, interval training and weight training build muscles and lean tissues, which increase your fat-burning potential as muscles are the sites for fat metabolism. Also, more muscle mass increases your glycogen storage, which are stored carbohydrates in your muscle tissues.
Interval training saves you time and trains your entire body at once rather than body part by body part, like most typical gym workouts.
Types of Tools
You can use many types of weight training equipment for interval training, ranging from free weights to cable column machines. Free weights, such as dumbbells, kettlebells and sandbags, require you to use your body for support and control, while the standing cable columns use a pulley and cable, and a weight-stack system usually has a pre-determined path of motion that you follow, depending on position and exercise that you are doing.
Considerations
Each interval training program is different for every sport, athlete and team, and coaches and trainers should not make cookie-cutter workouts for their athletes. This ensures that the athletes will be able to perform their best with the least risk of injury and the highest performance rate. Making a cookie-cutter workout for anyone is a sign of laziness and non-professionalism.
Format
A typical interval training workout with weights involves three phases of training: dynamic warm-up, performance training and recovery.
The dynamic warm-up prepares you physically and mentally for the upcoming training. According to Gray Cook, founder of Functional Movement Systems, the warm-up should address your weakest links in your body and correct any left-right asymmetries that you might have. It also serves to increase your body temperature, increase your range of motion and ability to move freely.
The performance training is like the main course of an entrée. This is where gross strength, speed, agility, power and sports-specific skills are trained. For example, a boxer might do a series of five exercises, such as jump roping, push-ups, pull-ups, speedbag punching and lunges. He may also add some weight training exercise to increase muscle size for protection, such as dumbbell shoulder presses, dumbbell rows and kettlebell squats.
The recovery phase is simply returning your body back to its resting phase. Exercises include general stretching, posture exercises and brisk walking.
References
- "Athletic Body in Balance"; Gray Cook; 2003
- "Athletic Development"; Vern Gambetta; 2006
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