Most of the time you will find me at the gym weight training or doing one of my favorite spin classes.

Recently I decided that I needed to change my program slightly as I was a bit over doing the same routine everyday, so I decided to go back to where I first started with my exercise and add some interval training.

Around 4 years ago I started interval training to kick start my weight loss I was to embarrassed about my body shape to be seen in a gym environment, I started walking and then added in the interval jog it was great I lost a few kg’s which gave me the confidence to set foot into a larger gym.

I talked it over with my partner who loves to go for a run, he knows that running is something that I struggle to learn to love to me the thought of running 2kms felt like a hard slog. We came up with a plan every Mon, Wed and Friday evenings we would walk down to our local cricket oval with a aim to walk and jog for 45min. Now you might think that is not much but remember if running is new to your exercise program you need to start small.

For 30 min we walk and jog picking out small targets along the way to run between you may find several power poles along your walking track that you can walk and run between, I would start small and increase your jog by adding in one extra run or extra lap of the oval as the weeks go on.

You don’t have to run or jog between power poles, pick out a tree or rooftop and say I am going to run or jog to there make it simple so that you last the journey, when you first start out if 4 laps of the oval is enough for you then do 4 laps remember it's your pace your journey.

Give yourself recovery periods its up to you between 30 seconds to 3 minutes long depending on your fitness level. Don’t worry if your recovery takes that bit longer over time you will reduce the recovery time.

Try not to go to hard too quickly when you are first starting out it's easy to fall into that trap of feeling good on your first run then you get up the next day and can’t walk this will prevent you from sticky to your journey.

You should start seeing some changes to your fitness level within four to six weeks if you have started with just one session per week progressing into two session per week.

Don't forget it's your workout and always remember to prepare for your interval training with 5 to 10 minutes of stretching before and after your workout.

THE BENEFITS

Interval training increases fat-loss by burning more kilojoules during shorter training sessions and elevating your metabolism for longer after a jog or run.

Interval training can give you a great workout if you’re not used to running for long periods of time.

Author Corina Collins