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Previous BlogYo Yo Workouts
Posted: September 21st, 2007 under Daily Journal, My Favorite Workouts.
Many health professionals are now telling their clients to work out yo-yo style. The cardio workouts they put together aim to get your heart rate up, then slow down a bit, then up a bit higher, then slow it down a bit, and so on. Shape, one of my favorite magazines, often comes out with cut-and-take cardio routines that blast 250+ calories in half an hour. My problem with taking these to the gym is that I can’t read and exercise, so I never know when to go up a level, or how long to stay there.
While on the treadmill today, I decided to give the yo-yo theory a try on my own. It worked. I wasn’t bored (a big feat for me) and I got in a really good half hour work out. Here’s what I did: Everything in intervals of 3 minutes. My fitness-walk pace is 4.5, and my challenge Hill level is 10. I always walked at this pace and hill level together. My comfortable jog pace is 6.0. I added .5 to this every time I needed to jog, until I reached a point where I could not go any faster and I came back down .5 do finish out the 3 min. So my workout today looked like this: walk, jog 6, walk, run 6.5, walk, run 7, walk, run 7.5 for 1 min, 7 for 2 min, walk, run 6, cool down.
Here’s a chart, in case you want to fill out your own activity levels:
| Activity Walk a.y.p. (at your pace) jog comfortably Walk a.y.p. run +.5 Walk a.y.p. run +.5 Walk a.y.p. run +5 Walk a.y.p. jog comfortably Walk cool down |
Hill Flat Flat Hill Flat Hill Flat Hill Flat Hill Flat Flat |
How long 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min 3 min |
This chart doesn’t look much different than the ones in Shape, I guess. Kind of overwealming. But to me, it’s a lot easier because of the set walk pace and the set time. You just slowly increase your jog level. Also: pick YOUR pace. Do not try to do the levels I did; I may be at a different fitness level than you. Your comfortable jog may be a 5, and your challenge hill a 6. Stick with what will be a slight challenge for you. If you decide to give this a try, I would love to know how it goes. Post your comments below.
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Breakfast:
1.5 C coffee w/ ~ 1/4 C 1% milk
1 hard boiled eggWorkout:
run/walk 30 min.
15 min leg and ab work
45 min. Yoga classSnack:
banana (I recommend if you are going to keep your banana in a hot car, to pack it in a cooler. It was pretty nasty)Lunch:
turkey wrap: 2 oz. deli turkey, 2 slices tomato, 1/4 avocado, 4 large lettuce leaves, horseradish mustard, 2 slices FF Kraft cheese
1 kiwi
1 Spicy V8Snack:
1 oz. almonds
1 oz. dried blueberries1Snack:
4 Dark chocolate covered edamame
1 oz. almondsDinner: (wedding)
6 tuna steak on cucumber slice appetizers
Salad w/ cranberries and almonds
2T cranberry dressing
3 oz. steak
2 bites chicken
1 bite cheesy risotto
8 asparagus spears
3 glasses red wine
½ glass champagne (cheat)
Tag Cloud
Filed under: Daily Journal, My Favorite Workouts
Article tags: jog, Rule of Three Diet, run, Shape magazine, Spicy V8 juice, walk, Yoga
Comments
Comment from Jess
Time: September 26, 2007, 9:46 am
So I did the walk/jog workout this morning… I don’t like to run, but I liked this workout because I definitely wasn’t bored. How often do you change the paces? Do you ever increase your running pace? I’ve started walking at 3.5 and running at 4.5. I was thinking about bumping my start run pace up to 5 once I have 3 walk/jog workouts under my belt.
Thanks for posting this workout! I needed something new to do at the gym.
Jess
Comment from admin
Time: September 26, 2007, 10:24 am
Hi Jess,
I’m so glad you tried and liked the workout! To answer your question: You should be changing the paces every 3 minutes. Keep your walking/hill the same the whole workout. Every time you run (every 3 minutes), increase it by .5 from the last time you ran. When you get to a point where you can’t go anymore, fall back .5 and finish out the 3 min. interval. Then continue on with the rest of the workout. Good luck and let me know how it goes next time!
At the start of this workout, I notice that I look to the jog as a ‘relax’ but by the end, I look to the walk as my ‘relax’. I like the change-up.
Comment from Jess
Time: September 26, 2007, 1:46 pm
oops. I don’t think I wrote that very clearly 
I was wondering how often you increase your start paces or if you increase them at all. Right now I start at 3.5 (walk) and 4.5 (jog) and work up from there. I was thinking I’d try an increase after three workouts, but I’m not so sure. I’m feeling it in my calves today.
I agree with you about the change-up.
-Jess
Comment from admin
Time: September 26, 2007, 5:42 pm
Ah. Well, my answer is to take it at your own pace. You want it to be a challenge, but also something that you’re willing to do again. If you started at a 3.5 (walk) maybe try to up your hill next time to see how that treats you. I agree with getting used to something before you up yourself. Once something isn’t a challenge anymore, it’s time to up it a bit, and congratulate yourself on your accomplishment!
Something else I just thought about. You have 4 ‘ups’ on the run to reach your max. How did you do at a 6? Did you make it all 3 minutes? If so, maybe it’s time to up your start pace. Right now it’s a challenge for me to run at my ‘max’ for 3 minutes. Once I master that for awhile, I’ll move my start pace up. Hope that helped. Good luck!
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