Joanna Hall 

Body strategy

Your questions answered by Joanna Hall, fitness and exercise expert.
  
  


I've just started interval training while swimming. It's exhausting! How can I stay motivated?

If it's any consolation, interval training, which involves alternating high- and lower-intensity work bouts, is challenging. However, it does produce big fitness improvements, because the higher-intensity bouts challenge different physiological mechanisms from lower-intensity active recovery bouts. Plus, if you are time-short, it can help you achieve a greater total calorie burn.

I suggest you complete no more than two interval training workouts a week. It may be that you are designed to be more of a "steady-paced aerobic exerciser" - who favours longer, moderate-paced activities - rather than an "anaerobic exerciser" who finds their body prefers intensive bursts of exercise. This personal preference is due to a whole host of things, including the type and proportion of muscle fibres, known as fast and slow twitch fibres, and how your body uses energy.

Rest is also important: a minimum of 90 seconds is required for energy replenishment in between your high-intensity intervals. Be sure to rest sufficiently for full muscle recovery between each interval training session. Also, be patient and persevere - your personal rate of adaptation may mean that you are a "slow responder" to the benefits, compared with "fast responders" whose bodies adapt and feel the benefits more quickly. For me, interval training is more enjoyable with a friend. You could do a high-intensity bout - swimming two lengths as fast as possible, say - while your friend swims a length at a moderate stroke pace and treads water for her active recovery. Then change over. Finally, interval training should complement your existing exercise programme, and not replace it.

· Joanna Hall is a fitness and exercise expert (joannahall.com). Send queries to: Weekend, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER (weekend@theguardian.com).

 

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