I recently began interval strength training as a form of exercise.
For those new to different types of workouts, interval strength training is a form of circuit training. Basically, I perform a group of weight training exercises in sequence with little rest in between. I target different muscle groups, and I perform the circuit of exercises twice with little to no rest between exercises.
At first, Interval Strength Training was really difficult for me to do. Why?
I had to think:
- What exercise I was doing?
- How do I do that exercise?
- What exercise is next?
- How many repetitions was I on?
- Where am I in the 4 second cadence?
- Am I using the correct form?
- Did I just hear my 2 year old daughter dive into the toilet?
- Who is going to sign up for Simpleweight.com next?
- Will the Cubs win the World Series?
- Man this exercise is burning pretty good now.
- Will the …. as you can see too much to think about, my mind starts to wander, and I just get lost.
With interval strength training, you use a cadence to lift weights in a rhythm. While contracting the muscle, I count 2 seconds and then hold 2 seconds, then while releasing the muscle, I count 4 seconds, repeat for 10 repetitions with no rest.
For example, for a bicep curl, I count 2 seconds up, hold 2 seconds, then count 4 seconds slowly releasing the bicep curl back down to the resting position. I immediately lift again using the same cadence until I reach 10 in the set and move on to the next exercise in the circuit with little or no rest (30 seconds or less) in between sets.
As I mentioned before, the problem I had was I got lost in all the counting and thinking.
UP, Two, Three. Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
UP, Two, Three, Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
What Repetition am I on?
How do I stop all this counting?
I use a metronome to maintain the cadence. A metronome ticks at whatever rate you want. I set my metronome to 60 beats per minute and let it tick off my cadence. Google Metronome, and you’ll find all sorts of web-based metronomes to use. Of course you could use an iphone app as your metronome of choice. Of course you can use a loud clock or watch, but I find a metronome better especially a digital metronome that allows you to set the beats per measure.
See, you can set a digital metronome to 4 beats per measure. which means:
Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
2, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
3, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
4, Tick, Tick, Tick.
etc…
If you are using the Colorado Experiment workout, described by Tim Ferris, which uses a 5 second cadence, just set the metronome for 5 beats per measure.
Whatever cadence you use, your mind is free to count the number of repetitions while the metronome does the work of keeping your cadence straight.