Workout Plan Stage 7

In Stage 7, you will be adding intervals to your exercise program, which are designed to increase your heart rate and challenge your cardiovascular endurance. This stage we will be adding intervals to your exercise program. Intervals are a great method for increasing your heart rate and challenge your cardiovascular endurance.

During the high intensity interval burst increase your speed, resistance, or incline level enough so that you find your heart rate above 85% of your max. During the recovery let your heart rate come back to 65% of your max. You can also mix up your interval training by walking up hills. Find some hills to walk up or increase the incline on the treadmill during the high intensity intervals to bring your heart rate up above 85% of your max.

Walk down the hill slowly to recover your heart rate back to 65% of your max. As your fitness level improves vary your interval program. Initially add one or two 30 second intervals to your walk until you build up to 8 intervals. Then change the length of your high intensity interval burst. For example, the first high intensity burst could last for 60 seconds, followed by three minutes of recovery walking. The next interval could consist of a two minute high intensity burst followed by four minutes of walking at your regular pace. Feel free to vary the length of the high intensity bursts during your interval walk. Interval training is a powerful weight loss tool that burns calories while strengthening your cardiovascular system.

To increase the challenge in your strength training you can try performing your reps for 45-60 seconds instead of 15-20 repetitions. When using time instead of reps as your limiter, perform as many quality repetitions as you can for 45 or 60 seconds. If you feel your quality of movement start to decrease, pause for a moment to rest before finishing out that amount of time with more repetitions.

Now that you are through the 7th stage, you have learned all the essentials for an exercise routine. Continue to perform your cardio 5-6 times per week and strength training 3 times per week. As you adapt to these challenges, add more reps, more sets, or more time to your routine.