Interval Warm Ups

Getting properly warmed up for intervals will get you much more out of the session. If you were to dive right into the first interval, not only would it be an unrealistic pace for you to hold (because you’ll feel good but fatigue quickly), but there will be a lot of heart rate spikes and dips since the bout of exercise started immediately instead of gradually.

When we’re at rest, the majority of our blood is centered around our organs, helping the body rest and digest. When we start exercising, say riding a bike, our muscles need more oxygenated blood. So it is taken away from the organs and delivered to the muscles.

Without a gradual warm up, we open the flood gates to send blood out. Your heart rate spikes, and you feel like you’re working hard, but your body is just trying to keep up delivering oxygen to the working muscles. You intervals will play out the same way. Erratic paces, heart rate spikes, feeling like you’re breathing heavy but you aren’t working that hard are all signs of too short a warm up.

In an ideal world, a longer, more gradual warm up is better. In the gym, tight on time, at least 5-8 minutes of extra moving should do the trick.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain