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Sunday, January 04, 2004

Intensity: The key to sucess

The iPod can be great for training - it certainly beats my Nomad Jukebox for working out in the gym, the Nomad is the size and shape of a portable CD player, and it's pretty clunky to balance on a recumbent stationary bike. My old Rio 500 was small and light, but never had enough music for a serious workout. The iPod is clearly the best portable MP3 player for fitness, even the 5GB models. Until very recently the only other players of it's size were a mere 128mb of storage, or about 20 songs!

A mistake many people who go to a gym regularly (or even just when the mood strikes them) make is to do all of their workouts a constant intensity. Just sitting on a bike, choosing "FAT BURN" from the little menu, and pedalling so lightly that you can read a book will not get you much in the way of results. Here's one was the iPod can pay for itself. Use your music to vary your intensity - these are tricks I use to get more out of my workouts. As always, warm up before you start to push it.

  • Charge up to your max effort during the chorus of the song you are playing

  • Set up a custom playlist for cardio, alternating between lighter songs and heavy. For example, create a playlist in iTunes that has Coldplay, then Rob Zombie, alternating for each song.

  • Set your iPod to shuffle, and when a song you're not that in the mood to hear comes on, pedal/run at your normal pace. When a song you like comes on, push yourself harder.



Stretch before and after, warm up, and train smart. Use heart rate monitoring if it's available, and be sure to know your [training heart rate] beforehand (most gyms are more than happy to help you find it out). If your gym doesn't have heart rate monitors on most of the machines, consider getting one for yourself - a decent Polar A1 monitor can be had for $30 or so.

1/04/2004 02:19:00 PM ] [  0 comments  ]
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