I tried run intervals with my walk and it made my knee hurt. At my age I think I'd better stick with walking.

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For now we see through a glass, darkly.... 1st Corinthians 13:12

Good advice for you and me

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Imagined knowledge kills learning . . .
The cure for boredom is curiosity...there is no cure for curiosity..

This is deceptive reasoning. Intervals or aerobics do not have to be only by running! So why condemn intervals just because of the running example?

Jogging aerobically might even be more of a stress because more body weight is supported, while running fast has less of the weight going downward because it is being thrown forward. The important thing about impact exercises is to go into it gradually.

As for intervals, if you just like to walk, that's fine! Just don't walk at a steady pace (aerobics). Rather, walk fast, then slow, and repeat for at least three cycles. You'll find out that your progress will be accelerated. Read my experiences with intervals in this thread (click here). As I mention there, I'm doing an extreme form of interval training, the Tabata protocol, and I'm not even running! I do squats and arm exercises simultaneously. No impact, though I'm not averse to impact and in fact, believe it to be essential in preventing osteoporosis. (I get my impacts with wall-bag punching and kicking, as well as jumping rope, interval style, which lately, I rarely do.)

I also tend to believe Dr. Al Sears' analysis that aerobics is harmful! Training for long endurance events does lead to decrease in size, apparently including heart and lung size, leading to decrese in cardio-respiratory reserve capacity.

https://www.earlytorise.com/archive/html/102606-2.html

https://www.earlytorise.com/2007/04/1...ur-health.html

As I posted in the thread mentioned, I had results in only 3 weeks, and it was something that probably never happened in my entire life -- a heart rate below 60!

I'm lazy, and thus, tend to search out the best -- that is, what can indulge my laziness. A four minute interval training with a minimum of 3 times a week is the best, so far, for my cardio-respiratory fitness. I never liked aerobics and I never tried it formally (so yes, I'm biased). However, I considered having my share of aerobics because I commute by bicycle, at one time even having a daily commute of 13 km each way. But I did not note any progress in that time, and in fact, I even put on some fat during that time.

I think that just like with our muscles, we can only progress if we approach our maximum limits. Aerobics never does that, but intervals do. And I could say, now that I'm going into my fifth week, my cardio-respiratory fitness is quickly improving. And my waist size is decreasing steadily, too. :wink:

We'll find that if we regularly approach our limits, those limits become easy and are no longer limits, and we'll have to devise new ways to approach our max.

Gerry

Iggy, I think the mistake was simply going ahead with running. You must have eased into it gradually (assuming it's been a long time since you last ran).

As mentioned in my previous post, you can still do intervals with walking. Walk at your maximum speed until you're short of breath, reduce speed till you catch your breath, and repeat at least two more times. I'm sure you'll see dramatic progress (measure your resting heart rate) by your third week. :wink: In addition to your heart rate, you'll also notice that your walk will get easier and easier, even if doing it interval style. You can even shorten your walk time considerably (since the measure will no longer be a particular distance or time, but rather, how many cycles of exertion-recovery you can do.

Gerry

Some related articles by Dr. Al Sears:

Long-Distance Dangers

Trash Your Jogging Shoes and Get Lean in 10 Minutes a Day

Exercise Your Heart Really Needs

Important Exercise Just Got Easier

Why Faster is Better

Gerry

Iggy, Why not try jumping on a mini-tramp. It's much easier on the knees. You can do the intervals--jump vigorously until your heart is pumping and then bounce gently for a minute--then repeat.

Mari

My knees seem to be holding up to walking. I think my curcumin consumption helps. Only once has my knee hurt when I simply walked. I went straight home and rolled some DMSO on my knee and the pain went away immediately. I went back outside and completed my walk.

When I tried to alternately walk and run, it started to hurt and I stopped running and I was OK. I do vary the speed of my walk.

If I develop chronic joint pain, I will try the mini-tramp.

Hey Iggy, I use a re-bounder (mini-tramp) 'have found it to
be very beneficial. I even use it when digestion sometimes
becomes less than good.

In the weight room I continue with the old tried and true methods,
which can--in a sense--be called 'interval" But for those
young guys, like Gerry, those new methods are possibly very
good. For one thing (not in Gerry's case) new methods usually,
for a while, induce some guys to do something when they had
been doing nothing at all.