Interval Love Workout

Posted on: January 14th 2013

When coach sends you out 2 jams in a row, or you’ve got to jam twice with only one jam in between to rest, you need to recover from that intense exertion pretty darn quick. Your heart and lungs must be very efficient at returning to normal levels. Interval training is a great way to train for roller derby, because it trains these exact recovery mechanisms.

Interval training also allows you to work really hard for short periods, and to kind of trick your body into being able to do more work in a given period of time than you would be able to if you worked at a sustained pace. You get more burn for your buck! So this week, try giving your workout some Interval Love.

You’ll be alternating strength work with a cardio move, for 16 minutes of total work. Here’s the drill:

Equipment: A timer on 60 second repeats (or a stopwatch) I use the Seconds Pro app on my phone to count 50s/10s intervals. Optional – yoga mat.

Workout:  Do each of the following for 50 seconds, then take 10 seconds of rest. Do the routine 2 rounds through.

  • 3 Split Squats & Jump to switch
  • Skater Jumps
  • Turnover Pushups
  • Skater Jumps
  • Plank elbows to hands
  • Skater Jumps
  • 3 Low-jacks + Tuck Jump
  • Skater Jumps

Watch the video through to see what the moves look like. Here are some additional tips for you-

Consider wearing runners if you have slippery floors or delicate ankles – skater jumps can be challenging! You should aim for long, low side-to-side motion with these, not bouncy-hoppy vertical motion.

Keep your knees in alignment with your toes during split squats! Don’t let your front knee cave in towards the centreline of your body – keep it tracking straight forward and backward.

Keep your butt down during the turnover pushups and the plank drill!  Shoot for a straight line from your head to your toes. Be kind to your wrists, elbows and shoulders on the turnover pushups – try to keep the ‘turnover’ part nice and controlled – don’t flop over and put a lot of dynamic weight onto your arms. Take it slow if you need to, and even drop your bum to the floor if necessary.

On the low-jacks, make sure you do, in fact, stay LOW during the 3 jacks!

Go get ’em! Give yourself some interval love and let me know how this workout went for you in the comments!

xo Booty Quake

13 thoughts on “Interval Love Workout

  1. Just finishes this. The planks and push ups were quite a feat. Im going to have to work on those.

    Thank you posting these. Defiantly what I needed for my days off!

    Could you post a video of a good warm-up and cool down routine?

    1. Thanks Pressure Cooker! those are on my list… ;)

  2. Do you have any modifications for the turnover pushups? I’m still rehabing after shoulder surgery & I don’t think I’m ready for such an impressive move.

    Thanks!

    1. Good call Pinky – this move requires good shoulder mobility and stability. I’m relying on you to have discussed your rehab with your surgeon and/or phyical therapist… but maybe tricep dips on a chair (you can modify difficulty by placing your feet closer or further from the chair) would be a good exercise to work on both. Or you could do standard or walking pushups… listen to your body and don’t do it if it hurts!

  3. Did this today. *Died*. In other words, excellent workout!

  4. Awesome! Sharing this with our league – thank you so much for putting this together and giving us lots of variety to improve our Derbyliciousness!!!

  5. This looks great! I have a slightly torn meniscus on one knee so tend to avoid doing too much lateral movement in my plyo/interval training based on my ortho’s recommendation (I’ll do one set of skater jumps per week or so). Any ideas of what I could use to sub all the skater jumps here that might be easier on the knees? Skiier jumps because they’re two-footed might work, or lunge jumps maybe?

    1. You could try high knees and/or burpees, Anthro! Lunge jumps are another good one but I find them so strenuous I don’t think I could make it through this workout doing them!

  6. I have been trying to find a good interval stopwatch/timer for my android phone. Which one do you use?

    1. I use “Seconds Pro” from the apple app store – I’m not sure if they have an android version, but if you do a search I’m sure you’ll find something useful!

  7. I love this workout. It’s one of the ones that I hate while I’m doing it, but feel great about when I’m done. :D

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