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No Time for Cardio? How to Do Interval Seconds of Running
Interval running might just be the ultimate workout hack, mixing short bursts of your fastest or almost fastest running with recovery periods, giving major fitness results in way less time than traditional cardio.
Almost a third of adults still don’t move enough.
The top excuse? Not enough time. That’s where interval running comes in — it delivers serious results fast.
What is interval running?
Interval running is built on the idea of high intensity interval training (HIIT).
Maybe you’ve heard that before. Well, it’s time to hear it again if you’ve been putting off exercise in the name of not having enough time.
It’s all about alternating between short, intense bursts of effort and easy recovery periods (casual walking or a slow jog).
Instead of doing burpees or pushups, interval running uses the same approach — fast, powerful sprints followed by slower-paced recovery segments.
The goal is to challenge your body, force it to adapt, and build endurance faster than steady-paced jogging or brisk walking ever could.
The 10-20-30 Method
Jog slowly or walk slowly for 30 seconds, pick up to a moderate run for 20 seconds, then go all-out for the final 10 seconds.
Repeat this cycle several times, rest and do another round if you’re up for it.
The Fartlek Method
During your normal jog, randomly throw in short sprints — like running hard to the next mailbox or parked vehicle — then slowing down until you’re ready to go again.
Other “let’s go!” markers could be a short incline on a path, a street light or a park bench.
It’s flexible, fun and keeps your workouts from getting stale.
The Science Behind the Sweat
Plenty of studies show that interval-style running is incredibly effective for your heart, metabolism and body composition.
In research on overweight subjects, sprint intervals (or one’s fastest, even if technically it’s not a sprint) actually improved cardiovascular fitness more than did jogging at a steady pace.
Participants who sprinted increased their VO₂ max — a measure of how efficiently your body uses oxygen — much more than those who did jogging at a fixed pace.
- If you can run or jog at a fixed or steady pace, this is nowhere near your fastest run.
- By definition, “steady” or “fixed” means easy effort to moderate effort, rather than intense or strenuous.
Faster Metabolism, Better Health
Interval running does more than just boost endurance — it improves how your body handles energy.
Alternating between sprints and recovery helps regulate blood sugar levels and can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
It also helps optimize how your cells use energy, improving how your body generates energy.
Over time, that leads to better blood pressure, healthier cholesterol and less “bad” LDL.
How much time are we talking per week?
Just 18 minutes of sprint (or your best all-out intervals), three times a week, can produce noticeable changes in your health and fitness.
- This is NOT too good to be true.
- You absolutely need to kick ass during those seconds of “sprinting.”
How to Get Started with Seconds Interval Running
If you’re new to interval running, start easy. Outdoors, you could sprint between two particular houses or buildings, then walk or jog to the next one to recover.
I myself have used empty nighttime parking lots as markers.
You can also use a treadmill — but if you hold on during the sprint intervals, you’ll defeat the purpose!
I recommend manual adjustments because this way you can set the speed to what’s a true, kickass interval for your abilities.
Intervals can be as short as five seconds or as long as a minute.
But you’ll get even more glorious results if you run faster over a shorter time (no human can run their fastest for one minute, which is why 100-meter sprint athletes can’t maintain their top speed even for the 200 meter dash).
The key is to push yourself to about 90% of your max effort during the sprint segments, then take enough time to recover before the next burst.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages and abilities for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.
Even Neurotypicals Are Still Learning About Eye Contact
Researchers looked into the timing of eye contact, not just how it’s done.
The study, led by cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Nathan Caruana and his team at Flinders University’s HAVIC Lab, asked 137 typical participants to complete a block-building task with a virtual partner.
They found that the best way to signal for help was a simple three-step gaze.
- Look at the object
- Next look at your partner’s eyes
- Then look back at the object
This sequence made people most likely to interpret the gaze as a request for assistance.
Dr. Caruana explains that it’s not just about how often someone makes eye contact, it’s the context of the eye movements that really counts.
The paper points out that participants responded the say way whether the gaze came from a robot or a human.
This shows that the human brain is wired, naturally, to detect social cues regardless of source.
This kind of insight could change how tech is designed and trained.
If robots and virtual assistants can mimic the subtle nonverbal signals that people naturally use, interactions with them could feel far more natural and intuitive.
Dr. Caruana explains that this decoding of such an instinctive behavior can help build better connections with typical people in a variety of contexts, as well as with autistic individuals.
The HAVIC Lab is also pursuing other elements that influence how we interpret gaze, including how long eye contact lasts and whether it’s repeated.
Hopefully the researchers will take a look at how typical people navigate eye contact as they’re approaching someone they know from a distance, such as in a long corridor at the workplace or in a college dormitory.
Many autistic people find this scenario troublesome to navigate.
The paper concludes that the subtle signals of eye contact are the “foundation of social connection.”
Smarter technology with better training can be designed based on better understanding of this foundation.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical and fitness topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer. In 2022 she received a diagnosis of Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
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