#67: Sprint Interval Training (SIT) | What it is & why it’s recommended for women over 40

What is the best kind of cardio to be doing as a woman in perimenopause or post-menopause? Is it zone 2 cardio? HIIT sessions? Or should you be doing long steady-state sessions? 

The answer may surprise you: the recommendation for women in perimenopause and menopause is to do maximal high-intensity cardio called Sprint Interval Training (SIT). 

In this episode of 40+ Fitness for Women podcast, you'll learn: 

🏃‍♀️ What Sprint Interval Training is

🏃‍♀️ What the benefits of Spring Interval Training are

🏃‍♀️ How to start doing Sprint Interval Training

🏃‍♀️ How to fit Sprint Interval Training into your week alongside your weight training

x Lynn 

Transcript

#67: Sprint Interval Training (SIT) | Why it’s recommended for women over 40

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host. And today we're going to be talking about cardio for a change and in particular something called sprint interval training. And this is something that is particularly useful for women in perimenopause and menopause to help us with our body composition.

and our health. So I'll be describing what is SIT, how do you do it, what are the benefits, and how do you program it into your week along with weight training. So let's get into the show.

So as a menopause fitness coach, and as a woman who is in her fifties and in that, I guess we're called like the sandwich generation, where we've got our teenagers on the one hand [00:01:00] and our aging parents to take care of on the other hand, and there's just so much going on. I am. Keenly aware of how difficult it is to find time to focus on yourself and try to improve your own fitness and health.

I struggle with it on a weekly basis. My weeks are filled even on the weeks that I don't have my kids because I'm divorced and the kids are 50 50 with their father and me, but man, I spend a heck of a lot of time in front of my calendar. Trying to figure out where I'm going to squeeze various things in.

And I know from working with women one on one that the struggle is real. For just about everybody, it is a totally different ballgame from when we were, you know, in our twenties and we had just our own calendars to manage. We didn't have to think about driving any kids anywhere or, [00:02:00] or significant others or whatever, all kinds of things.

So I try very hard. not to kind of overwhelm you by giving you a million things to do. But today I did want to talk about sprint interval training, because if you are somebody who has started on our weight training journey, gotten that under control, and you're thinking, okay, what's next? I wanted to give you kind of. The what's next, right? To start optimizing your cardio for this phase of life. And this is actually something that's near and dear to my heart because I am adding this to my own cardio and to my weekly programming now. And I've been weight training consistently, man, I want to say about two years now.

And I feel like, okay, [00:03:00] I'm handling that. All right. In my daily life. And now maybe I'm ready to add something else. So you see, I'm not expecting you to be like jumping right into this from day one, because for sure I have not. And this is something that's a little bit newer to me. Um, I have been doing menopause.

Uh, fitness or menopause health and these kinds of courses from various experts in the field and sit training is something recommended particularly by a woman named Stacy Sims, who is She's written a book on menopause fitness, and she also trains trainers on various topics around training women and around training women in perimenopause and postmenopause as well.

So I am learning from the best. [00:04:00] And I'll say that if you're not at the point yet where you're ready to like focus on optimizing your cardio, what I would say is, you know, if you've got limited amount of time, you've gotten your strength training in. So you're doing your, at least two days a week, full body strength training. So you're hitting each of your muscle groups twice a week, then just start doing some cardio.

And now I'm not counting walking as cardio. No. Uh, so do dance classes. If that's what you enjoy doing, play tennis, go hiking, you know, up and down Hills. That's going to be more cardio, uh, jog, um, I don't know, canoe, whatever the thing is that you enjoy doing so that you get some degree of raising your heart rate, you know, having to breathe heavy.

It can even be walking up and down the [00:05:00] stairs or running up and down the stairs, but that would be something that I would do. So I want to give you a very low barrier to entry on starting to do cardio. Like let's not get too in the weeds. Start with weight training, add some kind of cardio. When you have time, it can be after your weight training session that you do 15 minutes on the exercise bike, right?

Or you jog on the treadmill for 15 minutes. you know, whatever you can fit in. 

But then when you're ready to move to the next level, then let's start talking about sit training. And maybe you can listen to this episode. So you know what's coming up and, uh, remember it for the future when you are ready.

Okay. And I have a bunch of notes here, a little bit more notes than I normally do. Cause like I said, this is something that I'm just starting to really explore for myself and how this is done in a practical way. But let's [00:06:00] start with what is SIT. So it stands for Sprint Interval Training, and it is basically like the.

Mother of high intensity interval training. So it's like the most high intensity interval training as you might, you know, gather from the name sprint interval training and sprinting is like all out, you know, hell bent for leather as hard as you can go. And the thing to remember is that, HIIT has become something that's really popular in various, gyms and group fitness classes.

And while HIIT started out as high intensity interval training, because a lot of the classes are so very long, they're not actually that very high intensity for a lot of people. You cannot maintain some super high intensity for an [00:07:00] hour. It's just that that's, you just can't. There's a reason why sprinting races are only, you know, a certain distance they're short because you cannot maintain that high level of output for very long.

We're just not built that way. You can't sprint a marathon. Okay. So, and sprint interval training, while it may sound wild for like, Older women to be doing it. It is really beneficial. And particularly with our problem of losing lean muscle mass from our bodies. In fact, they've done studies where they added sprint interval training. Where. Some of the people were sprint interval training and some were just doing normal cardio on a bike, right? Like not pushing themselves to max. And these studies were done on 65 to 80 year olds. [00:08:00] Okay. So, you know, a lot of us are not there yet. And even in that age group, they noticed a significant decrease in, Belly fat. So the visceral fat and increase in lean muscle mass. I mean, what, you know? So that is pretty cool that using this specific type of cardio training, you can actually help with your body composition in the same way that weight training does.

And sprint interval training is really about working in that kind of quote unquote red zone. So if you're using a heart rate monitor, it's that zone where you're going 85 percent or higher of your maximum heart rate. And what that does when you do these sprints is it provides a metabolic stimulus [00:09:00] that triggers body composition changes in us the same kinds of body composition, changes that our hormones used to help us with.

So if you've listened to the last episode of the podcast, you know that Estrogen has been helping us maintain our muscle, build muscle. And when estrogen disappears, we start to lose our muscle more easily. We, and we are having a hard time building muscle and the sprint interval training is another tool in our toolbox.

And I would use it in addition to weight training, not instead of, but in addition to that will help with these body composition changes.

So one thing that you probably heard is that. Our base level of cortisol increases when we enter perimenopause. And that's one of the reasons why we're losing muscle mass because [00:10:00] cortisol breaks down muscle. And also what happens when you've got more cortisol, your body starts to store more belly fat.

And then the belly fat. triggers your body to produce more cortisol. I mean, it's this crazy downward negative cycle and sit. So the sprint interval training allows you to break that cycle. And start getting rid of that belly fat.

So what this kind of very intensive sprint interval training does is it reduces your cortisol and stress levels overall, and it also triggers the production of testosterone and human growth hormone. And all of that combined actually supports putting on [00:11:00] lean muscle. But we need to be pushing our bodies into the red.

So what are the benefits of sit? It helps to burn off belly fat. It improves insulin sensitivity. It lowers fasting blood sugar levels. It increases our mitochondrial health. And those are the powerhouses in our cells. It improves your overall cardiovascular health and your blood vessel function. And that helps with things like hot flashes in perimenopause and menopause. And finally, it's good for your brain. It improves your cognition and your working memory. So a lot of great stuff to be gotten out of this sprint interval training.

So the reason I needed to start this podcast by talking about the benefits of sprint interval training is that it is no cakewalk. It's not like going for a walk or playing tennis or whatever.

It is really [00:12:00] pushing your body to your maximum limits, right? Where you can't go Harder. And they actually recommend that you do this on a stationary bike because that is a motion that you're less likely to like hurt your muscles or tear any tissue or whatever. I mean, if you literally went on a track and started sprinting and you haven't been like sprinting regularly, you could actually pull something, so a stationary bike is a great way to start.

And that's actually one of the ways that I am going to be incorporating the sprint interval training into my life. So my gym offers these spinning classes where there's no instructor, and they actually have one of the less mills, concept classes called sprint, but it's half an hour, which is a little bit. too long a time to actually do real, real sprint interval training. But anyway, these are kind of automated classes where there's no [00:13:00] instructor there. So I could hop into any one of those so that I can get on the bike. Then I have some music running there because the program is going on and then I'm just going to do my own thing.

And, uh, and that's just an idea for you as well. If you don't have a stationary bike at home, that you can do it at the gym. You can even go to a cycling class and just tell the teacher that, Hey, I'm going to do my own thing. And then I got to leave early if it's like an hour class, because you don't need to be there for an hour.

A sprint interval training session is maximum 20 minutes. Okay. Before that 20 minutes, you need to do a little bit of a warmup. So 10 to 15 minutes of a warmup, but it's like 20 minutes max. And probably in the beginning when you're not yet in very good shape, 20 minutes will be too much for you to actually be able to do.

Cause the point is that you need to go maximum. And when you can't do the maximum anymore, then you need to just end your session, right? Don't hold out. Don't like [00:14:00] keep some energy in reserve because you've got to go the 20 minutes. rather only go five minutes and do it all out. And then as you get better in better shape, you do six minutes and seven minutes and eight minutes like that building up.

But you can also do the sprint interval training with other kinds of equipment. I mean, the equipment, how you do it does not matter. You just need to get to that super high, heart rate. So I like to sprint steps when the weather is nice, like it is finally now. I have some steps near my house, so I jog there and then I do my sprints. Some days, well, when I've done it now this spring, there were a couple of warm days.

it was like four sprints was all I could manage. And then I would come home, my legs would be like jello. Yeah. But you can also, if you've got these big ropes in your gym, you know, you can wave those ropes around. If you've got a hill, a short hill near [00:15:00] your house, you can sprint up the hill.

You can do squat jumps or even kettlebell swings. Or jump rope. I mean, you know, whatever you have at your disposal where you can get your heart rate up. And if you have a sports watch so you can look at, Hey, am I actually getting into the red zone? So above 85 percent of your heart rate max, then great.

But even if you don't have a sports watch, you can do this because you just do it till you're like feeling like you could throw up, then you know, I'm pushing myself as hard as possible. And by the way, if you have heart issues then please, you need to take into account your own level of fitness and health when you start doing sprint interval training.

And let's not like go out there and overdo it. Okay. But I'm just letting you know what this is.

All right. So what does a sprint interval training session look like? So I will [00:16:00] describe my. A sprint interval training session are two options that I do. So first is that I'm doing the stairs, so I leave my house, I jog to the stairs, takes me about 10, 15 minutes. So my legs are warm.

I've jogged slowly, so I'm not like tiring myself out, but I'm warming up my legs because I'm going to use my legs, right? And then when I get to the stairs, I go as fast as I can up the stairs. And now these stairs are not super duper long, but they're also not like just four stairs. So when I take off at my max speed, at some point, about three quarters of the way up, I just sort of hit a wall and then I just push myself to finish the steps to get to the top.

Then I stop, right? I stop and I. like, just try to catch my breath, [00:17:00] right? I'm up there like, you know, that kind of feeling like, Oh my God. And then I go slowly back down the stairs. I don't get to the point where I've totally, totally, totally caught my breath. And you know, I'm back to normal because that would take many, many minutes, but let's say the sprint has taken me 20 seconds.

To get up to the top of the stairs, then maybe it's 40 seconds. Maybe it's a minute till I'm back at the bottom of the stairs, ready to go again. And again, I go as hard as I can. And, you know, then at some point I hit that wall and I finished the stairs. So I get to the top and then I again, uh, Pant, breathe, and wait a moment till I feel like I'm not, you know, dying.

And then I start coming down the stairs, I'm still breathing heavy. It's not about like totally getting out of the breathing, [00:18:00] breathing heavy thing. And when I get to the bottom, then I'll do it again. And now that I'm starting this up, I've been twice, but I've been twice like over the past two months. So, so like four times doing that is enough.

I'm done. Then I just walk home, as my cool down, just walk home and that's, that's my workout. Or if I am going to go to the gym and do the spinning class. Spinning classes generally have some kind of warm up, but I might, I noticed some of the warmups are like quite quick that they get you warming up.

So I might do the warmup a little bit longer, I won't go into their first push. whatever session. So I'll do the warmup for 10 or 15 minutes of cycling because of course, I'm going to be cycling for my sprint training. So I want to warm up doing the thing that I'm going to do. And then I will do the sprints.

And now when you're working on an [00:19:00] exercise bike, it's a little bit different thing, right? So you can decide how long your sprint is going to be. So you have Options. If you are in really not sprinting shape like me right now, uh, then your sprints may be fairly short, but try to do 10 seconds or 20 seconds of all out.

And then when you hit that wall or when that 10 or 20 seconds is up, then you stop pedaling altogether. Altogether, you stop pedaling and you just sit there on the bike for. double the amount of time you just sprinted for, you know, and if you are in bad shape, it might be that, you know, you still feel like, Oh my God, I haven't recovered at all.

So maybe it's triple, maybe it's quadruple the amount of time you did the sprint. But in any case, then when you've a little bit recovered, then you do it again and you might do it four [00:20:00] times or five times and, and then you're done. Now that's how I would start it. And of course, those same principles apply, if you're using the ropes or the kettlebell swings or whatever, your sprint should never be over 40 seconds.

If you can sprint for 40 seconds, or more, you are not sprinting. You're doing something fast, you know, hard, but it's not maximal. All right. So that's a really good way to judge whether you are actually going maximal. It should feel super unpleasant, but because it's such a short amount of time, it's like, this sucks, this sucks, this sucks.

And then it's over. Right. And then this sucks, this sucks, this sucks. And then it's over. And you do that three, four times. And then it really is over, then you can go home. Okay. And then as you get in better shape, maybe you want to increase the length of [00:21:00] your, sprinting. So in the beginning, maybe you can only do these sprints for 10 minutes, and then you can increase the amount of sprints.

And when you start to increase the amount of sprints, you can do them in little. Bundles. So I might do, 10 second sprint, 20 second break, 10 second sprint, 20 second break, 10 second sprint, 20 second break.

10 second sprint, 20 second break. So I do like four of those in a row. Then I take, let's say four, five minutes off. So I've done my first set. Then I'm taking like a good break. And then I do a second set of sprints. And you can also play around with how long the sprint period is versus how long the break period is. So you could do 30 second sprint and 30 second break, 30 second [00:22:00] sprint. 30 second break. Okay. There's not just one correct way to do this. And if you're trying these or doing these, I would love actually, if you could let me know what you are doing and how it's feeling and how easily you were able to, start doing it 

all right. And now what about how to fit it into your week? These are pretty intense, these sprint interval sessions. So this is a little bit going to depend on your own condition, like how good a shape you're in, and your own timetable, how often you lift, and all those things. This is how I'm going to do it. I am going to do my sprint interval session on a different day than I do my weight training. And I mean, I lift four days a week. So that means that it'll be a fifth day of working out. And it'll be just this short sprint session. I'll sometimes go [00:23:00] Run the stairs when the weather's nice, and then if the weather's not so nice, I'll go do the bikes.

And because my sprint interval training sessions are going to involve my legs so heavily, I would not weight train my legs the day before. So probably I would have a leg day, then an upper body day, then my sprint day, then a rest day. So that's how I envision that going. Now, if I were to use the ropes, because I do have ropes at my gym, if I decide that I wanted to use that, then I probably wouldn't have an upper body day right before or right after I've been waving those ropes. Because my arms could be pretty tired, especially before they got used to it.

Now, if you don't have time to do it on a separate day, then you can do your sprint interval training session on the same day as what you're doing, weight training, but do it after the weight training. And again, I would [00:24:00] say that if you are doing, the sprinting on a bike or running or something that's very leg dominant, maybe not on leg day, maybe on upper body day instead, but you'll have to play with that and see what works for you.

I think if people are in very good shape, then maybe you can do a leg day and then do the sprint interval training with legs. Well, I actually, I don't know, but, um, but yeah, so that's my kind of thinking on that.

Yeah. And if you have a day that you're doing like yoga or stretching or something like that, then that could be a really good day to do the sprint interval training first and then go do the stretching class or the hot yoga class or Pilates class or something like that where you're not using your legs so much.

 Okay. So that was a lot for today's, I want to summarize a little bit, the key takeaways from [00:25:00] this episode. So the benefits of sprint interval training are that it helps burn off belly fat. Improves your insulin sensitivity. It lowers fasting blood sugar levels.

It increases mitochondrial health, and this has been shown even in people over the age of 65 when they've done sprint interval training, they have seen significant changes. It improves your overall cardiovascular health and your blood vessel function. And it reduces hot flushes as a result of that. So that's a nice, you know, additional thing.

And then it helps, with your brain health. So it improves cognition and working memory. So these are things that, Hey, we women who are in peri and post menopause struggle with, brain fog and other things. And remember the kind of [00:26:00] feeling is that it should be short and hellish. You're pushing your body into the red zone.

So over 85 percent of your max heart rate, your sprint will be 10 to 40 seconds. not over 40 seconds. If you think you can be sprinting for over 40 seconds, you're fooling yourself. Okay? You're going to be going all out for 10 to 40 seconds. Your whole session of sprinting, once you've done your warmup, which will be like 10 to 15 minutes warming up, whatever, if it's your legs you're using or whatever, your session will be short. It's going to be 10 to 20 minutes of this kind of sprinting and taking a break and sprinting and taking a break. Right? So it's nice in that sense, you do it and it's done.

You can pretty much do whatever you want to do as your sprint interval training. [00:27:00] Easiest is likely. Spinning bike or, you know, an exercise bike or sprinting upstairs or up a hill, but you can also do kettlebell swings. You can do squat jumps, anything where you can get your heart rate up quickly.

 And afterwards have a quick cool down so you can do the five minutes of walking, a little bit of mobility, breathing. I had a podcast episode on how to do a cool down, you know, to bring your cortisol levels down and having that shot protein. So the 35 to 40 grams of protein after this session will also help with that and with your body recomposition goals.

And how often should you do this? Well, one or two times a week is plenty. I plan on starting with once a week and let's see how it goes. But I think these sessions are not so [00:28:00] fun. So, so I am going to be giving myself a huge pat on the back for doing them once a week. And I'll let you know how to go. All right.

So that was it for this week's episode. Please let me know what you thought of it. Send me a message or a direct message on Instagram. Or if you're following me on Facebook, like now a ton of people are then message me on messenger. Let me know what you thought of the episode. And as always, if you have topics that you want to hear more about that have to do with 40 plus fitness, send your suggestions in.

They are always welcome. And with that, I leave you and wish you a great week. Happy training.