Key takeaways
Rest is what makes the next interval worth doing
Twenty on, forty off beats a vague thirty-thirty
Pick movements that hold up when you are tired
High intensity work earns its reputation when it is genuinely hard and genuinely short. Stretch it past twenty-five minutes and it stops being intense — it just becomes tiring.
Work to rest is the whole game
Twenty seconds of honest effort against forty seconds of rest beats a vague thirty-thirty every time. The rest is not a break from the session; it is what makes the next interval worth doing.
Pick movements you can do tired
Round four is not the time to be learning a snatch. Bike sprints, sled pushes and step-ups all hold up when your form starts slipping, which is exactly when the session gets valuable.
Two of these a week alongside your strength work is plenty. Three is usually how people end up flat by the following Monday.
Alex Thompson
Performance Coach
Alex builds competition-season plans for elite athletes and is unreasonably strict about interval rest periods.
