Life Fitness 5500HR Assembly Instructions Manual page 25

Interval Training: A series of hills and valleys. During this portion
of the workout, the user is confronted with a series of successively
steeper hills, each separated from the next by a valley or recovery
period. Check the heart rate to ensure that it has remained within
the target zone.
Cool-down: The cool-down allows the body to begin removing
accumulated by-products of exercise, such as lactic acid, which
build up in muscles during a workout and contribute to muscle
soreness.
Effort and recovery periods are simulated on the display console by
columns of red lights in the workout Profile window. Each column
represents one interval and 20 intervals comprise the workout. The
columns move from right to left during the workout. The higher the
column, the higher the resistance. Consequently, the effort must be
increased to continue training.
1 to 9 minutes: Because workouts with durations of less than 10
minutes are insufficient for the Hill workout to complete all four
phases adequately, the workout condenses at various stages in
order to meet the chosen workout time.
10 to 19 minutes: The interval durations are initially set at 30
seconds for a 10-minute workout. For every additional minute of
workout duration, the Hill workout lengthens each interval by three
seconds. Thus, a 15-minute Hill workout will feature 20 intervals of
45 seconds each.
20 to 99 minutes: All intervals last 60 seconds. As minutes are
added, additional hills and valleys are presented beyond the initial
four of the interval training phase. The additional hills and valleys
will follow the form of the first four, dropping back down to the level
of the very first hill encountered and progressing in height every two
minutes until the highest hill is reached again. This process repeats
until the workout duration is met.
14
RANDOM AND MANUAL WORKOUTS
R W
ANDOM ORKOUT
The Life Fitness on-board computer randomly selects hill and valley
terrain which varies with each and every workout, resulting in more
than one million combinations. Because workout levels are greater
in this workout than in the Hill workout, it is recommended that the
Random workout be set one or two levels lower than the workout
level which would normally be selected in the Hill workout.
M W
ANUAL ORKOUT
The Manual workout provides steady pace exercise with resistance
levels equal to that of the highest hill encountered in the Hill
workout at the same effort level. Because of the greater effort levels
of this workout, it is recommended to set the Manual workout about
three to four levels lower than the level of effort which would
normally be selected on the Hill workout.
A personal interval training workout can be designed using the
Manual workout by varying the level of effort during the course of
the workout session. To do so, select a high level of effort until the
upper end of the target heart rate zone is reached, then pedal at a
lower effort level until the heart rate drops to the bottom of the
target zone. Then increase the level of effort again until the heart
rate rises back to the upper portion of the target zone. Repeating
this process will actually create hills and valleys.