Why Interval Training is Overrated (and What to Do Instead)

Why Constant Intervals Aren't Always the Answer

A regular walked up to me after a Tuesday class last month, dripping sweat, and said her legs felt completely dead before we even hit the halfway mark. I looked at my notes and realized I had programmed four massive sprint tracks back to back. Look, I am a Les Mills Sprint guy at heart, and I love mapping a heavy climb or a max sprint to a huge drop. But if I am being blunt, constant interval training is overrated as an everyday strategy.

When every single song is a spike and a crash, riders burn out. They stop pushing on the actual intervals because they know another one is coming in sixty seconds. The work gets predictable, and the room loses that magic atmosphere because everyone is just surviving the next block.

You do not need a breathless panic every two minutes to build a hard, effective class. Sometimes the hardest work you can ask for is holding an All Out Pace for four minutes straight.

Building for Sustained Energy (and Why It Works)

When I stopped relying solely on beat drops, my programming actually got harder. I started looking for tracks with a driving, consistent feel that let the room lock in. I use On the Beat to filter for songs with sustained energy levels and flat BPMs, rather than just hunting for the next big spike.

That steady, rhythm-focused work creates an atmosphere you just cannot get from back-to-back power drills. Sustained endurance forces riders to find a different kind of mental toughness. Instead of thirty seconds of chaos, you get five minutes of shared focus.

It also makes your actual intervals mean something again. When you spend ten minutes doing steady pace work, that next max sprint feels earned.

My Biggest Programming Mistake (and How I Fixed It)

My biggest mistake early on was thinking that if riders were not gasping for air, I was not doing my job. I crammed every class full of power drills and heavy climbs. I forgot that for a lot of people, just showing up is a big deal, and they do not need to be wrecked to have a good workout.

I fixed it by forcing myself to program at least one long, sustained endurance track right in the middle of my rides. No out-of-saddle jumps, no tap backs, just a baseline pace building to a moderate pace.

It gives the room a chance to breathe and actually ride to the music. It completely changed the flow of my classes, and my riders stopped pacing themselves just to survive the back half.

Take a look at your next playlist and see if you are giving your room a chance to settle in and ride. Sometimes the best thing you can do is pull back on the spikes and just let them hold the pace.