Taking The 10-20-30 Workout To The Pool

Gretchen Reynolds, writing in the New York Times, answers a reader’s question about the practicality of taking a runners’ 10-20-30 workout to the water. First a reminder: in the 10-20-30 program, she writes, “runners jog at a leisurely pace for 30 seconds, accelerate to a moderate speed for 20 seconds, and then sprint as hard as possible for 10 seconds, repeating the whole sequence five times, before walking for several minutes, and then completing five minutes of 10-20-30 training once or twice more.” Yes, it was developed by the Danes, who try hard to make work fun, and vice versa. Reynolds consults Jens Bangsbo, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who helped to develop 10-20-30 program, and OK, unsurprisingly, Jens recommends the program for swimmers too. Bangsbo suggests that swimmers use freestyle or butterfly for the all-out 10 seconds and breaststroke for the 20 and 30 second periods. He tells Reynolds that swimmers who train five times a week should probably use the 10-20-30 method three times a week, while for runners, the program should be used only twice a week.