Timer · preset of interval timer
45/15 interval timer
Forty-five seconds of work with fifteen to recover. Three times as much work as rest, so the pace has to be honest from round one.
Open the full interval timer to change anything this preset fixes
The timer
- Work
- 45s
- Rest
- 15s
The clock runs fullscreen and keeps the screen awake. It needs JavaScript, so with scripting off the plan below is the whole session written out.
- Total
- 9:55
- Working
- 7:30
- Periods
- 20
- 01ReadyGet ready0:10
- 02WorkWork0:45
- 03RestRest0:15
- 04WorkWork0:45
- 05RestRest0:15
- 06WorkWork0:45
- 07RestRest0:15
- 08WorkWork0:45
- 09RestRest0:15
- 10WorkWork0:45
- 11RestRest0:15
- 12WorkWork0:45
- 13RestRest0:15
- 14WorkWork0:45
- 15RestRest0:15
- 16WorkWork0:45
- 17RestRest0:15
- 18WorkWork0:45
- 19RestRest0:15
- 20WorkWork0:45
·
0:00
How it works
Forty-five on and fifteen off gives three parts work to one part rest. Fifteen seconds is enough to put a kettlebell down and breathe, and not enough to recover, so your heart rate stays high from about round three to the end.
That is the training effect, and it is also the trap. The first two rounds feel manageable at almost any pace, and a pace that felt fine in round two is unsustainable by round six. Start slower than feels right.
Ten rounds is ten minutes with seven and a half minutes of work, which is a lot of work for the time. On a bike or a rower it is a genuine test. On bodyweight movements it is usually two exercises alternating, so one recovers while the other works.
Pick movements you can start instantly. Fifteen seconds disappears if you have to change equipment or reset a position, and a station that eats the rest turns this into an unbroken seven minute effort.
Questions
- How hard should the 45 seconds be?
- Hard enough to be uncomfortable, easy enough to repeat ten times. Fifteen seconds recovers very little, so a pace you can only hold for three rounds will not survive to round six.
- Is 45/15 better than 30/30?
- Different. The short rest keeps your heart rate high across the whole session, which trains how long you can work rather than how hard. Use it once 30/30 is comfortable.
- What is the total time?
- Ten rounds is ten minutes, with seven and a half of it working. That is a high work density for a ten minute session.