Short bursts of exercise will make you fitter quicker

[Peikko 1,575]

Like the diet that guarantees weight loss, the fitness regime which delivers maximum benefit for minimum effort is the Holy Grail of exercise coaches. Now they believe they have found it.

Alternating short bursts of intense activity with brief rest periods delivers more benefit for less exercise, research shows. As a way of building fitness and muscle power it beats traditional types of long-term exercise such as cycling or walking, scientists say.

"Doing 10 one-minute bursts of activity on an exercise bike, interspersed by one-minute rests, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously," said Professor Martin Gibala of McMaster University, Canada, who led the study.

To achieve equivalent results by traditional endurance training would require over 10 hours of moderate-intensity cycling in a period of two weeks.

It had been thought that interval training had to involve "all-out" effort at the maximum of which the individual was capable to be effective. This was fine for athletes, but not as good for ordinary people extracting themselves from their natural habitat on the sofa.

Previous studies have shown that a quick HIT (high-intensity interval training) involving all-out effort was as good as a long cycle ride (or stroll), despite taking less time and, remarkably, involving less exercise.

The new study, published in the Journal of Physiology, showed that a less extreme form of HIT also works. The subjects used an ordinary exercise bike and pedalled at about half the speed involved in an all-out sprint. The results were as good. "We have shown that interval training does not have to be 'all-out' to be effective," Professor Gibala said.

It is simple to adapt an exercise regime to resemble interval training. When out jogging or cycling, individuals can alternate one-minute sprints with one minute of coasting. The length of the sprints, and the intervals between them, can be varied as fitness improves.

Why HIT should be so effective remains unclear. But the excuse of having "too little time to exercise" is no longer tenable, Professor Gibala says. "It should be possible for the general public," he said.

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[Amby 490]

It seems like I've been reading the same sort of info in all types of fitness magazines for the last 12 months or so. It can't hurt to try!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

It seems like I've been reading the same sort of info in all types of fitness magazines for the last 12 months or so. It can't hurt to try!

Also, breaking up your routine so you aren't doing the same exercise....as in cross training.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

It seems like I've been reading the same sort of info in all types of fitness gentleman's magazines for the last 12 months or so. It can't hurt to try!

Does this have anything to do with sex?

Swedish Fartlek (interval) training has been around since the 1930s. Football players have been doing this since the early 1960s. Fartlek Hill, United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, Quantico, VA, FTW.

[_Simpson_ 250]

So those quick trips to the fridge during commercial breaks are paying off, sweet!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Does this have anything to do with sex?

Swedish Fartlek (interval) training has been around since the 1930s. Football players have been doing this since the early 1960s. Fartlek Hill, United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, Quantico, VA, FTW.

There's also a benefit to increasing your heart rate over an extended period of time (30 minutes minimum) as in jogging or other aerobic exercise. For someone who is out of shape and overweight, it's probably safer for them to exercise at an elevated but steady pace for 30 minutes, than to run 100 yards as fast as they can. The article didn't mention the difference of effect on the cardiovascular system between short bursts of exercise and longer duration, and from what I've understood, it's a strain on your heart to have it jump from 60bpm to 140bpm quickly and then back down again quickly.

[Peikko 1,575]

It seems like I've been reading the same sort of info in all types of fitness magazines for the last 12 months or so. It can't hurt to try!

Right, we've all heard of interval training, but the difference between this and what has been studied previously is that this is for your every day work out, and advocates an increase in intensity but not an 'all out burst' and it still having a very marked impact. I think that's important because it's really, really hard to go 'all out' without having a trained professional helping you with your training, but increasing the intensity is something we can all manage.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

There's also a benefit to increasing your heart rate over an extended period of time (30 minutes minimum) as in jogging or other aerobic exercise. For someone who is out of shape and overweight, it's probably safer for them to exercise at an elevated but steady pace for 30 minutes, than to run 100 yards as fast as they can. The article didn't mention the difference of effect on the cardiovascular system between short bursts of exercise and longer duration, and from what I've understood, it's a strain on your heart to have it jump from 60bpm to 140bpm quickly and then back down again quickly.

I agree, it is better to get some regular conditioning in before interval training is introduced into a program.

[Dakine 26]

From what I understand it's VERY important to do a cool down period after each strenuous exercise.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Right, we've all heard of interval training, but the difference between this and what has been studied previously is that this is for your every day work out, and advocates an increase in intensity but not an 'all out burst' and it still having a very marked impact. I think that's important because it's really, really hard to go 'all out' without having a trained professional helping you with your training, but increasing the intensity is something we can all manage.

I thought that we already had the research on sub-maximal effort interval training. I fail to grasp the difference. The only thing that I see is that this is the backbone of the program as opposed to being a minor part of the program. Maybe that's the difference. The study taked about inproving muscle but what do they mean, strength or endurance. It's not too clear what they are talking about.

[Peikko 1,575]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2010) — The usual excuse of "lack of time" for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

The study, from scientists at Canada's McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) as a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. Astonishingly, it is possible to get more by doing less!

"We have shown that interval training does not have to be 'all out' in order to be effective," says Professor Martin Gibala. "Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously."

HIT means doing a number of short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery breaks in between. The authors have already shown with young healthy college students that this produces the same physical benefits as conventional long duration endurance training despite taking much less time (and amazingly, actually doing less exercise!) However, their previous work used a relatively extreme set-up that involved "all out" pedaling on a specialized laboratory bicycle. The new study used a standard stationary bicycle and a workload which was still above most people's comfort zone -about 95% of maximal heart rate -- but only about half of what can be achieved when people sprint at an all-out pace.

This less extreme HIT method may work well for people (the older, less fit, and slightly overweight among us) whose doctors might have worries about them exercising "all-out." We have known for years that repeated moderate long-term exercise tunes up fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles and aids the removal of waste products. Exercise also improves the way muscles use the oxygen to burn the fuel in mitochondria, the microscopic power station of cells.

Running or cycling for hours a week widens the network of vessels supplying muscle cells and also boosts the numbers of mitochondria in them so that a person can carry out activities of daily living more effectively and without strain, and crucially with less risk of a heart attack, stroke or diabetes.

But the traditional approach to exercise is time consuming. Martin Gibala and his team have shown that the same results can be obtained in far less time with brief spurts of higher-intensity exercise.

To achieve the study's equivalent results by endurance training you'd need to complete over 10 hours of continuous moderate bicycling exercise over a two-week period.

The "secret" to why HIT is so effective is unclear. However, the study by Gibala and co-workers also provides insight into the molecular signals that regulate muscle adaptation to interval training. It appears that HIT stimulates many of the same cellular pathways that are responsible for the beneficial effects we associate with endurance training.

The upside of doing more exercise is well-known, but a big question for most people thinking of getting fit is: "How much time out of my busy life do I need to spend to get the perks?"

Martin Gibala says "no time to exercise" is not an excuse now that HIT can be tailored for the average adult. "While still a demanding form of training," Gibala adds, "the exercise protocol we used should be possible to do by the general public and you don't need more than an average exercise bike."

The McMaster team's future research will examine whether HIT can bring health benefits to people who are overweight or who have metabolic diseases like diabetes.

As the evidence for HIT continues to grow, a new frontier in the fitness field emerges.

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Link to facebook page of The Physiological Society