A new take on Cardiometabolic training. Same results with a substantially reduced time commitment
When dealing with injured clients we work to get them capable of tolerating meaningful loads during their ADLs, sports and activities. The longer an injury persists, usually the less capable the client becomes as they get away from their fitness routine thus creating a greater load tolerance issue.
These researchers have looked at a very time efficient method for the aerobic components of training. The key component here is time efficient to increase the likelihood of compliance. As an aside this method also is much more interesting as compared to continuous level heart rate training on a stationary bike.
This group has done many studies on the topic over the past decade with different populations of subjects. These results appear to be largely consistent between these different groups.
This recent study used 12 weeks at 3 x a week high intensity exercise(HIT). Each session was 3 repeats of 20 seconds all out sprint followed by a 2 min recovery pedal. The group was sedentary. The comparison group did 45 min continuous cycling at 70% HRmax.
The second study used 6 sessions over 2 weeks. The HIT was 4- 6 repeats of 30sec all out with 4 min recovery(Wingate tests). The comparison group did 90-120 min continuous cycling at VO2 peak. The group was active 20-22 year old males.
Both studies confirmed that despite the many times lower time commitment that high intensity interval training produced equal cardiometabolic response in both sedentary and active males.
Using high intensity training we will likely get better compliance and better results with our clients. This inclusion may improve time to recovery on many of their injuries where general fitness is a component of their vulnerability. Of course it also opens the door to some interesting concepts for training the healthy as well.
Gillen JB, Martin BJ, MacInnis MJ, Skelly LE, Tarnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ.Twelve Weeks of Sprint Interval Training Improves Indices of Cardiometabolic Health Similar to Traditional Endurance Training despite a Five-Fold Lower Exercise Volume and Time Commitment. PLoS One. 2016 Apr 26;11(4):e0154075. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154075. eCollection 2016.
Gibala MJ, Little JP, van Essen M, Wilkin GP, Burgomaster KA, Safdar A, Raha S, Tarnopolsky MA. Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. J Physiol. 2006 Sep 15;575(Pt 3):901-11. Epub 2006 Jul 6.