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3 A lack of time due to other responsibilities partly contributes to lack of adherence to this PA recommendation. 1 2 In Eldoret, Kenya, where the current study was performed, more than 82% of elderly adults do not achieve recommended levels of exercise. 1 In some developed economies, 51%–79% of adults do not meet this weekly PA recommendation. Taken as a whole, the results indicate that intervals and traditional exercise alter our bodies in divergent ways, and we may want to consider what we hope to achieve with exercise when choosing how best to exercise, says Jamie Burr, a professor at the University of Guelph, who conducted the new study with his graduate student Heather Petrick and other colleagues.The current recommendation for weekly duration of moderate-intensity PA for health benefit in adults is a minimum of 150 min, traditionally achieved in 3–5 sessions of 30–60 min per week, or accumulated through bouts that last more than 10 min. On the remaining days, blood sugar levels tended to rise. Perhaps most interesting, everyone’s blood-sugar control at home was best only on the days when they exercised, meaning three times a week for the HIIT riders and five for the moderate group.

But only those in the moderate-exercise group had shed much body fat, improved their blood pressures or become better able to metabolize the extra fat from the unctuous shake. The men almost all were fitter, and to about the same extent, however they had exercised.

Over the course of the next six weeks, the HIIT group pedaled intensely for a grand total of less than an hour, while the moderate-intensity group worked out for at least 2.5 hours each week for the same period.Īt the end of the six weeks, both groups returned to the lab for re-testing, after which the scientists combed through their results for disparities. The other men began a typical moderate-exercise program, riding bikes at the lab five times a week at a pace they could comfortably sustain for 30 to 40 minutes. They also fitted them with blood-sugar monitors to wear at home for a week to gauge their everyday blood-sugar control, a measure of metabolic health. (They did not include women, because of concerns about menstrual cycles affecting metabolic results, but hope to involve women in any larger, future experiments.) They invited these men to the lab, measured their fitness, body compositions and blood pressures, and asked them to down shakes laden with big glops of fat to see how their metabolisms responded to the nutrient. To find out, they first recruited 23 sedentary, overweight, adult men. So, the Guelph scientists thought, what happens if people HIIT three days a week and do not otherwise exercise on the other four, or train moderately five times a week? Comparable guidelines for moderate exercise suggest getting out and moving at least five times a week and for at least 30 minutes each time. Medical and sports groups suggest we interval train no more than three times a week, to avoid over-straining muscles and cardiovascular systems, meaning if we exercise only with HIIT, we are inactive four days a week or so. So, volunteers in these studies typically worked out three times a week, whether completing a few minutes of HIIT or half an hour of brisk walking.īut the exercise guidelines for each type of activity differ.

Interestingly, many past studies comparing brief HIIT routines and longer, moderate workouts did not hew to formal exercise recommendations, because scientists wished to match the workouts’ frequency or other measures. A mix of extremely short spurts of intense exercise followed by a minute or two of rest, HIIT is quick and potent, with studies showing that a few minutes - or even seconds - of interval training can improve people’s health and longevity over time.īut many questions remain unanswered about the relative merits of quick intervals versus those of more-traditional sustained aerobic workouts, such as brisk walking, jogging or bike riding, especially if someone engages only in one type of exercise and not the other. The study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, finds that each approach to exercise has advantages, but the impacts on blood pressure, body fat and other aspects of metabolism may be greater after standard, half-hour, moderate workouts than eyeblink-quick interval training.Īs those of us who follow fitness know, high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is alluring, trendy and a frequent topic of this column, as well as of exercise science. The best exercise for many of us may not be the briefest, according to a provocative new study comparing the head-to-head health benefits of short, intense, interval training with those of longer, gentler workouts.