Workout Fast & Sweet!

Workout Fast & Sweet!

Many people spend weeks running on a treadmill, or pedaling on the stationary bike for 45 minutes a session trying to improve their conditioning, and/or lose weight.  Great, it helps.  But what if you could get more results in less time? According to a study by the American College of Sports Medicine, about 2 weeks of high-intensity interval training can improver your aerobic capacity by as much of 6 to 8 weeks of endurance training.

High-intensity interval training, a.k.a. HIT, is training where one repeats a hard spring, with a rest period, a prescribed number of times, for a prescribed period.  For example, on a stationary bicycle, after a warm-up of 5-10 minutes (enough to start sweating), ride at near maximum effort/power for one minute (or 30s) followed by riding at low effort/power for 1 minute (or 30s--same time as max effort), and do 10 repetitions.

One recent study consisted of nine subjects who had six training cycles over a two-week period.  Each training session consisted of 4-30 second all-out sprints at maximum effort, followed with a four minute recovery period where subjects cycled slowly with minimum effort.  At the end of this two-week period, the average increase is VO2 Max (a measure of aerobic fitness) was 9%.


According to Martin Gibala, PH.D. and chairman of the department of Kinesiology at McMaster University, HIT has large results on VO2max in a short period of time due to mitochondria--the "powerhouse" of your muscle cells. HIT increases the the number of mitochondria faster than regular endurance training does, and the more mitochondria you muscles have, the more energy muscles can produce, allowing you to work out longer and harder before needing a rest.

For some samples of Interval Training Workouts, check out this website from MensHealth: http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/interval-training-workouts


High-Intensity Training is not easy, though.  If you are new to exercising, you will not really see any benefits as you will not have the baseline fitness level to sustain these workouts. 

Medium-Intensity Training is more suitable to people who are new or just starting out.  In MIT, participants add intensity intervals once a week, and the interval comprises a lower time at medium-high intensity with a longer time at a low-intensity (rest/recovery) with fewer intervals.  Participants then look to gradually increase both the intensity of the high or medium intensity interval, as well as the number of intervals, as well as work up to 2 and then 3 interval training sessions a week.

The research on HIT is not final.  Long-term studies still need to be conducted, and similar studies need to be conducted to see if results can be duplicated.  Furthermore, studies are being conducted using HIT to measure effects on reducing blood pressure, as well as diabetes.


To read more about endurance training, check out this site: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/endurance-training-facts