High-Intensity Exercise Is More Time Efficient!

High-Intensity Exercise Is More Time Efficient!

by | Apr 3, 2017 | HIIT

The United States Science-Based Guidelines for Physical Activity Recommendations for Adults call for 50% less time on aerobic physical activity for vigorous-intensity vs moderate intensity.

A general rule of thumb is that 2 Minutes of moderate-intensity activity is the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. See below for a more detailed list of their recommendations for substantial health benefits.

A general rule of thumb is that 2 Minutes of moderate-intensity activity is the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity

Do one of the following in episodes of at least 10 minutes and, if possible, spread it out through the week (doing more will lead to even greater health benefits):

  • 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) each week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity
  • 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) each week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity
  • An equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity

Do muscle-strengthening activities that are moderate or high in intensity and involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

Physical Activity Reccomendation_AHA

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3 Minutes of HIIT Per Week Can Significantly Improve Health

3 Minutes of HIIT Per Week Can Significantly Improve Health

by | Nov 11, 2016 | HIIT

3 Min HIIT Cardiorepiratory Fitness Graph

With the growing body of evidence finding High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to be an effective exercise program, researchers set out to see just how efficient HIIT really is and their findings are incredible! Results from the 2016 publication1 showed HIIT to be 400% more efficient than Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training (MICT). Over a 12 week program, a total of 30 minutes each week of the HIIT protocol training was as effective as 150 minutes each week of MICT. That’s 20% of the time needed to get the same results. Wow, but that’s not all. Of those 30 minutes each week, only 3 minutes are actually spent on intense exercise. Each week consisted of 3 days of 10-minute training bouts, in which each session had a 2-minute warm up, 3-minute cool down, and 2 minutes of low-intensity work separating 3 20-second maximum all-out efforts. The MICT training protocol had the same warm up and cool down with 45 minutes of continuous training. Excluding the time spent on the warm up and cool down would actually imply HIIT is 800% more efficient!

Excluding the time spent on the warm up and cool down would actually imply HIIT is 800% more efficient!

3 Min HIIT Sample Training Week

Perhaps more importantly, both programs significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness, insulin sensitivity, and skeletal muscle mitochondrial content. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) increased by 19% in both training groups and had improved by roughly 12% after just 6 weeks of the program. The absolute change in VO2peak was roughly equivalent to 1.7 METs. What does that mean? Well there are vast health benefits and significant improvement in survival rates that can be achieved from an improvement of just 1 MET. (For more info about the Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) check out our post “How to Live Longer and Improve Quality of Life”.

More recently, the significant relationship between exercise capacity (as measured by VO2peak) and longevity was confirmed in the longest study of its kind, following up with almost 800 adult men after 45 years. Published in July 20162, researchers found exercise capacity to be the 2nd greatest predictor of death, behind only smoking. Interestingly, the results showed aerobic capacity information was roughly 40% above single risk factors, implying that exercise reduces risk through multiple pathways improving general health, not just cardiovascular health.

Sources:

1. 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;11(4):e0154075.

2. Ladenvall P, Persson CU, Mandalenakis Z, et al. Low aerobic capacity in middle-aged men associated with increased mortality rates during 45 years of follow-up. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2016;23(14):1557-1564. doi:10.1177/2047487316655466.

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