Intensity is hot now in the fitness industry, the harder you work the more calories you burn at the end of an exercise session. With this you reap many health benefits. I often preach to my clients there is a work out and then there is a “WORK OUT”, so let’s keep it honest. Now there is the science to back me up, thank you!
A study published in the online journal BMC Endocrine Disorders (2009; 9 {3} provides promising evidence that extremely short duration, high intensity interval training as a method pf improving insulin action. The study included 25 young, healthy sedentary men or recreational active men. The participants were placed in a HIT training program or in a separate experiment to determine a individual response to a oral glucose test and did not perform HIT. The HIT group performed four to six 30 second sprints at a maximum effort with a 4-minute rest in between exercise bouts. Total time commitment was 17-26 minutes and a total of 2-3 minutes of sprinting. By the end of this short study the HIT group had improved their insulin sensitivity by 23%.
Take home message- Time efficient HIT training can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations in short periods of time providing INTENSITY is present.
