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Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Fitness and Health E-Zine
April 4, 2010

Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training.

http://bloghealthwolrd.blogspot.com/2010/04/drmirkins-ezine-intense-intervals.html

To be competitive, all athletes must train very intensely
some of the time. New research from McMaster University in Canada
shows that short term, high-intensity interval training on a bike
can also provide you with all the health and fitness benefits of
exercising less intensely for a much longer period of time (The
Journal of Physiology, March 2010). Subjects used a standard
stationary bicycle and performed a workout of ten 1-minute sprints
with a 1-minute rest between each at 95 percent of their maximal
heart rate, three times a week. This takes less effort than an
all-out sprint at close to 100 percent of maximal heart rate.
The study supports other research that shows that high-intensity
training improves speed and endurance far more than long slow
distance and is necessary for training for athletic competition.
The same authors showed that a similar short workout of
all-out sprinting at maximal heart rate took about 90 minutes per
week (three workouts of 30 minutes each) and was as effective in
achieving fitness and health benefits as many hours of exercising
at a much more leisurely pace (The Journal of Physiology,
September 2006). High intensity, short-interval training improves
fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles, helps the removal of waste
products, and increases the number and efficiency of mitochondria
that help muscles use oxygen to burn food for energy. These
changes have been shown to reduce risk for heart attacks, strokes,
diabetes, weight gain and even some cancers.
The authors make no mention of alternating intense stress
and low-intensity recovery workouts, in which you spend more than
80 percent of your exercise time going at a very low intensity.
Training intensely without recovery workouts markedly increases
your chances of injuring yourself.
High-intensity training can cause heart attacks in people
with blocked arteries and muscle injuries in anyone. Before
starting, a) check with your doctor to make sure your coronary
arteries are open and b) you should be able to pedal on a
stationary bicycle slowly for at least an hour a day for several
weeks. A program of high-intensity intervals:
* will improve speed and endurance much more than slow long-
distance workouts
* should not be done when muscles feel sore or you feel sick
because it increases your chances of injuring yourself
* should be part of a “stress and recover” program in which you go
intensely never more often than three times a week and spend far
more time exercising less intensely.
High-intensity interval training causes muscle burning and
severe shortness of breath, so don’t do it unless you enjoy the
thrill of competition.