Short Term High-Intensity Interval Training (HIT) As Effective As Moderate Long Term Endurance Exercise, Study

Scientists have known for years that doing regular moderate long term exercise like cycling or running for several hours a week improves oxygen delivery to muscles and elimination of waste products: it also improves the efficiency of fuel burning in the tiny power houses inside cells, the mitochondria.

Such a regime also widens the blood vessels to the muscle cells and boosts the number of mitochondria they contain.

short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) can deliver in significantly less time the same health benefits as moderate long term "endurance" training.


Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously

HIT is where you do a number of shorts bursts of highly intense exercise with short recovery breaks in between.

This study demonstrates that a practical model of low volume HIT is a potent stimulus for increasing skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity and improving exercise performance

Although the study does not explain why HIT is so effective, it suggests that HIT stimulates many of the same signalling pathways as those stimulated by endurance training.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182165.php