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It’s the news many have been waiting for; official confirmation that high intensity cycling intervals of just a few seconds can transform the fitness, strength and general well being of middle aged and older people.
A major new research project has concluded intervals as short as four seconds, repeated until a time of just one minute is reached, are enough to get the job done.
While the findings will be welcomed by experienced cyclists, who will likely already be doing some high intensity interval work, they confirm the benefits for older people who are new to cycling.
The research has been conducted by Ed Coyle, exercise
physiologist at University of Texas, and his assistant Jakob Allen.
They wanted to find out the perfect balance between doing enough high intensity work to make a difference to the person cycling while also keeping those efforts short enough so people would not be deterred by the exercise being too hard.
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So they tested the impact of high intensity intervals in
a range of between four minutes and 20 seconds, later going as short as four
seconds because they felt even 20 seconds may be too long for some people.
Four seconds was selected as the shortest interval possible as it was regarded as the time required for a regular person to reach their maximum physical effort.
All of the intervals and testing were done on a
stationary bike and while the testing initially focused on young college
students, the researchers then progressed to older men and women.
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They gathered a group of 39 men and women between the
ages of 50 and 68 years who led sedentary lifestyles but had no health issues.
Before doing any high intensity intervals on the stationary bike, all of the subjects were tested for aerobic fitness, muscular power and mass, arterial flexibility and their ability to perform routine daily activities, such as getting in and out of a chair.
Once the test results were compiled for each person,
their interval sessions in the performance lab began three times per week.
Initially they did four second sprints, followed by a 56 second break, and then a four-second sprint again; repeated each time until they had sprinted 15 times, or for a total of 60 seconds.
During a two-month period the rest between sprints was lowered to 26 seconds and the number of sprints was increased to 30 per session; meaning twice as many sprints as they started with.
And after eight weeks everyone was put through the same
series of tests they had undergone before their interval training started.
On average, the results after eight weeks showed increased fitness by about 10 per cent along with a considerable muscle mass and strength gain in their legs. Their arteries were even less stiff and they could perform daily physical tasks with much more ease.
The study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports
& Exercise, also concluded that doing a four-second sprint five times per
hour significantly improved a person’s fat metabolism and lowered triglyceride
levels in the bloodstream.
“The key thing with fat metabolism is that you have to
activate your muscles; you can’t let them be too inactive for very long. These
sprints are just a very effective way of doing that,” Coyle said.
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