This study chose youth as their subjects and found that high intensity interval training (HIT) was much more productive at improving risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Researchers measured; systolic blood pressure, aerobic fitness, percent body fat, body mass index, and insulin concentrations among other things. The researchers chose a young population as the risk factors for cardiovascular disease are found to begin in our early years. As a side note this is one more reason to get your children active at young ages – their risk factor for many diseases later in life are lessened.
The researchers found that many of the benefits that are traditionally associated with aerobic exercise were found in the HIT exercise group as well with much less time commitment. The low intensity long duration group completed a total of 420 minutes of training where as the HIT group completed 85% less training time @ 63 minutes.
Many times I hear of gym teachers having their students run (long duration, low intensity) as a method to get their students “in shape” – a better suggestion is to have students complete higher intensity short burst exercise to improve fitness and health. This is another great reason for kids to enjoy sports such as wrestling, football, soccer, and many others as short sprints are heavily involved in the training (or should be) and the actual game settings.
Keep kids active and make them run more lines in gym class for optimal fitness and health results.
Coaches Exercise Tip #10 – Cardiovascular risk…. choose intense exercise.
February 24, 2012 by ·
