Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something

I’ve touted some of the benefits of interval training before—it saves time, it burns more calories and it boasts heart benefits. Now a recent study suggests that as little as seven minutes per week of intensive exercise can significantly reduce the odds of getting diabetes.

Traditional high-volume aerobic exercise training reduces the risk of both cardiovascular disease and Type-2 diabetes but requires a substantial time commitment. The study, published in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders, was designed to determine whether individuals could cut also their diabetes risks by engaging in high-intensity interval training (HIT).

The study looked at the effects of HIT on the metabolic prowess of 16 otherwise sedentary young males. Over the course of two weeks, they performed six sessions of cycling sprints, for a total of 15 minutes and about 250 calories burned. The researchers found significant significant improvements in the volunteers’ glycemic control. They concluded that HIT could be “used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle-aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time-consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”

According to the lead researcher, it “is often not appreciated … that cardiovascular disease processes begin early in life, while diabetes is one of the biggest risk factors. What our study shows is that by doing the right type of training, intensive for very short periods, it is plausible for young, and most probably middle-aged, adults to reduce their future risk for developing diabetes without spending five to six hours each week involved in exercise programs.”

Needless to say (and yet here I go) is that you really shouldn’t abandon traditional cardio altogether in favor of seven minutes a week of interval training. But it beats no exercise at all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 7:42 am and is filed under General Fitness, Health and Wellness, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.