The Benefits of HIT training.

[TheRealNumber2]

Usually post in the sports training section. I'm also applying to study sport and exercise science at Loughborough University. Just saw this article regarding a study into HIT training by the University. Some interesting points, but nothing mind blowing.

Loughborough academic hails revolutionary fitness regime

Research spearheaded by Loughborough University will revolutionise the way people exercise to get fit and result in a fitter, healthier nation, according to the academic leading it.

Professor Jamie Timmons, who was interviewed on *** Breakfast today, says three 20 second bursts of high intensity exercise a week will not only get people as fit as hours of road running or sweating buckets in a gym, it will also help them lose pounds of unwanted fat.

And all employers have to do to help their workers get fitter and healthier is install special bikes for them to do their one minute work-out during the working day.

Short duration high intensity cycling, says Professor Timmons, is the best form of exercise because it allows the activation of more muscle groups than most others.

Professor Timmons, Chair of Systems Biology from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, said: “We need a new way to think about exercise. You can do 3x20 seconds on a special bike in your suit at work.

“So the key is getting your employer to put in the bikes. No showers or gyms are needed, but training guidance is.

“Losing fat - not weight as you can gain muscle and lose fat and stay the same weight - with this regime is possible, and our new trial will prove this in a large group.

“At Loughborough, Dr James King and Professor Myra Nimmo will study what HIT does to the adipose tissue and also what it does to the appetite.”

The regime is called High Intensity Training (HIT) and involves three 20 second bursts of high intensity exercise, with a short rest between each one, a week.

The researchers are not sure why it works so well, yet they know it does. And it sounds perfect for couch-potato Britain where 60 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women admit they do not follow the NHS guidelines, which recommend 150 minutes of brisk exercise a week, due to a lack of time.

Professor Timmons said: “There are perhaps 10 small studies showing that 20-30 second HIT bouts on a bike for six to 12 weeks boosts aerobic fitness.

“The precise mechanisms are not clear but the findings are very clear, so we can now state that to improve aerobic fitness you do not need to do 150 minutes of jogging a week. Three minutes of HIT can also do it.

“We will begin to publish on this larger project later this year but the main results will be later, in 2014/15.”

Professor Timmons is lead organiser of the project, called Metapredict: Predicting Human Metabolic Responses Using Advanced Genomics. It is backed by a £6m European Union grant and is co-ordinated from Loughborough University where clinical trial activity begins this month.

Loughborough has 10 partners across Europe, America and Canada and the project involves clinical samples from 2,000 people, 300 of whom will be involved at the six centres running the study at Loughborough.

HIT is common practice among athletes and has been a special area of study at Loughborough.

But by combining this knowledge with genetics data the researchers believe they have a good basis for progressing their ideas into health. Metapredict is a cutting edge medical project aimed at combating diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Professor Timmons said: “Maximal intense exercise is a far superior method for mobilising the glycogen substrate in your muscle tissue (carbohydrate stores). It’s this process that triggers the body's response to being better able to handle blood glucose after eating and this will help people avoid Type 2 diabetes.

“We also have genetic studies indicating that you inherit your ability to gain from exercise to a large degree. Metapredict will help us further develop the tools that we need to apply genomics to optimise gains from exercise and also predict those who have some adverse responses such as increased blood pressure.”

[XtremeBody510]

Bump...

[dmacdonal9]

Is this just some dude's opinion, or is there some data that quantifies the effectiveness of 3x20 seconds once a week?

Because, I gotta say, there is nothing more ridiculous than the cardio bunnies flopping around with their pink dumbbells and thinking they're doing "tabata" just because they have a 20/10 timer beeping at them. My first reaction is that this is just another flavor of the same bull****: watering down a legitimate protocol to the point where it does nothing but people think they can still get all the benefits.

[j.astorina]

Steady state cardio can actually put you in a catabolic state if performed for too long. This refers to the fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. The slow twitch fibers are more commonly associated with endurance style training whereas fast twitch fibers are associated with more intense workout styles like lifting. Performing HIIT will cause your body to repeatedly change its exertion levels which prevents your body entering steady state. Your body will require more energy (calories) to function at this level. An added bonus is that you actually continue to burn calories long after the exercise is completed, since HIIT has been shown to increase metabolism.

[fatinNYC]

i think you're missing an I

[Revolutionize]

Are they promoting a certain brand of bike for this type of training? If so, I would assume the bike company funded this study. It sounds ridiculous. 1 minute of exercise per day? Am I reading this correctly?

[Electricheadd]

If you use Lyle McDonalds numbers on the effectiveness of HIIT including EPOC (Afterburn) that one minute worth of HIIT would be responsible for 11.1 additional calories burned.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...plication.html

[Revolutionize]

If you use Lyle McDonalds numbers on the effectiveness of HIIT including EPOC (Afterburn) that one minute worth of HIIT would be responsible for 11.1 additional calories burned.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...plication.html

Ha! Good work finding that. That means it would take around 318 weeks (since they say to do it once per week) to lose one pound. I'll stick with a calorie deficit.

[Electricheadd]

lol it would be 318 days to lose an additional lb of fat due to that exercise regimen..... I am guessing most people would be pretty frustrated at 1lb/year progress.

Ha! Good work finding that. That means it would take around 318 weeks (since they say to do it once per week) to lose one pound. I'll stick with a calorie deficit.

P.S. I love your Louis CK quote!

[Livestock]

The personal experiences I've had with HIIT is that my cardio improves much faster then standard cardio. The HR stays up for longer afterwards and I stay sweaty longer.

I believe the effectiveness of these workouts is that they stimulate more than one energy system at a time thus resulting in an greater number of adaptations.

Ha! Good work finding that. That means it would take around 318 weeks (since they say to do it once per week) to lose one pound. I'll stick with a calorie deficit.

2 minutes would make that after-burn more than 22.2 calories as the HR would have had more time to climb and more energy systems would have been engaged. A 15 minute session, if analyzed appropriately (not the quick conclusion you've fabricated) would be much greater than 11.1 x 15 and this does not also include the additional after-burn of every other workout which in turn would stack and raise the average, day-long, metabolic rate of the individual, across the week.

Standard cardio would not stack and not be exponantial as HIIT is.

In the long term view of a scientific mind, HIIT takes standard cardio off the table. And does not consider absurd statements like "I'll stick with caloric deficit."

Ha! Good work finding that. That means it would take around 318 weeks (since they say to do it once per week) to lose one pound. I'll stick with a calorie deficit.

No it would not. Your one sided view of these systems is entirely wrong. More than one energy system adapts therefore the burn and average metabolic state of the individual raises across all systems resulting in more than just an after-burn. Also the scenario presented is for scientific purposes. A 1 minute session is not a realistic basis for comparison such as you used it.

[Revolutionize]

No it would not. Your one sided view of these systems is entirely wrong. More than one energy system adapts therefore the burn and average metabolic state of the individual raises across all systems resulting in more than just an after-burn. Also the scenario presented is for scientific purposes. A 1 minute session is not a realistic basis for comparison such as you used it.

I know reading comprehension is difficult, but here is the direct quote to which I was refering: "Professor Jamie Timmons, who was interviewed on *** Breakfast today, says three 20 second bursts of high intensity exercise a week will not only get people as fit as hours of road running or sweating buckets in a gym, it will also help them lose pounds of unwanted fat."(emphasis added)

If you are stupid enough to think that one minute of exercise per week will "get people as fit as hours of running or sweating buckets in a gym," I have bridge to sell you.

Nobody said anything about HIIT (or cardio in general) being bad or useless. However, the article is absurd. Next time, read before you type stupid sh!t.

[NorcalJuice]

Very interesting info, I have been doing HIIT for some time know. I always followed the 2:1 work to rest ratio. Eg; box jump for 60 sec, rest for 30 seconds, jump for 60 sec, rest for 30, etc...up to 5 minutes