If you’re a regular participant in the gym and often spend time reading about exercise techniques designed to maximize weight loss, there is a very good chance that you’ve heard about high intensity interval sprints (HIIT).
This is a form of cardio training that is often replacing the more moderate paced sessions that were formerly advised for maximum weight loss and are helping people everywhere take their fitness to the next level.
Researchers have done numerous studies examining the effects of this form of weight loss cardio training on the body and have come to encouraging conclusions.
The particular research study we’re going to look at today examined what the impact of interval training had on the ability of the muscles to oxidize (burn) carbohydrates and fat, improve your weight of weight loss.
The Study Design
The study was designed using untrained, recreationally active individuals (so essentially, weekend or casual exercisers). The wanted to look at the metabolic adaptations to took place following a 6 week training program of high intensity interval sprints (HIIT).
The sprints lasted about one hour in length and were composed of 10 intervals where the subjects worked for 4 minutes at 90% of their maximum followed by 2 minutes of rest.
These sessions were performed 3 times a week over the course of the study.
Muscle biopsies were then taken while at rest, after five minutes, and then at exhaustion.
The Results of the Study
The results of the muscle biopsies showed that training power output increased by 21% over the course of the six weeks, and the VO2 peak increased by 9% after the HIIT sessions.
During the exercise, the muscles also showed reduced glycogenolysis, reduced lactate accumulation, and reduced substrate phosphorylation.
After five minutes of the sessions was completed, the muscles also demonstrated a 2-fold greater carbohydrate oxidation rate and an increased fat oxidation rate at 60% of pre-training VO2 peak.
Practical Applications
Therefore, the major take-home message from this study is that by performing high intensity interval sprints (note though these were not max-out sprints), you will increase the muscle’s ability to burn off carbohydrates present, increase the rate of fat oxidation, and decrease the degree of fatigue you experience while exercising.
Clearly, this is one form of exercise that would dramatically help your weight loss goals move forward.
Reference:
Bonen, A. et al. (2008). High-intensity aerobic interval training increases fat and carbohydrate metabolic capacities in human skeletal muscles. Appl Physiol Nutri Metab. Dec; 33(6):1112-23.
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