15 Minutes of Intense Activity Can Improve Heart Health

15 Minutes of Intense Activity Can Improve Heart Health
Even short HIIT workouts can have benefits.
Ljupco Smokovski/ Shutterstock

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts have become popular in recent years for a number of reasons. They don’t require as much time as a regular workout (some can take as little as 10 minutes), and research shows they improve fitness, lower blood pressure and help people better manage their blood sugar levels – which may aid in weight loss and prevent disease, such as type 2 diabetes.

And recently, a review has found that a form of HIIT workout called low-volume HIIT has benefits on cardiometabolic health. That means low-volume HIIT could induce similar – or greater – improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, blood sugar control, blood pressure and cardiac function compared to continuous aerobic exercise (such as a five-mile run).

HIIT is characterised by alternating between low- and high-intensity intervals of exercise. For example, this might include cycling at an easy pace for a few minutes before increasing effort to a high or even maximal level for a short period of time before returning to an easy pace. This is then repeated throughout the exercise session with the total time spent at high-intensity typically low. Different categories of HIIT exist depending on the intensity of exercise required.

The researchers of this study performed a topical review of current evidence on low-volume HIIT and its benefits for heart health. Topical reviews provide an up-to-date overview of the latest information in a particular field or area of research that’s developing rapidly.


 Get The Latest By Email

Weekly Magazine Daily Inspiration

They looked at a total of 11 studies. They defined low-volume HIIT as exercise in which the total time spent in active intervals (not including rest periods) was less than 15 minutes. Overall, they found that low-volume HIIT improved a person’s capacity to burn fuel (such as carbohydrate and fat), which is directly related to blood sugar control – and may be important in preventing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. They also found that supervised HIIT in healthy people and people living with obesity and type 2 diabetes is safe.

Low-volume HIIT was also shown to improve the heart’s structure – such as chamber enlargement. This increases the volume of blood the heart can pump to the rest of the body each heartbeat. These benefits were true for people without underlying health conditions, as well as for those with heart failure (where the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly because it has become too weak or stiff).

The fact that this review has shown low-volume HIIT also improves cardiorespiratory fitness is significant. Even moderate improvements to heart health have been shown to reduce adverse cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke by as much as 30%.

These results show that even a short workout can improve health. Current guidelines from the World Health Organization recommend adults perform 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75-150 minutes of vigorous exercise a week. Yet, lack of time is often cited as the main barrier to exercise for many people. Low-volume HIIT has the potential to be more time-efficient while offering similar or greater improvements in health outcomes as longer workouts.

Short workouts may also be easier to stick to in the long term.Short workouts may also be easier to stick to in the long term. StratfordProductions/ Shutterstock

My own research suggests that low-volume exercise interventions can be used without feeling overly difficult or unpleasant, which is important for motivating people to continue an exercise regime. It may also be good for people who are inactive or have long-term health conditions.

How does HIIT work?

Regardless of the type of HIIT, it’s thought the health improvements are caused by the rate – rather than the amount – at which skeletal muscle glycogen (carbohydrates stored by the body for energy) is used. Muscle glycogen is an important fuel reserve – so our body tries to replenish it as a priority.

HIIT workouts deplete muscle glycogen at such a rate that the body increases the number and activity of mitochondria (powerhouses of cells) in our muscles to allow us to meet the energy demands of exercise. This in turn leads to improvements in fitness, metabolic function, and health.

Limitations

There are some limitations of research into HIIT. Most studies have been conducted in laboratory settings. This makes it hard to know how effectively HIIT would actually work as an exercise strategy in the real world.

This review also has its own limitations. Typically, when analysing the results of a wide body of research, experts use a systematic review or meta-analysis. These are considered to be the highest level of evidence within research designs. They systematically assess the quality of studies and use methods which limit bias. This allows us to draw reliable and accurate conclusions. But topical reviews don’t do this – meaning this particular paper doesn’t give the most objective possible view on the effectiveness of low-volume HIIT.

Also, when considering the time included for a warm-up and cool-down, in addition to the time spent recovering between high-intensity intervals, not all HIIT workouts can be considered to be more time-efficient than traditional exercise. In this review, the average total time per workout was approximately 40 minutes – of which no more than 15 minutes were active.

But this isn’t to say that HIIT can’t be an alternative to longer workouts – especially considering a growing body of evidence shows it has a number of similar benefits as other types of workouts. Current thinking also suggests that every bit of movement counts. So focusing on quality (intesnity) of exercise, rather than duration, and finding ways to incorporate higher intensity movement into everyday activities might be helpful in improving our health and fitness.The Conversation

About The Author

Matthew Haines, Head of Division of Sport, Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, University of Huddersfield

books_exercise

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES

English Afrikaans Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Danish Dutch Filipino Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Swahili Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese

follow InnerSelf on

facebook icontwitter iconyoutube iconinstagram iconpintrest iconrss icon

 Get The Latest By Email

Weekly Magazine Daily Inspiration

Wednesday, 28 April 2021 08:57

Replenishing antioxidants in the body may help protect against oxidative stress and lower the risk of cancer

Monday, 17 May 2021 08:55

Maybe you’re trying to eat healthier these days, aiming to get enough of the good stuff and limit the less-good stuff. You’re paying attention to things like fiber and fat and vitamins… and...

Monday, 07 June 2021 08:07

Injury to the adult brain is all too common. A brain injury will often show up on brain scans as a well-defined area of damage. But often the changes to the brain extend far beyond the visible...

Tuesday, 25 July 2023 17:28

Certain foods or dietary patterns are linked with better control of your asthma. Others may make it worse. Depending on what you’ve eaten, you can see the effects in hours.

Thursday, 27 May 2021 05:24

Life, by its very nature is … alive! Because it is alive, it is not just responding in a set, mechanical way, but rather it is responsive to what is needed and helpful and useful. Cells might...

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 08:05

Wild bees are essential for sustaining the landscapes we love. A healthy community of wild pollinators ensures that most flowering plants have an A-team pollinator species and a reserve bench of...

New Attitudes - New Possibilities

InnerSelf.comClimateImpactNews.com | InnerPower.net
MightyNatural.com | WholisticPolitics.com | InnerSelf Market
Copyright ©1985 - 2021 InnerSelf Publications. All Rights Reserved.