Study: Even 1 Minute of Intense Exercise Has Benefits

Just a single minute of vigorous exercise can be as beneficial as longer and more traditional endurance training, according to a new study led by researchers at McMaster University.

The authors recruited 27 sedentary men for their research, assigning some participants to perform 3 weekly sessions of either intense or moderate training for a total of 12 weeks. Workouts followed the sprint interval training (SIT) protocol, which totals 10 minutes, and includes a 2-minute warm-up as well as a 3-minute cool-down period, with 2 minutes of “easy cycling” for recovery in between “hard sprints,” according to the authors. A second control group did not exercise.
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The investigators compared the SIT protocol—which entails three 20-second “all-out” cycle sprints—with a group performing 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace, as well as the same warm-up and cool-down periods as the previously sedentary group. The researchers found that results were very similar among both groups after 12 weeks of training, although the moderate-intensity continuous training protocol group performed 5 times as much exercise, and made a time commitment 4 times that of the other group.

Specifically, peak oxygen uptake increased after training by 19% in both groups, and insulin sensitivity index increased similarly after SIT (4.9±2.5 to 7.5±4.7, p = 0.002) and MICT (5.0±3.3 to 6.7±5.0 x 10⁻⁴ min^-1 [μU/mL]^-1, p = 0.013) (p<0.05).

“Interval exercise training can be a time-efficient strategy to promote health and fitness, as compared to the traditional approach of continuous moderate-intensity exercise,” says Martin Gibala, PhD, professor and chair of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University, and co-author of the study.

This finding is noteworthy, says Gibala, “given that the [most commonly] cited barrier for not exercising is ‘lack of time.’”

The type of interval training employed in this study, however, “is not suited for everyone,” he adds. “Other, less intense versions of interval training can also confer benefits in a relatively time-efficient manner, and these may be more widely applicable, including in people with cardiometabolic disorders.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference:
Gillen JB, Martin BJ, MacInnis MJ, Skelly LE, Parnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ. Twelve weeks of sprint interval training improves indices of cardiometabolic health similar to traditional endurance training despite a five-fold lower exercise volume and time commitment [published online April 26, 2016]. PLOS One. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154075