We all know about the importance of exercising constantly. This is because the practice of sports or physical activities produces improvements, not only aesthetic, but also conditioning for the practitioner. Of course, exercise is good not only for the body, but also for the organs.
For example, high intensity interval training exercises (HIIT), which have become very popular in recent years for several reasons. One is that this type of exercise doesn’t require as much time as a regular workout. In addition, research has shown that they improve fitness, lower blood pressure and help people control blood sugar levels. This can help people lose weight and prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
Exercise
And a review of studies recently found that a form of HIIT training, called low-volume HIIT, has cardiometabolic health benefits.
This means that low-volume HIIT can bring about similar, if not better, improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, blood sugar control, blood pressure, and heart function compared to continuous aerobic exercise.
HIIT is characterized by the alternation between low and high intensity exercise intervals. This is repeated during the exercise session with the total time spent at high intensity.
In that study, researchers reviewed the current evidence regarding low-volume HIIT and its benefits for heart health topically . This review gave an up-to-date overview of the latest information in a particular field or area of research that is rapidly developing.
Altogether 11 studies were analyzed. And the researchers defined low-volume HIIT as an exercise in which the total time spent in active intervals was less than 15 minutes.
Health
They found that overall, low-volume HIIT improved a person’s ability to burn fuel such as carbohydrate and fat. This is directly linked to blood sugar control, and can be very important in preventing diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
In addition, supervised HIIT in healthy people and those living with type 2 obesity has also been found to be safe. Low-volume HIIT has also been shown to improve the structure of the heart as the chamber enlarges. This causes the volume of blood the heart can pump to the rest of the body with each beat to also increase.
These benefits were true for people without underlying health problems, as well as for those who had heart failure. And the fact that this review showed that low-volume HIIT also improves cardiorespiratory fitness is important.
Benefits
Thus, it has been shown that even moderate heart health benefits reduce adverse cardiovascular events by up to 30%, such as heart attack and stroke.
The results showed that even a short workout can improve health. WHO recommends that adults do 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75-150 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly.
However, the main barrier for this to happen is the lack of time to exercise. Low-volume HIIT has the potential to be more time-efficient. It also offers similar or greater health improvements.