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Another win for brief intense exercise.

One hard 4 minute session seems to have effects similar to 4 x 4minute sessions. The whole study is available and worth looking through:

Low- and High-Volume of Intensive Endurance Training Significantly Improves Maximal Oxygen Uptake after 10-Weeks of Training in Healthy Men


Conclusion
Our study demonstrated that slightly overweight and healthy individuals only required brief, duration bouts of exercise with good effort three times a week, to produce large increases in VO2max and work economy and reduce blood pressure and fasting glucose levels. Additional studies to examine both adaptations at the molecular level and feasibility for public health appear warranted.

 There is a further write up here.

Comments

JamesSteeleII said…
Great stuff Chris!

These are the gems that are worth continuing to share.

June 3, 2013 at 2:25 AM
Stuart Gilbert said…
Richard Winett one of the co authors of this paper cites Roger Bannister as one of his sporting heroes. It's interesting to note that in the run up to his 4 minute mile Bannister ( a busy med student, who could only train in his lunch time ) would utilize a session of 10 x 400 metres as his main session, but he also did quite a few sessions where the only thing done after a warm up was a half mile of three quarter mile time trial. ( Sometimes the distance was done twice, not often ) Although they were probably used to guage his progress, it's interesting...based on the findings of this paper, to theorize that these very brief sessions probably had a positive training effect, helping him towards his goal.
June 3, 2013 at 7:46 AM
The Lasik Method said…
Great to hear this. I was afraid the results would be bad news.
June 9, 2013 at 5:45 AM
nicky said…
Its a nice interview. we got some info from your comments.
June 22, 2013 at 5:14 AM
Anonymous said…
The question I have is how do you run your heart rate to 90% quickly...
Say I do a 4 min warmup and am running about 70% of my Max - 136... I have a hard time running it to 153... I just can't run that fast and that hard to make it jump so quickly... so is the 153 the number at the end of the sprint? or do I do the sprint at 153 the whole way?
July 20, 2013 at 3:14 PM
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