Effects of High-Intensity-Interval-Training (HIT) on cardiovascular fitness and cardiometabolic risk factors in older adults

HIT has been shown improve cardiovascular fitness and seems to induce beneficial modifications of some cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy subjects or patients. Lees is known about the efficacy of HIT applied to healthy older adults PURPOSE. The aim of the study consists in testing if 8 weeks of HIT can induce significant improvements of cardiovascular fitness, exercise capacity and of selected cardiometabolic risk factors. METHODS. In 12 healthy male volunteers (68.7 ± 3.9 yy; 79.0 ± 10.8 kg; 171.4 ± 5.4 cm)) participated in the study we measured V’O2max, gas exchange threshold (GET ) and respiratory compensation point (RCP), mean, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (MBP, SDP, DBP) at rest, fasting blood glucose concentration (GLU), total cholesterol/HDL ratio (TC/HDL), % Body fat (BF) and waist circumference (WC) before and after before (PRE) and after (POST) 8 weeks of HIT performed 3 times a week cycling 7 times for 2 minutes, interspersed with 2 minutes of recovery, at about 85-90 % of V’O2max. RESULTS. Absolute and relative V’O2max significantly increased by 5.4 % (ES = 0.7) and 11.7 % (ES = 0.8), respectively. V’O2 at GET and RCP increased by 7.2% (ES = 0.7) and 15.4 % ( ES = 1.3), respectively. MBP, SDP and DBP decreased by 7 (ES = 0.8), 9 (ES = 0.9) and 4 % (ns), respectively. GLU was diminished by 7 % (ES = 0.5) and TC/CHO decreased by 5 % (ES = 0.2). FM and BMI decreased by 4 % (ES = 0.2) and x % (), respectively. CONCLUSION. 8 weeks of HIT seem to be sufficient to promote significant improvements of maximal aerobic power, and index highly predictive of cardiovascular mortality, exercise capacity and of selected cardiometablic risk factors in healthy, moderately active, male older.