Effect of Six Weeks of Sprint Interval Training on Mood and Perceived Health in Women at Risk for Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether 6 weeks of sprint interval training (SIT) is associated with changes in mood and perceived health in women at risk for developing metabolic syndrome (MetS). Physically inactive women (30-65 years) were randomized to 6 weeks of nutrition meetings and SIT (n = 23; 3 bouts/week of 4-8 30-s cycle sprints with 4-min recovery) or a nonexercise control condition (CON; n = 24). Before and after the 6-week intervention, perceived health status and mood were assessed. Clinically relevant increases in role-physical scores (ES = 0.64) and vitality (ES = 0.52) were found after 6 weeks of SIT compared with a nonexercise control group. For middle-aged women at risk for MetS, it is concluded that high-intensity, low-volume SIT (1) increases feelings of vitality and perceptions of having fewer physical limitations and (2) does not induce mood disturbances as occurs with high-volume, high-intensity training.

A comparison of the health benefits of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) and moderate-intensity walking in type 2 diabetes patients

“…This may (Frazão et al, 2016;Saanijoki et al, 2015), or may not (Freese et al, 2014;Jung et al, 2014) be the case for HIT protocols that rely on many (4-10) longer (30-60 s) sprints, but the ratings of perceived exertion in response to two 20-s sprints as used in the REHIT protocol in the present study appear to be manageable, and the majority of participants (12 out of 16) stated a preference for performing REHIT rather than the walking intervention based on current physical activity recommendations. There is therefore an urgent need to perform further studies examining the efficacy, acceptability, and longer-term adherence to REHIT as a practical 'real-life' intervention.…”

Sprint interval and moderate-intensity cycling training differentially affect adiposity and aerobic capacity in overweight young-adult women

“…The effects of SIT have been explored in healthy populations (Hazell et al, 2014;Macpherson et al, 2011;Whyte et al, 2010), and in some clinical populations (Gibala et al, 2012). With regard to overweight/obese women who are underrepresented in the SIT literature, positive effects on aerobic capacity and cardiovascular function, post-exercise blood lipids, and perceived health status and mood have been reported (Freese et al, 2014;Freese et al, 2015;Trilk et al, 2011). While studies have shown that the benefits of SIT are similar to those of continuous exercise involving a greater volume of work in D r a f t different populations (Gist et al, 2013;Kessler et al, 2012), the feasibility of overweight/obese women adhering to these 'all out' efforts is unclear, as are the relative effects of the two types of training when energy expenditure during training is equal.…”

Commentary: Why sprint interval training is inappropriate for a largely sedentary population

“…Further, SIT has shown to improve motivation, particularly with regard to appearance and maintenance of body mass, as well as quality of life scores in elderly sedentary people (Knowles et al, 2015 ). Contradicting the assumptions made by Hardcastle et al ( 2014 ), results from a randomized controlled trial showed that 6 weeks of SIT lead to improvement in the perception of health and mood of sedentary women (30–65 years) at risk for metabolic syndrome (Freese et al, 2014 ).…”