Effects of work-interval duration and sport specificity on blood lactate concentration, heart rate and perceptual responses during high intensity interval training

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the impacts on blood lactate concentration, measured heart rate and assessment of perceived exertion during split sessions of equal relative load, as also their relationship to the specific sport practised. Nineteen regional-level athletes (nine middle and long-distance runners (cyclic group) and ten field-sport team players (acyclic group)) performed four high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions with work-interval durations of 10 s, 50 s, 90 s and 130 s. The sessions were carried out at their usual training sites with a separation of at least 48 hours. Blood lactate concentration was measured at rest and 3 min after the completion of each protocol. Heart rate was measured continuously during all sessions with a sampling rate of 1 s, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was requested at the end of the trial. The results showed an increase in blood lactate concentration, peak heart rate and rating of perceived exertion during long protocols as compared with short ones. No differences were observed in dependent variables between cyclic and acyclic groups. Significant but moderate correlations were observed between post-exercise blood lactate concentration, peak heart rate and RPE.

High Intensity Long Interval Sets Provides Similar Enjoyment as Continuous Moderate Intensity Exercise. The Tromsø Exercise Enjoyment Study

“…Furthermore, the present study’s results challenge the interpretation that increased duration of interval sets leads to lower perceived exercise enjoyment. Although we did not measure blood lactate concentration in the present study, a previous study reporting lower blood lactate concentration following interval sets greater than 4 min in duration (Valstad et al, 2018) compared with a substantially higher blood lactate concentration during supramaximal sprints (Wiewelhove et al, 2016; Warr-di Piero et al, 2018) may indicate a lower anaerobic contribution in interval set durations over 4 min compared with shorter interval set durations. Moreover, it has previously been suggested that negative affective responses are observed at supramaximal intensities (Ekkekakis et al, 2011).…”

“…However, multiple high intensity interval exercise session designs are found in the studies investigating exercise enjoyment (Oliveira et al, 2018), which limits their comparability. These differences include variations in interval duration, ranging from seconds (Price and Moss, 2007; Wiewelhove et al, 2016; Warr-di Piero et al, 2018), to 1 min (Jung et al, 2014; Heisz et al, 2016) and bouts of up to 3 min (Bartlett et al, 2011; Decker and Ekkekakis, 2017); a previous study reported that longer interval sets are less enjoyable compared with those of shorter durations (Martinez et al, 2015).…”

“…Another definition of the anaerobic threshold, the lactate threshold (Faude et al, 2009), is suggested to reflect and even cause the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (Wasserman et al, 1973; Davis et al, 1976; Yoshida et al, 1987; Ghosh, 2004; Faude et al, 2009). In fact, higher blood lactate concentrations are observed following intervals of longer duration compared with those of shorter duration (Beaver et al, 1986; Price and Moss, 2007; Kilpatrick et al, 2015a; Wiewelhove et al, 2016; Warr-di Piero et al, 2018); consequently, the anaerobic contribution seems to be a mediating factor for exercise enjoyment, both when defining the anaerobic threshold using the ventilatory and lactate measures. Thus, these findings suggest that interval durations should be short (<1 min) to elicit exercise adherence (Rhodes et al, 2009; Jekauc, 2015; Kilpatrick et al, 2015a,b).…”

Acute Sprint Interval Exercise Increases Both Cognitive Functions and Peripheral Neurotrophic Factors in Humans: The Possible Involvement of Lactate

“…Since blood LA following SIE greatly increased in the present study, we cannot rule out that the improvement in cognitive functions resulted from the acceleration of cerebral LA metabolism along with neuroprotective proteins induction. However, various highintensity interval training protocols could differently affect blood LA synthesis (Wood et al, 2016;Warr-di Piero et al, 2018). SIE is characterized by high LA production whereas longer protocols could rely more on aerobic metabolism, with lower LA synthesis (Astorino and Sheard, 2019).…”

Aerobic exercise and aerobic fitness level do not modify motor learning

“…Furthermore, our study’s high-intensity intervals may have been too short to strain the anaerobic metabolic system and induce sufficient release of lactate. Previous studies have demonstrated that exercise protocols with shorter high-intensity interval durations result in lower blood lactate concentrations after exercise 33 . Lactate may be an important metabolic component for several reasons.…”