The Impact of Sprint Interval Training Frequency on Blood Glucose Control and Physical Function of Older Adults

Abstract

Exercise is a powerful tool for improving health in older adults, but the minimum frequency required is not known. This study sought to determine the effect of training frequency of sprint interval training (SIT) on health and physical function in older adults. Thirty-four (13 males and 21 females) older adults (age 65 ± 4 years) were recruited. Participants were allocated to a control group (CON n = 12) or a once- (n = 11) or twice- (n = 11) weekly sprint interval training (SIT) groups. The control group maintained daily activities; the SIT groups performed 8 weeks of once- or twice-weekly training sessions consisting of 6 s sprints. Metabolic health (oral glucose tolerance test), aerobic capacity (walk test) and physical function (get up and go test, sit to stand test) were determined before and after training. Following training, there were significant improvements in blood glucose control, physical function and aerobic capacity in both training groups compared to control, with changes larger than the smallest worthwhile change. There was a small to moderate effect for blood glucose (d = 0.43–0.80) and physical function (d = 0.43–0.69) and a trivial effect for aerobic capacity (d = 0.01) between the two training frequencies. Once a week training SIT is sufficient to produce health benefits. Therefore, the minimum time and frequency of exercise required is much lower than currently recommended.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as a Potential Countermeasure for Phenotypic Characteristics of Sarcopenia: A Scoping Review

“…Of the 32 studies included, 14 were RCTs (Adamson et al, 2014 , 2020 ; Hwang et al, 2016 ; Coetsee and Terblanche, 2017 ; Sculthorpe et al, 2017 ; Aboarrage Junior et al, 2018 ; Malin et al, 2018 ; Martins et al, 2018 ; Ballesta-García et al, 2019 ; Hurst et al, 2019c ; Jiménez-García et al, 2019 ; Nunes et al, 2019 ; Taylor et al, 2019 ; Coswig et al, 2020 ), one was a quasi-experimental, non-randomized, single-blinded controlled study (Losa-Reyna et al, 2019 ), 16 were observational cohort studies (Bruseghini et al, 2015 , 2019 ; Boereboom et al, 2016 ; Guadalupe-Grau et al, 2017 ; Hayes et al, 2017 ; Herbert et al, 2017a , b ; Robinson et al, 2017 ; Wyckelsma et al, 2017 ; Andonian et al, 2018 ; Bartlett et al, 2018 ; Buckinx et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Søgaard et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Snijders et al, 2019 ), and one was a pilot study (although randomized; (Beetham et al, 2019 ) ( Table 1 ). Where a study had multiple outcome measures, they were examined separately.…”

“…Control group TUG was 6.9 ± 1.0 and 6.7 ± 1.0 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively. Adamson et al (2020) TUG À vs. pre-HIIT, À vs. control HIIT once weekly group TUG was 6.7 ± 0.9 and 6.2 ± 0.7 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively. HIIT twice weekly TUG was 7.0 ± 1.2 and 5.9 ± 0.5 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively.…”

“…In this review, all of the studies assessing physical performance reported gait speed (part of the SPPB), the SPPB, or the TUG test as an outcome, which are the primary measurements of physical performance proposed by EWGSOP in clinical practice and research (Cruz-Jentoft et al, 2019 ). Four investigations also reported the 5 repetitions chair stand test separately (Adamson et al, 2014 , 2020 ; Losa-Reyna et al, 2019 ; Nunes et al, 2019 ). However, this is one element of the SPPB, so those reporting SPPB values will have conducted this test.…”

“…stand test À vs. pre-HIIT, À vs. control HIIT group 5 rep chair stand test was 10.5 ± 2.2 s and 9.0 ± 1.6 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively. Control group 5 rep chair stand test was 12.1 ± 4.9 s and 11.9 ± 4.0 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively Adamson et al (2020). 5 rep chair stand test À vs. pre-HIIT, À vs. control HIIT once weekly group 5 rep chair stand test was 11.9 ± 1.8 and 10.6 ± 2.1 s pre-and post-intervention, respectively.…”

The Influence of Acute Sprint Interval Training on Cognitive Performance of Healthy Younger Adults

“…The SIT condition started with a standardized 3-minute-long warm-up on the Wattbike set at resistance level of 1 for both the magnetic-and air-braked resistance at ~ 60 to 80 revolutions per minute with two acceleration phases of ~ 3 seconds at 60 and 120 seconds. Afterward, all participants performed six 6seconds "all-out" sprints on the Wattbike ergometer which were intermitted with passive rest periods of 1 minute [23][24][25][26]. The resistance of the Wattbike was set to 1 and 10 for the magnetic-and air-braked resistance, respectively.…”