While any kind of exercise is better than staying sedentary, interval training shows signs of additional health advantages.
A quality and healthy nutrition mixed with a periodical session of exercises have been for a long time described as the ideal lifestyle. However, a new study unravels new advantages that support the idea of practicing interval training exercises. According to recent findings, quick bursts of exercises are forcing the body to produce more proteins to keep the energy production up and running. This seems to keep cells so active that they forget how to age.
A new study appeared in the journal Cell Metabolism and addresses yet another series of benefits that come with an active lifestyle. The lead author of the paper, Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, is a diabetes researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. According to him, any type of exercise is preferred over a sedentary life.
However, by far the favorite exercise of the new study is the interval training, also known as HIIT which comes from high-intensity interval training. The results of the paper suggest that this kind of workout is highly efficient in keeping aging at bay. This training implies short bursts of intensive exercises. During this time, the metabolism is highly accelerated. Between the quick sessions, people are taking a short break but this doesn’t imply a complete stop of physical activity. Instead of standby, the training requires a short series of moderate exercises. For instance, one simple HIIT program requires sprinting for 30 seconds followed by several minutes of moderate pace jog. The process should be repeated for at least 30 minutes.
The study tracked the performance of 36 men and 36 women. The participants were categorized into two age groups. The young one were 18-30 of age while the old group comprised people of 65-80 years. Both these segments had to respect three different exercise programs. These were HIIT biking, a mix of interval training and strength exercises, and strength exercises based on weights.
Scientists took samples of participants’ muscle mass and compared them to those extracted from sedentary people. They found that while strength training led to bigger muscle mass, interval training improved cells like no medicine can do. The young group increased its mitochondrial capacity by 49%, while the senior group increased it by 69%.
As science found that the mitochondria in our cells control the aging process, this means that interval training can delay this process by increasing its capacity. Moreover, the study discovered that these exercises could also improve insulin sensitivity which decreases the chances of developing diabetes.
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