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Workouts: High Intensity vs. Endurance

April 7, 2011 8:03 am 3 comments

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What's better a shorter more intense workout or a longer more moderate session? The answer, according to a new study by researchers at the University of the West of Scotland, is "How much time do you have?"  Jeannine Stein reports in the LA Times that the study included 47 adolescents, who were placed in one of three exercise groups: moderate, high intensity, and a control group. The moderate exercise group did 20 minutes of steady running three times a week, while the high-intensity group did four to six repeats of an all-out sprint with brief recovery periods three times a week. Stein reports that while both groups showed cardiovascular benefits, the high-intensity group had substantial improvements in systolic blood pressure, aerobic fitness and body mass index. The moderate-intensity group showed improvements in aerobic fitness, body fat percentage, body mass index and insulin concentrations. Wait, there's more: The moderate-intensity group burned more calories than the high-intensity group: 4,410 versus 907 on average. Perhaps more importantly for many readers, the authors note that the high-intensity group exercised for a total of only 63 minutes, 15 percent of the 420 minutes spent by the moderate-intensity group. 

Read more in the Los Angeles Times.

3 Comments

  • esti
    April 8, 2011
    1:14 am

    Confirmation for all children who only know how to play hard to their heart’s content. Time is irrelevant except for the setting sun or Mom’s third call to the dinner table. Oh well, time to pop another advil as the geezer gazes with glazed eyes at his blood pressure monitor.

    Reply
  • tuff old jock
    April 8, 2011
    12:26 pm

    Likely this scales to older people as well. You still might want the advil, but you’ll get the cardiovascular, BMI benefits in any of the scenarios. It really comes down to which of these exercise regimens you enjoy. Intensity puts you in more discomfort, but for a shorter time and has a big payoff. Moderate is more tolerable, and still has great benefits. Very cool, you can’t lose. Why not do some of everything? You body loves variety.

    Reply
  • Edward Herrera
    April 12, 2011
    7:04 am

    Motivation and will,is the key,what ever make you move,that is the name of the game,I`m talking about exercise.

    Reply

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