Study sheds light on sprint versus endurance training

Figure conscious people need not to workout for hours now, as a new study conducted by researchers at McMaster University has indicated that short bursts of very intense exercise such as sprinting and cycling, with in between breaks for recovery, are as effective as moderate exercises done for hours.

The study suggests that one can stem the same benefits by performing three sessions of these exercises each week, as are obtained by taking up to two hours of daily moderate exercise.

The recent study included 16 college-going students who performed six training sessions over two weeks. Researchers divided them into two separate groups of eight each. The first group performed between four and six 30-second bursts of "all out" cycling separated by 4 minutes of recovery during each training session. The other eight volunteers performed 90-120 minutes of continuous moderate-intensity cycling each day.

Martin Gibala, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and his colleagues made headlines last year when they suggested that a few minutes of high-intensity exercise could be as beneficial as an hour of moderate activity but, their previous work did not directly compare sprint with endurance training. However, their present study sheds a light on this comparison.

"The most striking finding from our study was the remarkably similar adaptations induced by two such diverse training strategies," Martin Gibala says.

After observing the both groups, the research team found that both groups showed similar improvements in exercise performance and the muscle's ability to resist fatigue.

The aggregate training time commitment including recovery was 2.5 hours in the sprint group, whereas the endurance group performed 10.5 hours of total exercise over two weeks. In spite of the significant difference in training volume, both groups showed similar improvements in exercise performance and muscle parameters linked with fatigue resistance.

"Our study demonstrates that interval-based exercise is a very time-efficient training strategy," said Gibala. "This type of training is very demanding and requires a high level of motivation. However, short bursts of intense exercise may be an effective option for individuals who cite 'lack of time' as a major impediment to fitness."

Gibala suggests that weight-conscious people can benefit themselves a lot by performing hard spurts, as the body continues to burn calories during the recovery period.

"People forget that if you do a 30-second hard spurt your body continues to burn calories during recovery; just because you have physically stopped racing doesn't mean the effects of the workout are over,” researchers say.