Health at Sprint

Introduction

By HIIT, I do not mean that it is popular (although, finally and thankfully, it is certainly becoming so), but rather, that sprint interval training (SIT) is also referred to as high-intensity interval training or HIIT. It is of major importance that health care professionals make sure that the general public, as well as many contemporaries, get thoroughly educated about the superior health and fitness benefits of SIT, or “burst” training, as compared to low- to moderate-intensity continuous training (LMICT). This is because, despite research to the contrary, most people still believe that to develop a healthy heart and to lose weight, the best mode of exercise is long and continuous “cardio” exercise, which, inherently, requires a significant investment of time. And, of course, lack of time is the number one excuse given for not complying with an exercise program. Before getting into the health and fitness benefits of SIT or HIIT, I want to make some clarifications about the definitions and also make a few comments about training for individuals that want to take part or compete in endurance events.

Interval training refers to intermittent exercise involving periods of exercise followed by periods of recovery, which enables anyone to increase the intensity of the exercise workload. A pretty simple concept. The problem, however, with the term “high-intensity” is that it is descriptive and, obviously, relative to an individual’s level of fitness and dependent upon one’s tolerance to exertion. Running at five miles per hour may be an all-out effort for some, whereas, it may be a walk in the park for others. While it is easy to assign relative exercise intensities for both training and research purposes by first measuring maximal capacities, one also needs to understand that the term "high-intensity” is used in the scientific literature to describe intensities ranging from as low as 85% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max or aerobic capacity) to as...