Decremental Exercise: a New Training Approach?

Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich

Status: Completed

Conditions: Exercise Performance of Fit Athletes

Treatments: Other: HIIT; Other: DECT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03155152

DECT_HIIT_2017

Details and patient eligibility

About

Different types of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions are used by athletes in order to improve their physical performance, but innovative approaches to training are lacking. Therefore, in Part A of this study the physiological response to a standard HIIT and a new decremental exercise training (DECT) will be compared in runners and cyclists. Next, in Part B the training effects of a 4-week block of the HIIT and DECT will be compared.

Enrollment: 55 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age: 18-40 years
• Healthy, i.e. normal physical and mental status (not taking any medication on a regular basis for more than a month, except contraceptive medication)
• Normal Body-Mass-Index (BMI): 18.5-24.9 kg·m-2
• Well-trained athletes: V̇O2max > 55.1 ml·min-1·kg-1 for men and > 50.1 ml·min-1·kg-1 for women
• Normal lung function
• Non-smoking
• Willing to adhere to the general study rules

Exclusion criteria

• Women who are pregnant or breast feeding
• Intention to become pregnant during the course of the study
• Known or suspected non-compliance, drug or alcohol abuse
• Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to language problems, psychological disorders, dementia, etc. of the participant
• Previous enrolment into the same part (A or B) of the current study
• Enrolment of the investigator, his/her family members, employees and other dependent persons
• Acute or chronic illness
• Intake of medications affecting performance or the respiratory, cardiovascular or neuromuscular system
• Insufficient training history (<3 yrs of participation in competitive cycling/running) or training volume (<40 km running/week or 150 km cycling/week) in the previous 6 months
• Recent (<3 months) history of orthopaedic injury or participation in structured high-intensity training blocks

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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55 participants in 2 patient groups

DECT Group

Experimental group

Description:

The DECT session consists of four bouts of 4 min high-intensity "decremental" exercise with 3 min of active recovery between bouts. Load is progressively decreased throughout each exercise bout. The training period will last for a total of 4 weeks, with three weekly sessions of supervised training

Treatment:

Other: DECT

HIIT Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

The HIIT session consists of four bouts of 4 min high-intensity "decremental" exercise with 3 min of active recovery between bouts. Load is kept constant throughout each exercise bout. The training period will last for a total of 4 weeks, with three weekly sessions of supervised training

Treatment:

Other: HIIT