The Relationship Between Exercise Frequency, Intensity, and Restoration of Cardiometabolic Health

University of Guelph

Status: Completed

Conditions: Overweight or Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Endurance Exercise Training (END); Behavioral: Sprint Exercise Training (SIT)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03376685

17-08-008

Details and patient eligibility

About

Regular physical activity is well established to decrease the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. While research has characterized responses based on exercise intensity, many beneficial effects of exercise are transient in nature, and therefore exercise frequency may play an important, yet currently under-appreciated, role in improving health. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of 6-week high-frequency endurance (END) or low-frequency sprint (SIT) training with respect to reducing clinically relevant cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight/obese males. It is hypothesized that END, performed at a greater frequency than SIT, will markedly improve cardiometabolic health, while low-frequency SIT will not.

Full description

Involvement in regular physical activity is known to elicit systemic adaptations and reduce the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, including hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Traditional physical activity recommendations suggest that 150 minutes of moderate-intensity continuous endurance (END) exercise dispersed over 5 days per week is sufficient to improve physical fitness in adults. However, given the commonly cited barrier of "lack of time," literature has recently focused on time effective sprint interval training (SIT), obtaining equivalent increases in aerobic capacity and acute glycemic regulation compared to classical END exercise when protocols are work-matched. Despite these similarities, END is conducive to daily sessions not feasible of SIT. As improvements in many clinically relevant risk factors are transient in nature following exercise, it remains imperative to assess the implications of variable frequency exercise regimes performed as per general practice (i.e. high-frequency END, low-frequency SIT). Furthermore, improvements in cardiovascular outcomes following END have been shown, in some instances, to be absent in response to SIT, suggesting END may be more beneficial for cardiovascular health. Therefore, the current study aims to assess several markers of cardiovascular (aerobic capacity, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, vascular endothelial function) and metabolic (glucose tolerance, lipid tolerance, body composition) health following 6-weeks of high-frequency END or low-frequency SIT, performed as per general practice. Combined, this research will provide important insight into the under-appreciated role of exercise frequency for improving cardiometabolic health.

Enrollment: 23 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male, aged 18-70 years
• Body mass index (BMI) > 25 kg/m^2 (classified as overweight or obese)
• Sedentary (<100 minutes moderate physical activity per week)
• Approval for vigorous exercise via physical activity readiness questionnaire (PARQ+)

Exclusion criteria

• Prescribed with glucose lowering medications
• Smoker
• Not cleared for physical activity

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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23 participants in 2 patient groups

Endurance Exercise Training (END)

Experimental group

Description:

This group is performing END training for 6 weeks in duration. Intervention: Behavioral: Endurance Exercise Training (END)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Endurance Exercise Training (END)

Sprint Exercise Training (SIT)

Experimental group

Description:

This group is performing SIT training for 6 weeks in duration. Intervention: Behavioral: Sprint Exercise Training (SIT)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sprint Exercise Training (SIT)