Working out in short bursts is best for fitness
Of course you want the best from your workout, and visible results in a shorter amount of time is the stuff of dreams.
Well, scientists may have just found the answer, high intensity interval training.
The research shows that when it comes to running, women may get more out of high intensity interval training, which involves a lot of sprints intermixed with recovery periods, than their male counterparts.
Even though this type of training might be tiring and difficult, a new study is reporting that high intensity interval training for women in particular can be very beneficial.
Drs Matt Laurent and Matt Kutz, at Bowling Green State University, Lauren Vervaecke, at the University of South Carolina, and Dr Matt Green at the University of North Alabama, put eight men and eight women between the ages of 19 and 30 through self-paced, high intensity interval training using different recovery periods.
The participants used the treadmill six times at four-minute intervals at their personal highest intensity levels. The recovery times between the intervals were one minute, two minutes or four minutes. During the intervals, the researchers measured the participants' oxygen consumption and their heart rates. Based from these results, the researchers found a significant difference in the effect of this type of exercise for both genders.
"I think what our data show is that there appear to be meaningful differences in how men and women self-regulate their workouts," Laurent told the Mail Online.
"Specifically, in our case, men and women tend to work at the same level of perceived exertion and feel similarly recovered between each interval, however, as they perform the interval runs women tended to work 'harder' from a relative cardiovascular standpoint than men."
Even though high intensity interval training is a great way of exercising for both genders, this study suggests that people should remember to focus on their own bodies and pay attention to their limits.
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