BACKGROUND: Low-volume high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may be a time-efficient strategy that leads to similar or superior improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors when compared with moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT). Our study investigated the effect of low-volume HIIT or MICT versus sham placebo-control (PLA) on central arterial stiffness, hemodynamic responses, and CVD risk factors in adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS: Eligible participants were previously inactive adults with obesity and T2D. Individuals were randomly allocated to: (i) HIIT (1x4 min cycling at 90% peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak)); (ii) MICT (45 min of cycling at 60% VO2peak); or PLA. Training groups exercised thrice weekly for 12 weeks. Central arterial stiffness, hemodynamics and CVD risk factors were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to examine changes following HIIT, MICT and PLA. RESULTS: Thirty-five participants (age 55.1 +/- 1.4 years, BMI 36.1 +/- 0.8 kg/m2) completed the study. A significant intervention effect was found for changes in pulse wave velocity (PWV) (p = 0.05), which reduced with HIIT (-0.3 +/- 0.9 m/s) and MICT (-0.1 +/- 1.1 m/s) but increased with PLA (0.8 +/- 1.6 m/s). There was a significant intervention effect for changes in VO2peak (p < 0.01), glycosylated hemoglobin (p = 0.03), systolic blood pressure (p < 0.01), and waist circumference (p = 0.03), which all improved following MICT or HIIT but not PLA; there was no difference between MICT and HIIT. CONCLUSIONS: Twelve minutes of low-volume HIIT per week leads to improvements in central arterial stiffness and cardiovascular health in inactive individuals with obesity and T2D.

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