The purpose of this study was to evaluate two practical interval training protocols on cardiorespiratory fitness, lipids and body composition in overweight/obese women. Thirty women (mean +/- SD weight 88.1 +/- 15.9 kg; BMI 32.0 +/- 6.0 kg/m2) were randomly assigned to ten 1-min high-intensity intervals (90%VO2peak, 1 min recovery) or five 2-min high-intensity intervals (80 to 100% VO2peak, 1 min recovery) or control. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), peak power output (PPO), body composition and fasting blood lipids were evaluated before and after 3 weeks of training, completed 3 days per week. Results from ANCOVA analyses demonstrated no significant training group differences for any primary variables (p > 0.05). When training groups were collapsed, 1MIN and 2MIN resulted in a significant increase in PPO (delta 18.9 +/- 8.5 watts; p = 0.014) and time to exhaustion (delta 55.1 +/- 16.4 s; p = 0.001); non-significant increase in VO2peak (delta 2.36 +/- 1.34 ml/kg/min; p = 0.185); and a significant decrease in fat mass (FM) (delta -1.96 +/- 0.99 kg; p = 0.011). Short-term interval exercise training may be effective for decreasing FM and improving exercise tolerance in overweight and obese women.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher