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30 Second Sprints Several Times A Week Could Prevent Diabetes

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

If youre having difficulty keeping your resolution to exercise 30 minutes a day, 5-days-a-week, then youre going to like this study.

Researches put young men through some very brief, but strenuous, workouts and found their sensitivity to insulin (and so their blood sugar levels) improved:

Extremely Short Duration High Intensity Interval Training Substantially Improves Insulin Action In Young Healthy Males, BMC Endocrine Disorders, January 2009

A total of 16 men, average age 21, underwent 6 sessions of exercise over 14 days.

A session of exercise consisted of:

• 30 seconds of cycling as fast as possible
  
• 4 minutes of rest
  
• The above repeated 4 to 6 times

An exercise session lasted 17 to 26 minutes, but only 2 to 3 minutes of that was actual exercise.

Compared to before training (baseline):

• Postprandial glucose levels declined 12% (measured by AUC: Area Under the Curve)
  
• Postprandial insulin levels declined 37% (AUC)
  
• Postprandial free fatty acid levels declined 26% (AUC)
  
• Insulin sensitivity improved 23% (measured by Cederholm index)
  
• Aerobic cycling performance improved 6%

The authors concluded:

"The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes."

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