High-Intensity Interval Training Will Boost Your Health
Physically active people tend to live longer, while inactive people tend to live shorter. Physical inactivity is the major risk factor for lifestyle diseases around the globe, killing as much as 5 million people a year (just as much as smoking). This video discusses research on high-intensity physical exercise and its significant health benefits.
High-Intensity physical exercise will boost your health
Øivind Rognmo
Key Takeaways
Being physically active improves your fitness level (aerobic capacity) which is best measured by measuring oxygen uptake. Those that are classified in highest fitness levels chances of having cardiovascular risk factors later in life are much lower compared to those with poor fitness levels which is up to 5x higher.
The good thing is that those that choose to go from unfit to fit later in life can still reduce their risk of dying from these diseases by 50%. You should aim to do 20-30 minutes of moderate intensity activity because that will improve your health and help you live a longer, healthy life.
HIIT (High-intensity interval training) risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease goes down even more by those performing HIIT. This is when we switch back and forth between heavy and light exercise. Studies show that HIIT is more effective at elevating aerobic capacity than moderate training.
The muscle cells contract more and faster relaxations after HIIT, cell dimensions grow larger and longer which leads to higher cardiac output meaning the amount of blood the heart is pumping out/minute is increasing, which means aerobic capacity will increase.