HIT Training & Mitochondrial Health

[Indy51]

Interesting Catalyst program on this subject screened on Australian TV last week:

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4319131.htm

Menopausal ladies might want to watch this

 

[Mrs Vimes]

Oooo! I do spin and hiit. The trainer keeps saying as fast as you can. Got no excuses now. I'm wandering wether my night sweats match up with my days off? Something to look at - cheers Indy51!

 

[ElyDave]

What I'm not clear on from that is the starting fitness levels of the subjects.

Whilst HIIT has been shown to have significant benefits in untrained subjects initially, the speed of improvement rapidly tails off and plateaus. That's not to say HIIT has no place in a wider exercise/training regime, but alone it's not the answer.

Wider reading suggests that mitochondrial density can be increased by large volumes of low intensity training, such as you see with Olympic rowers, cross country skiers etc who tend to have a training plan involving lots of that kind of stuff, a periodised approach and relatively little (proportionally) of very high intensity work.

 

[Larissima]

"HIIT is probably best for certain populations, like the time-strapped, the impatient, the former marathoner-living-in-Malibu-with-a-burning-desire-to-get-work-over-with-so-he-can-play, the obese, and those with type 2 diabetes. Yes, in type 2 diabetics and the obese, activating AMPK and spurring biogenesis requires higher exercise intensities. The mitochondria are slower to respond, probably because their ability to tap into fat for energy is blunted. If your mitochondria aren’t burning energy, you’re not sending the “low energy” signal that stimulates AMPK. If you’re not releasing AMPK… well, you get the point"

From: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/managing-your-mitochondria-exercise/#ixzz3oL9dAsEH

 

[ElyDave]

Implying, perhaps unfairly in all cases, that the T2 population are habitually under trained. Hence the value of HIIT initially.