HIIT for Health

Time is a major barrier to increasing physical activity, and a lack of physical activity is having a major detriment to people’s health. High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a type of exercise training that involves short duration exercise, meaning it takes up less time and therefore tackling this barrier to being more active.  This project looks at the effect of HIIT on a number of different health parameters.

Project timeframes

The project began in 2014 and is ongoing.

Project aims

This project aims to look at a variety of different HIIT protocols and understand the impact of them on:

  • Glucose Control (for Diabetes)
  • Body Composition (for Obesity)
  • Bone Health (for Osteoporosis)

As well as how these protocols can be applied to real-world settings outside of the laboratory.

Project findings and impact

This project has so far found that HIIT:

  • Improves Glucose Control
  • Reduces Fat Mass
  • Potentially stimulates Bone Mass Adaptation

We are now moving forward, trying to further understand the role HIIT plays in bone mass adaptation, as well as trying to improve participant adherence to these protocols without removing, or enhancing if possible, their effectiveness.

Research team

Dr Fergus Guppy

Output

Conference Proceedings

Guppy, FM et. al.  (2015) 6-weeks of high-intensity interval training improves fat mass in healthy males. 20th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Malmö, Sweden

Guppy, FM et. al.  (2015) High-intensity interval training: a novel way to improve bone mass? Bone Research Society Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, UK

Guppy, FM et. al.  (2015) High-intensity interval training: a novel way to improve bone mass? Muscle-Bone Group, Bone Research Society Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, UK

On-going Grants

Effortless High-intensity Exercise

HIIT for Bone Health

Partners

Dr Alex González-Agüero, Universidad Zaragoza

Dr Lex Mauger, University of Kent

Professor Sam Marcora,  University of Kent