Effects of High-Intensity Exercise on the Body - Essay Example

? Effects of High Intensity Exercise on the Body High intensity interval training (HIIT) refers to a form of short but intensive anaerobic exercise of alternating periods that is accompanied by intense recovery periods (Cross Fit Journal, 2003). HIIT is a type of cardiovascular exercise (Cross Fit Journal, 2003). Sessions involving HIIT may take 9-20 minutes. HIIT comprises of short, intense work outs that aim at boosting the athlete’s capacity and condition. On top of that, HIIT enhances fat burning and glucose metabolism (Cross Fit Journal, 2003). This paper gives an overview of studies conducted on HIIT. In addition, the paper will also examine the pros and cons of cross Fit training. Bayati, Farzad, Gharakhanlou and Agha-Alinejad (2011) argue that in the recent past; a novel type of HIIT called spring interval training has shown increases in aerobic and anaerobic with extremely low time commitment. However, according to Bayati et al. the exercise seems unpractical to the general population. Bayati et al. (2011) study endeavored to compare the impact of low-volume high-intensity training to all out spring interval training (Bayati et al., 2011). The researchers recruited twenty young males who were divided into three groups. Group one’s session involved 3-5 cycling bouts, 20 seconds all-out and 4 minutes recovery; group 2 had 6-10 cycling bouts, 125% Pmax and 2 minutes recovery (Bayati et al., 2011). On the other hand, group three comprised of a non trained control group. All the three groups carried out VO2 max test, a time to exhaustion at Pmax (Tmax), and a Wingate test prior to and after the intervention. The exercise occurred three times a week for four weeks (Bayati et al., 2011). The results from the three groups were as following: (Bayati et al., 2011) Group one: significant improvements (p Read More