exercise trends
HIT hits the gym
In the last issue of Health Club Management, we looked at the booming interest in HIT (high-intensity interval training). In part two of the series, Kate Cracknell looks at how HIT protocols can be modified for use by the average gym-goer
at the University of New Mexico, US. No reason, then, that HIT principles couldn’t be incorporated into every member’s personal workout programme to enhance results. Kravitz continues: “For instance, an inactive person walking can easily incorporate a very brisk walk – at his/her relative intensity – combined with a slow recovery walk, again at his/her relative intensity. That way, intensity is based on a person’s fi tness level, not an absolute level. The safety issue is thereby managed wonderfully, because people are doing mixed intensity work bouts with recovery at their own level.”
“I
f people always go at their own relative intensity, they can do any HIT programme,” says Len Kravitz, a researcher
A PRACTICAL MODEL Meanwhile, at McMaster University in Canada, research undertaken by professor Martin Gibala and his team has investigated the use of HIT by non-elite athletes. In one study, HIT was shown to be a time-effi cient way to induce benefi ts normally associated with traditional endurance training. Young subjects who performed four to six sprints, three times a week – 30-second bursts of all-out cycling separated by a few minutes of recovery – showed the same benefi cial changes in their heart, blood vessels and muscles as another group who performed up to an hour of continuous cycling, fi ve days a week. However, as Gibala explains: “This is
extremely demanding and may not be safe, tolerable or appealing for some individuals.”
The researchers therefore moved on to look at adapting HIT for a broader audience, investigating whether modifi ed forms of HIT – which might be safer and better tolerated by older, less fi t individuals – are equally effective. Gibala continues: “We sought to design
a more practical model of low-volume HIT that was time-effi cient while also having wider application to different populations. The new HIT model consists of 10 x 60-second work bouts at a constant-load intensity that elicits approximately 90 per cent of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60 seconds of recovery. “In the original studies, the ‘all-out’
effort might be equivalent to the pace of sprinting to save a child from an oncoming car – ie as fast as possible.
Will HIT attract new audiences, such as CrossFit enthusiasts, to our gyms?
42 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
august 2012 © cybertrek 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90