Cycle high-intensity interval training to improve cardiorespiratory and muscular function in older adults
Description: Maintenance of cardiorespiratory and muscular function with aging requires aerobic and resistance exercise, and current recommendations for older adults include both. However, few older adults exercise, and those who do typically only perform one type of exercise, putting themselves at a higher risk of developing either cardiovascular disease or physical disability due to lack of specific training. As long as older adults only utilize a single exercise strategy, they should use the one that reduces physical disability and mortality risk to the greatest extent. Aerobic training is most effective at reducing cardiovascular disease risk, but appears to have little or no effect on muscular function. We hypothesize that the reason why muscular adaptations are not seen in response to aerobic training is the low intensity of exercise, and that performing high-intensity aerobic exercise can improve muscular strength and power in older adults. Current aerobic recommendations are volume driven, advocating for increasing step count or achieving a set number of minutes performing moderate-intensity exercise each week. Herein we propose an intensity-driven aerobic training protocol to maximize the health benefits of performing a single exercise strategy. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an aerobic exercise protocol that can elicit both cardiorespiratory and muscular adaptations in young adults, but its potential in sedentary older adults has not been explored. Thus, the primary aim of our study is to determine whether older adults who perform a supervised cycle HIIT program will improve their cardiorespiratory function similar to moderate-intensity continuous aerobic training (MICT), and their muscular function similar to resistance training (RT). Sedentary older adults (age 65-80) will be assigned to one of three exercise programs (HIIT, MICT, RT) and will perform their assigned exercise three times per week for 12 weeks while being supervised by a health professional. Before and after the assigned intervention we will obtain clinically-relevant measures of cardiorespiratory (VO2max) and muscular function (strength, power, fatigue resistance). Additionally, we will collect physiological measures to explain the mechanisms that underlie the hypothesized beneficial effects of HIIT on cardiorespiratory and muscular function in older adults.
Funder: American Heart Association
Amount: $53,690
Funding type: training
Funder scheme: Predoctoral Fellowship
Start date: 2019-07-01
End date: 2021-05-03
Investigators: Dallin Tavoian, Dallin Tavoian
Institution: Ohio University
Funded outputs count: 5
Funder award ID: 19PRE34380496
OpenAlex ID: G4580991964