We all know a sprint feels different than a longer, take-it slow kind of workout. Now, new research reveals this kind of high-intensity training provokes a remarkably robust response throughout the bloodstream. The training substantially mobilizes more proteins and other molecules in the hours after exercising.
The findings were published by a team of scientists in the U.S, Australia and Sweden. The results do not mean that sprint workouts and other forms of high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, are better than moderate exercise where your heart rate remains at a steady level. But the data do suggest that pushing yourself in these all-out, short bursts of effort may yield unique benefits for health and fitness, according to Dr.
Paul Cohen, whose lab at Rockefeller University led the study, which recently appeared in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. In a series of experiments, Cohen and his colleagues collected blood from young, healthy adults before and after they exercised, and combed their blood for thousands of proteins and other metabolites. For example, participants were divided into two opposing camps: One completed six sets of a 30 second maximum effort on the bike, each spaced by 4 minutes of rest.
The others did a 90 minute moderate-paced ride. When they ran their analysis, it was clear the sprint group had "many, many more changes," explains Cohen. "What we can conclude is that sprinting does have a greater effect on remodeling the molecules in the bloodstream." Want the latest stories on the science of healthy living?
Subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter. The practical implications of those changes need to be teased apart in future trials; however, the study did find some initial clues. They overlaid the results from their study participants with a massive database of 50,000 people, collected from the U.K.
That evaluation showed the proteins that were altered in the sprinters were associated with improved cardiovascular and metabolic health. In another part of the study comparing a high-intensity run on the treadmill to a slower jog, the research team took biopsies of found that fat tissue -- lots of remodeling itn eh spring cells in a petri dish behaved very differently when they were drenched with blood from the HIIT folks. "That's further evidence and much more causal evidence that something in the blood following sprint training can remodel the molecular landscape of other tissues, like fat tissue," Cohen says.
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