| Traditional steady state aerobic exercise training is a proven method to treat metabolic disorders, in particular diabetes. Short duration high intensity interval training (HIIT) induces similar metabolic adaptations and improvements in aerobic performance. To date, most HIIT studies have utilized "all out" efforts. Lower intensity HIIT has recently been demonstrated to produce similar effects to all out efforts, however, it is unknown whether a lower intensity HIIT has the capacity to improve glucose handling in a diseased population. Nine untrained type 2 diabetics [age=22 +/- 9.1 yr; BMI = 33.9 +/- 5.31 (mean +/- SD); VO2max = 1.95L/min+/- .21] performed 6 training sessions of HIIT over 2 weeks. Anthropometric measures, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, glucose tolerance, fasting triglycerides, and cholesterol were unchanged with training, but there was a significant reduction in blood glucose after each interval bout (p<0.05). This provides novel and important pilot data for future studies. |
