Intensive training is very short but super-effective

Fitness training is "in". Every couple of months new trends are developed. For a long time, people have been observing EMS training without effort, especially in larger cities in shop windows. A completely new fitness trend is the so-called intensive training: It should keep just as fit as loose endurance sports.

Constantly new fitness trends
For years, the booming fitness industry in Germany has brought huge profits to the respective providers. In today's fast-paced world, more and more athletes want to get their training done as quickly as possible. When it comes to burning fat, according to experts, a minimum of 20 minutes of exercise is sufficient daily. However, a new fitness trend comes with much less time: According to studies, short intensive programs are just as fit as relaxed endurance sports.

The new intensive training should be short but effective. Picture: pressmaster -photolia

Intense training keeps you healthy as well as time-consuming endurance training
According to a report by "Spiegel Online" several small studies indicate that even a short, but intensive training keeps the body as fit and healthy as light and time-consuming endurance training. As researchers report in a review article in the journal "Sports Medicine", strengthens the short intensive training in addition to the general fitness about the cardiovascular system similar to endurance sports. In their work, the scientists have evaluated 16 studies with almost 320 patients. A small pilot study published in the journal "PLOS ONE" subsequently came to a similar conclusion. This involved 14 overweight but healthy volunteers.

In healthy volunteers, the fitness improved
The researchers had in the experiment, the intensive training driven to the extreme: the participants had to pedal three times a week for three times 20 seconds to the point of absolute exhaustion - a so-called "all-out stress". Including retraction, recovery phases and a relaxed end, everything was over after ten minutes. Anyone interested in such training should first undergo a stress test with the sports physician. There is a health risk especially for the heart attack. According to the information, the intensive training in the healthy subjects of the study resulted in a significant improvement in fitness after six weeks. Thus, the maximum oxygen uptake of the muscle cells increased by twelve percent, the metabolism was stimulated and the blood pressure dropped. In addition, the seven men had a lower blood sugar level.

Heart benefits during intensive training
Since there was no comparison group that completed a classic endurance training in parallel, no definite advantage can be deduced from the method. However, sports scientists, according to "Spiegel Online" taking into account all intensive care training, assume that especially the heart benefits. "At short high peak loads, the amount of stress hormones in the blood increases extremely for a short time," explained Wilhelm Bloch, Head of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Sports Medicine at the German Sport University Cologne (DSHS). The stress receptors on the heart would become less sensitive and develop a stress resistance that could protect against heart attack and stroke.

May be recommended for diabetics
In addition, if evidence of a fall in blood glucose levels through intensive training were confirmed, it could also be recommended to patients with type 2 diabetes. "When exercised, the muscle fibers absorb a lot of sugar," said Bloch. As a result, the sugar level in the blood and thus the need for insulin decrease. That intensive training has already arrived in practice, shows a scientifically proven seven-minute program, which consists exclusively of exercises with your own body weight. It is a further development of the circus training developed in the 1950s. There is also a variant in which weights complicate the exercises: "The Advanced 7-Minute Workout" by the company EXOS.

In German gyms, the trend for high-intensity training has long been found. The "Cross-Fit Training", for example, relies on the highest loads, combining exercises from weightlifting, sprinting, gymnastics and circuit training. Joachim Mester, head of the German Research Center for Competitive Sports at the German Sport University Cologne, said that German police officers are also involved in intensive training: "We have been in charge of the police special task forces (SEK) for many years." The aim is to achieve an extremely high level in short workloads physical fitness and commitment. "Here intense stress is the drug of choice." (Ad)