• Mark Rakobowchuk, Emma Harris, Annabelle Taylor, Richard M Cubbon, and Karen M Birch.
• Health, Exercise and Active Life Research Unit, Sport and Exercise Sciences, Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK. merako@essex.ac.uk
• Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 2013 Apr 1; 113 (4): 839-49.

AbstractTraditional continuous aerobic exercise training attenuates age-related increases of arterial stiffness, however, training studies have not determined whether metabolic stress impacts these favourable effects. Twenty untrained healthy participants (n = 11 heavy metabolic stress interval training, n = 9 moderate metabolic stress interval training) completed 6 weeks of moderate or heavy intensity interval training matched for total work and exercise duration. Carotid artery stiffness, blood pressure contour analysis, and linear and non-linear heart rate variability were assessed before and following training. Overall, carotid arterial stiffness was reduced (p < 0.01), but metabolic stress-specific alterations were not apparent. There was a trend for increased absolute high-frequency (HF) power (p = 0.10) whereas both absolute low-frequency (LF) power (p = 0.05) and overall power (p = 0.02) were increased to a similar degree following both training programmes. Non-linear heart rate dynamics such as detrended fluctuation analysis [Formula: see text] also improved (p > 0.05). This study demonstrates the effectiveness of interval training at improving arterial stiffness and autonomic function, however, the metabolic stress was not a mediator of this effect. In addition, these changes were also independent of improvements in aerobic capacity, which were only induced by training that involved a high metabolic stress.

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