Interval Training

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Interval training brings many benefits to the aerobic system. Perhaps the most important benefit is an increase in its capacity to produce energy. This is brought about by increased capacity to consume oxygen during exercise. Several experiments have yielded results demonstrating that interval training increases both VO2 peak (Perry, 2008) and VO2 max (Sloth, 2013). Oxygen is necessary for the conversion of sugar, protein, and lipids into usable energy. The chemical processes involved in aerobic metabolism are not possible without oxygen, particularly the electron transport chain, the mechanism responsible for 95% of the ATP needed to keep cells alive. Oxygen is necessary to capture the large amount of energy locked in the chemical bonds of pyruvic acid, the product of the anaerobic process glycolysis. Thus, the more oxygen the body is able to consume, the greater production of ATP via the aerobic system.
Not only does interval training increase the amount of oxygen the body can consume during exercise, but its efficiency in delivering the oxygen to the key muscles. This is attributed by researchers to increase in stroke volume. Stroke volume is the volume of blood pumped from one ventricle of the heart in a single beat. The body can only continue performing exercise when the performing muscles receive oxygenated blood. Therefore, it is crucial that the oxygenated blood supply continue to be open throughout exercise. Stroke volume can increase through a higher left ventricular contractile force and/or through an increase in cardiac filling pressure, which raises end-diastolic volume and resultant stroke volume (Laursen, 2002). In addition to increased stroke volume, researchers have identified increased activity b...

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...l., 1987). In a study in which the participants performed sprint interval training (Bayati, 2011), there was an increase in maximal blood lactate from pre to post training, indicating greater capacity of anaerobic glycolysis. This increase was found coinciding with increased peak power, mean power, and total work . Sharp et al. (1986) reported an increase in blood lactate concentrations and total work performed during a 45-s maximal cycle sprint after eight weeks of intense sprint training in untrained subjects. This data was reported in conjunction with an increase in the glycolytic enzyme phosphofructokinase (PFK), suggesting that increased lactate and total work values were due to improved glycolytic output. All of these studies suggest that interval training improves the performance of the anaerobic system, and more readily activates aerobic metabolism.

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