Effect of a HIIT Program on Quality of Life, Executive Functions, and IGF-1 Response in Sedentary Young University Women

Sedentary lifestyle, understood as an activity that requires minimal body movement (Tremblay et al., 2017), is one of the main factors responsible for chronic diseases in Young adults.

In addition, this sedentary lifestyle generates mental disorders, such as anxiety, low self-esteem and depression, being more pronounced in women than in men (Nihill et al., 2013). Thus, both daily physical activity (PA) and physical exercise programs (PE), of moderate-vigorous intensity, act as an effective tools for the improvement of quality of life, since they generate benefits at physiological, psychological and social levels (Cohen et al., 2019).

If we focus on young adult, it can be seen how there is a significant decrease in the practice of physical exercise at this age (Grim et al., 2011). This means that the aforementioned recommendations are not reached (Cancela et al., 2019). Furthermore, if compared between sexes, lower levels are shown in the female sex (King et al., 2014).

For this reasons, and taking into account that the female population is a population vulnerable to significantly reduce their physical activity practice with age (Cohen et al., 2019), it is interesting to investigate on the possible health-related factors that this entails, such as quality of life, physical condition and mental health.

For these reasons, it is necessary to create effective strategies to address factors related to the main cognitive impairments and thus preserve better mental health.

Among all possible strategies, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological for the improvement of mental health, cognition and executive functions in young adults.Physical exercise has been shown to be a highly effective strategy at these ages (Heath et al., 2016). The stimulation of HIIT seems to reduce antioxidant responses. In recent years, there is a high interest in knowing the effect of HIIT on different health outcomes, such as physical and psychological fitness (Eather et al., 2019).

For all these reasons, sedentary lifestyles are an important public health factor associated with numerous pathologies and have been shown to have a significant cognitive involvement. Although we know that physical exercise can have a preventive role in the management of these associations, the conditioning factors of physical exercise are unknown, as well as the lifestyle factors that could contribute to a greater extent to the improvement of executive functionality in young women.

The present investigation follows a randomized controlled experimental design (RCT), of sequential type, with parallel groups with three groups and repeated measures, being evaluated in a pretest, posttest and after the end of the follow-up period.

The sample, of casual or incidental type, was randomly distributed in two experimental groups and a control group, thus avoiding selection bias.

Once the study population had been selected and met the established inclusion and exclusion criteria, a 12-week HIIT-based intervention was performed.

Two of the experimental groups will perform this training program with the only difference that the HIIT+PA group will have to perform 10,000 steps per day, thus increasing daily physical activity.

Among the main study variables were insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), executive functions, physical condition, physical activity, quality of life and body composition.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Age: 18-30 years old
* Reflect in the IPAQ questionnaire to be in category 1 or low level of physical activity (Craig et al., 2003) and therefore not conform to the minimum recommendations for physical activity and physical exercise proposed by the WHO.
* Not suffering from somatic signs or serious psychiatric illnesses that prevent the practice of physical exercise.
* Not attending psychological therapies in the last 12 months prior to the study. The use of this type of treatment may have an impact on the improvement of cognitive abilities and executive functions of the study population.
* Being able to communicate.
* Informed consent: Be able and willing to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Having a general cognitive impairment or executive function disorder recognized and treated by specialists.
* Physical activity: In order to select sedentary subjects, we excluded those who engaged in physical activity in their leisure time in a continuous and planned manner.
* Bilingualism: Habitual and indistinct use of two or more languages. This may condition the results in various cognitive tests present in the study, since it is known that this intellectual capacity has a morphological and functional impact on the brain.
* Musical instrument: Playing a musical instrument regularly and continuously, as in the previous criterion, generates a positive effect on the subject's cognition