Clinical trial NCT03376685: The Relationship Between Exercise Frequency, Intensity, and Restoration of Cardiometabolic Health
Official title: The Relationship Between Exercise Frequency, Intensity, and Restoration of Cardiometabolic Health
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Overweight or Obesity
Keywords: Endurance training
Sprint interval training
Glycemic regulation
Lipid homeostasis
Cardiovascular health
Lead sponsor: University of Guelph
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-12-18
Enrollment: 23
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 70
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: This study is a 6-week exercise training study, with two possible parallel training groups: endurance (END) or sprint (SIT) training.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Regular physical activity is well established to decrease the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. While research has characterized responses based on exercise intensity, many beneficial effects of exercise are transient in nature, and therefore exercise frequency may play an important, yet currently under-appreciated, role in improving health. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of 6-week high-frequency endurance (END) or low-frequency sprint (SIT) training with respect to reducing clinically relevant cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight/obese males. It is hypothesized that END, performed at a greater frequency than SIT, will markedly improve cardiometabolic health, while low-frequency SIT will not.

Detailed description: Involvement in regular physical activity is known to elicit systemic adaptations and reduce the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, including hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Traditional physical activity recommendations suggest that 150 minutes of moderate-intensity continuous endurance (END) exercise dispersed over 5 days per week is sufficient to improve physical fitness in adults. However, given the commonly cited barrier of "lack of time," literature has recently focused on time effective sprint interval training (SIT), obtaining equivalent increases in aerobic capacity and acute glycemic regulation compared to classical END exercise when protocols are work-matched. Despite these similarities, END is conducive to daily sessions not feasible of SIT. As improvements in many clinically relevant risk factors are transient in nature following exercise, it remains imperative to assess the implications of variable frequency exercise regimes performed as per general practice (i.e. high-frequency END, low-frequency SIT). Furthermore, improvements in cardiovascular outcomes following END have been shown, in some instances, to be absent in response to SIT, suggesting END may be more beneficial for cardiovascular health. Therefore, the current study aims to assess several markers of cardiovascular (aerobic capacity, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, vascular endothelial function) and metabolic (glucose tolerance, lipid tolerance, body composition) health following 6-weeks of high-frequency END or low-frequency SIT, performed as per general practice. Combined, this research will provide important insight into the under-appreciated role of exercise frequency for improving cardiometabolic health.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Male, aged 18-70 years
* Body mass index (BMI) \> 25 kg/m\^2 (classified as overweight or obese)
* Sedentary (\<100 minutes moderate physical activity per week)
* Approval for vigorous exercise via physical activity readiness questionnaire (PARQ+)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Prescribed with glucose lowering medications
* Smoker
* Not cleared for physical activity

Primary outcomes:
measure: Cardiorespiratory fitness
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Free-living glycemic regulation
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Glucose tolerance
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Blood lipids
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: HbA1C
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Post-prandial blood lipids
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Blood pressure
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Body composition
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Arterial stiffness
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Arterial stiffness acutely post-exercise
timeFrame: Acutely pre-exercise vs. post-exercise in week 1 of training
measure: Brachial artery vascular function
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 6 (post-training)
measure: Brachial artery vascular function acutely post-exercise
timeFrame: Acutely pre-exercise vs. post-exercise in week 1 of training
measure: Daily sedentary/active time
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training), week 1 (of training), week 6 (post-training)
measure: Free-living glycemic regulation during the first week of exercise training
timeFrame: Baseline (pre-training) vs. week 1 (of training)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Guelph
country: Canada
facility: University of Guelph
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Guelph
name: Jamie Burr, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Guelph
name: Graham Holloway, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Petrick HL, King TJ, Pignanelli C, Vanderlinde TE, Cohen JN, Holloway GP, Burr JF. Endurance and Sprint Training Improve Glycemia and V O2peak but only Frequent Endurance Benefits Blood Pressure and Lipidemia. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2021 Jun 1;53(6):1194-1205. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002582.