Determining the Effectiveness of a High Intensity Interval Training Exercise Programme in the Healthy, Elderly Population

It is widely known that exercise improves general fitness and that fitter patients recover more easily from illness and surgery. Conversely, unfit patients have a significantly higher morbidity and mortality after surgery and a longer inpatient stay. This will become increasingly important in an aging population as baseline fitness generally declines with age.

One method of improving cardiovascular fitness is by using low intensity endurance training programmes, a disadvantage of these it that they can take several months to show improvement. High intensity interval training (HIT) programmes that use short episodes of high intensity exercise have also been shown to improve fitness. These HIT programmes have also shown improvement in functional capacity and quality of life in patients with chronic disease. An advantage of HIT is that improvements in fitness may occur in a shorter time than traditional endurance training. It is also known that HIT can give superior gains over endurance training.

The primary aim of this study is to determine whether an improvement in aerobic fitness, as judged by a 2ml/kg/min increase in VO2peak, can be achieved within 31 days via a HIT programme, in a group of healthy elderly volunteers.

As a secondary aim we will assess whether this programme would be acceptable to the group studied, through determination of subject compliance and adherence to the training programme.