Physiological, perceptual and neuromuscular responses of team sport athletes to short duration high intensity interval training using cycling
Question
Do volume-matched 15-second and 30-second cycling HIIT intervals produce different physiological, perceptual, and neuromuscular responses in trained team-sport athletes?
Summary
In trained male team-sport athletes, an acute cycling HIIT session using 15-second work and 15-second recovery produced more oxygen uptake time near VO2max than a volume-matched 30-second protocol, while producing lower lactate, lower leg and breathlessness ratings, and a smaller post-session knee-extension MVC decrement.
Methodology
- Sixteen trained male team-sport players from soccer or rugby with regular team training and familiarity with cycle ergometry.
- 16 participants.
- Cycle ergometer.
- Work intervals: 15 s.
- Recovery: 15 s passive recovery.
- Intensity: 120% pVO2max during work intervals.
- About 17 min including the inter-set recovery.
- Single acute trial.
- Acute crossover condition.
- Randomized crossover acute laboratory study
- Mean oxygen uptake, Time above 90% VO2max, and Perceptual and neuromuscular fatigue were tracked.
Outcomes
Mean VO2
The 15-second protocol elicited higher mean VO2 than the 30-second protocol.
40.8 +/- 6.8 vs 38.4 +/- 5.0 mL/kg/min; 80.7% vs 76.1% VO2max; p about 0.026-0.028
Time >90% VO2max
The 15-second protocol accumulated more time above 90% VO2max.
176 +/- 135 vs 102 +/- 106 s; p=0.0257
Lactate and RPE
The 15-second protocol produced lower lactate and lower leg-muscle and breathlessness RPE than the 30-second protocol.
Blood lactate 8.4 +/- 3.2 vs 10.6 +/- 2.2 mmol/L, p=0.0257; dRPE-L and dRPE-B p=0.0495
MVC decrement
Knee-extension MVC fell after both protocols but the decline was smaller after 15-second intervals.
-14.5% vs -20.9%; p=0.0495
Insights
- Shorter 15-second work bouts may let athletes spend more time near VO2max with less local metabolic and neuromuscular strain than 30-second bouts at the same supramaximal power.
- The low total volume used here produced less than the commonly suggested 5-7 minutes above 90% VO2max, so it is not enough by itself to infer chronic adaptation.
Limitations
- Acute crossover study only; no training adaptation data.
- Small sample of young trained male team-sport athletes.
- Cycling may not generalize directly to running, bodyweight, or mixed-modality HIIT.
- Large between-participant variability in high-intensity oxygen uptake time.
Safety
- Adverse events were not reported.
- Participants were screened by study procedures and instructed to avoid vigorous exercise before trials.