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The first (Increasing-distance Protocol) consisted of successive running distances: 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 meters at 75% of the individual's maximum sprint speed for 100 meters. Successive running distances were followed by increasingly longer intervals: 3, 5, 7 and 9 minutes, respectively, which the subjects spent on active rest in the form of walking.
The second program (Decreasing-distance Protocol) was simply an inverted version of the first. This is explained in the figure below.
Fig.1 The subjects were 40 physical education students (male) who were randomly assigned (20 each) to complete one of the above training programs twice a week for 6 consecutive weeks. In each of the two programs, during a single training session, the subjects had to run a total of 1,500 meters, and the total time of all breaks in both cases was 24 minutes.
Before and after the program, the subjects each underwent two fitness tests: a graded aerobic capacity test (running on a moving treadmill) to estimate maximal oxygen uptake capacity (VO2max) and the Wingate anaerobic capacity test - a 30-second maximal effort on a bicycle ergometer, during which 3 basic parameters were measured: 5-second Peak Power (PP), Mean Power (MP) and Fatigue Index, or the percentage of power loss at the end of the test to Peak Power (FI).
Now the most interesting - the results of the experiment. Aerobic capacity: both protocols resulted in a significant increase in VO2max, but a clearly better average result was achieved by the group after performing the Decreasing-distance program.
Figure 2 Decreasing-distance participants on average improved their VO2max almost twice as much as the group that ran progressively longer distances during training.
Anaerobic capacity: Here the results were very similar to those for aerobic capacity. Both groups improved all three measured parameters (PP, MP, FI), but they definitely improved more in the group starting each workout with a longer distance and finishing with a shorter distance, as shown in the graphs below.
The results show that using different post-training algorithms for interval training, it is possible to do identical work, using identical distances to cover and identical rest intervals, spend the same amount of time on both workouts, and yet achieve significantly different results.
The results of the experiment were in line with the researchers' thesis, based on previous studies that monitored the effects on the body of a single training session of two similar protocols. The body's physiological response: cardiovascular (HR), metabolic (lactate levels) and hormonal (post-workout increase in growth hormone levels) in this case was significantly higher in training with decreasing distance.
In conclusion, the researchers remind that the results obtained may be specific to the characteristics of the study group and may be different in highly trained runners, for example. Also, modification of the protocols can change the results.
Source:
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
“The effect of two different interval-training programmes on physiological and performance indices.”
Mahmood Sindiani, Alon Eliakim, Daria Segev & Yoav Meckel
European Journal of Sport Science (2017),
DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2017.1321687
