Decremental Exercise: a New Training Approach?

Decremental Exercise Protocol as a Training Stimulus: More or Less Efficient Than Traditional High-intensity Interval Training?

Different types of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions are used by athletes in order to improve their physical performance, but innovative approaches to training are lacking. Therefore, in Part A of this study the physiological response to a standard HIIT and a new decremental exercise training (DECT) will be compared in runners and cyclists. Next, in Part B the training effects of a 4-week block of the HIIT and DECT will be compared.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Exercise Performance of Fit Athletes
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: DECT; Other: HIIT

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 55
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • ZH
    • Zurich, ZH, Switzerland, 8057
      • Exercise Physiology Lab, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 40 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age: 18-40 years
• Healthy, i.e. normal physical and mental status (not taking any medication on a regular basis for more than a month, except contraceptive medication)
• Normal Body-Mass-Index (BMI): 18.5-24.9 kg·m-2
• Well-trained athletes: V̇O2max > 55.1 ml·min-1·kg-1 for men and > 50.1 ml·min-1·kg-1 for women
• Normal lung function
• Non-smoking
• Willing to adhere to the general study rules

Exclusion Criteria:

• Women who are pregnant or breast feeding
• Intention to become pregnant during the course of the study
• Known or suspected non-compliance, drug or alcohol abuse
• Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to language problems, psychological disorders, dementia, etc. of the participant
• Previous enrolment into the same part (A or B) of the current study
• Enrolment of the investigator, his/her family members, employees and other dependent persons
• Acute or chronic illness
• Intake of medications affecting performance or the respiratory, cardiovascular or neuromuscular system
• Insufficient training history (<3 yrs of participation in competitive cycling/running) or training volume (<40 km running/week or 150 km cycling/week) in the previous 6 months
• Recent (<3 months) history of orthopaedic injury or participation in structured high-intensity training blocks

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: DECT Group; The DECT session consists of four bouts of 4 min high-intensity "decremental" exercise with 3 min of active recovery between bouts. Load is progressively decreased throughout each exercise bout. The training period will last for a total of 4 weeks, with three weekly sessions of supervised training	Other: DECT; The DECT program consists of a 4-week training intervention with three weekly sessions of high-intensity interval training, in which during each exercise bout the workload is imposed in a decremental fashion.
Active Comparator: HIIT Group; The HIIT session consists of four bouts of 4 min high-intensity "decremental" exercise with 3 min of active recovery between bouts. Load is kept constant throughout each exercise bout. The training period will last for a total of 4 weeks, with three weekly sessions of supervised training	Other: HIIT; The HIIT program consists of a 4-week training intervention with three weekly sessions of high-intensity interval training, in which during each exercise bout the workload is kept constant.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in exercise performance	Time taken to cover a fixed distance, in minutes	measured before and after the 4-week training block, during a time-trial (40 km cycling or 10 km running)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in maximal oxygen uptake	Measured in ml/kg/min	Measured during a maximal incremental exercise test before and after the 4-week training block
Average oxygen uptake	Average oxygen uptake measured during the four 4-min bouts of high-intensity exercise of a session of HIIT and DECT	The two training session are performed within one week

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Christina M Spengler, Prof., ETH Zurich

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 11, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): December 11, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 12, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 15, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): May 16, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 18, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 17, 2020
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: DECT_HIIT_2017

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No