Cardiorespiratory fitness and aerobic performance adaptations to a 4 week sprint interval training in young healthy untrained females
PurposeThe aim of this study was to test the effects of sprint interval training (SIT) on cardiorespiratory fitness and aerobic performance measures in young females.MethodsEight healthy, untrained females (age 21 1 years; height 165 5 cm; body mass 63 6 kg) completed cycling peak oxygen uptake \dot{V}\text{O}}_{2} $V.O2 peak) 10 km cycling time trial (TT) and critical power (CP) tests pre and post SIT. SIT protocol included 4 x 30 s "all out" cycling efforts against 7 body mass interspersed with 4 min of active recovery performed twice per week for 4 weeks (eight sessions in total).ResultsThere was no significant difference in \dot{V}\text{O}}_{2} $V.O2 peak following SIT compared to the control period (control period: 31.7 3.0 ml kg 1 min 1; post SIT: 30.9 4.5 ml kg 1 min 1; p 0.05) but SIT significantly improved time to exhaustion (TTE) (control period: 710 101 s; post SIT: 798 127 s; p 0.00) 10 km cycling TT (control period: 1055 129 s; post SIT: 997 110 s; p 0.004) and CP (control period: 1.8 0.3 W kg 1; post SIT: 2.3 0.6 W kg 1; p 0.01).ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that young untrained females are responsive to SIT as measured by TTE, 10 km cycling TT and CP tests. However, eight sessions of SIT over 4 weeks are not enough to provide sufficient training stimulus to increase \dot{V}\text{O}}_{2} $V.O2 peak.
Sport Sciences for Health