Intermittent versus continuous exercise: Effects of perceptually lower exercise in obese women

Introduction: Exercise has beneficial effects on obesity and diabetes treatments. However, obese subjects do not closely adhere to training programs probably because of the monotony of the continuous exercise that is frequently proposed. To increase adherence to training programs, intermittent exercise, which is less monotonous, may be more appropriate. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to determine the perceptually less hard exercise (continuous VS intermittent exercise) and to analyze the impact of a training program on the basis of this exercise in obese women with and without type 2 diabetes. Methods: Twenty type 2 diabetic obese women and 20 obese women without diabetes were recruited. In each group, 10 patients integrated a training program (i.e., training groups), whereas the remaining patients were untrained (i.e., control groups). The training groups performed a continuous exercise and an intermittent exercise to determine the perceptually less hard exercise thanks to lower ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). Then, a training program that included 32 min (3 d.wk(-1).10 wk(-1)) of the perceptually less hard exercise was proposed to training groups. Results: RPE were significantly lower during the intermittent exercise compared to the continuous exercise in the obese women with or without diabetes (RPE = 12.3 +/- 2.3 vs 13.7 +/- 2.3 and RPE 11.9 +/- 1.1 vs 13.2 +/- 1.6, respectively). After the training program, significant beneficial effects on the glycosylated hemoglobin (6.8 +/- 1.4% vs 6.5 +/- 1.2%), body mass (97.1 +/- 16.9 vs 95.2 +/- 16.2 kg), body mass index (37.6 +/- 6.1 vs 36.8 +/- 6.0 kg.m(-2)), and on the HR and the walked distance limit were noticed in the training groups. Conclusion: The obese women with or without diabetes perceived the intermittent exercise as being less hard than the continuous exercise, and a training program based on intermittent exercises produced beneficial effects on obesity and type 2 diabetes.