Low-Volume High-Intensity Interval Training as a Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes

Our purpose was to investigate the effects of low-volume, high-intensity interval training (HIT) on cardiometabolic risk and exercise capacity in women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Sedentary overweight/obese T2DM women (age = 44.5 +/- 1.8 years; BMI = 30.5 +/- 0.6 kg/m(2)) were randomly assigned to a tri-weekly running-based HIT program (n = 13) or non-exercise control follow-up (CON; n = 10). Glycemic control, lipid and blood pressure levels, endurance performance, and anthropometry were measured before and after the follow-up (16 weeks) in both groups. Medication intake was also assessed throughout the follow-up. Improvements (P < 0.05) on fasting glucose (14.3 +/- 1.4 %), HbA(1c) (12.8 +/- 1.1 %), systolic blood pressure (3.7 +/- 0.5 mmHg), HDL-cholesterol (21.1 +/- 2.8 %), triglycerides (17.7 +/- 2.8 %), endurance performance (9.8 +/- 1.0 %), body weight (2.2 +/- 0.3 %), BMI (2.1 +/- 0.3 %), waist circumference (4.0 +/- 0.5 %) and subcutaneous fat (18.6 +/- 1.4 %) were found after HIT intervention. Patients of HIT group also showed reductions in daily dosage of antihyperglycemic and antihypertensive medication during follow-up. No changes were found in any variable of CON group. The HIT-induced improvements occurred with a weekly time commitment 56-25 % lower than the minimal recommended in current guidelines. These findings suggest that low-volume HIT may be a time-efficient intervention to treat T2DM women.