Skinny Girl's Quest for Muscle

Skinny Girl's Quest for Muscle
High Intensity Interval Training

I recently picked up a copy of Muscle & Fitness Hers while on a Sunday shopping trip to the grocery store. It appeared to contain more in-depth articles than a lot of the other fitness magazine choices geared toward the female reader. One of the articles focused on something they called "Super Intervals"--training sessions comprised of high intensity 30 second intervals followed by 90 second lower intensity intervals--repeated several times. They suggested that this type of workout really skyrocketed (a word that they use plentifully throughout their articles) fat burning and human growth hormone production (this is a good thing.)

Upon further research, I stumbled across a few journal articles with similar findings:

Two weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women. (see abstract, link below, for list of authors)
In summary, seven sessions of HIIT over 2 wk induced marked increases in whole body and skeletal muscle capacity for fatty acid oxidation during exercise in moderately active women.
abstract url: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17170203?dopt=Abstract


A Comparison of the Effects of Interval Training vs. Continuous Training on Weight Loss and Body Composition in Obese Pre-Menopausal Women. King, Jeffrey Warren.
These findings show that high intensity interval exercise produces improvements in body composition, fitness, and acute RMR compared to low intensity steady state training.
abstract url: http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0412101-214442/


GENDER GOVERNS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXERCISE INTENSITY AND GROWTH HORMONE (GH) RELEASE IN YOUNG ADULTS Cathy J Pritzlaff-Roy, Laurie Widemen, Judy Y Weltman, Rob Abbott, Margaret Gutgesell,
Mark L Hartman, Johannes D Veldhuis, Arthur Weltman.
In summary, the present study delineates that young women maintain a linear relationship between the magnitude of GH release and increasing exercise intensity. The inferred dose-response relationship is robust to standardization against either the lactate threshold or VO2 max. Moreover, gender comparisons establish that exercise-induced GH release is greater in women than men.
pdf url: http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/sciruslink?src=web&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjap.physiology.org%2Fcgi%2Freprint%2F01018.2001v1.pdf


Sounds promising right?

Over the last few weeks I've given it a spin, adapting the program designed by Muscle & Fitness Hers to fit. I'm using running as my high intensity activity. Other suggested activities are: bicycling, cross country skiing, swimming, stair climbing, etc. So far, I've made it through about 5 workouts--working out either on weekend mornings or afternoons, and as a quick lunchtime workout during weekdays. Fortunately, I can burn through all of the exercises within a half hour so it fits my noon-hour lunch break from work.

The results have been promising. It's easier for me to make the entire 8 repeats and I'm seeing progress--my tummy is looking more like 6-pack abs than like single frosted doughnut.

So far, I'm hooked--getting a killer workout in only 30 minutes is a fabulous way to get a little exercise in during the workday or on a weekend when you'd rather do anything but work.

Until next time, go do something athletic!