Effect of Sprint Interval Training Frequency on Improvements in Fitness

NCT06142942 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: EMRL-23-01
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to learn how the number of weekly exercise sessions affects improvements in fitness in healthy university aged students. The main question it aims to answer is how training frequency affects improvements in fitness. Participants will complete a pre-testing sessions to assess fitness level and sprint performance. Following this participants are assigned to one of four groups. A group that exercises 2 days a week, a group that trains 3 days a week, a group that trains 4 days a week, or a no-exercise control group. Participants in this group will not complete any training and allow the researchers to compare the exercise groups to a group that didn't train. Each participant will train for 4 weeks. During each training session participants will complete 4-6 30 second all-out sprints with 4 minutes of rest between each. Participants will complete the same tests they did during the pre-testing session following the 4 weeks of training to see how frequency affects improvements.

Conditions

Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Keywords

sprint interval training; maximal oxygen consumption; training intervention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Cardiorespiratory fitness

  Cardiorespiratory fitness will be assessed through the measurement of maximal oxygen consumption. This will be determined using an incremental exercise test to volitional fatigue on a treadmill. A metabolic cart will be used to assess oxygen consumption using indirect calorimetry

  This will be assessed before and after 4 weeks of training (or control).

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Anaerobic performance

  This will be assessed before and after 4 weeks of training (or control).

Study Arms (4)

2 days per week group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this group complete 2 training sessions each week (Monday and Thursday).

Other: Exercise Intervention

3 days per week group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this group complete 3 training sessions each week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

Other: Exercise Intervention

4 days per week group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this group complete 4 training sessions each week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday).

Other: Exercise Intervention

No-exercise Control group

NO INTERVENTION

This group does not complete any training intervention. They are asked to maintain their regular physical activity habits.

Interventions

Exercise Intervention OTHER

Participants will complete an exercise intervention where they will exercise 2, 3, or 4 days per week for 4 weeks.

2 days per week group; 3 days per week group; 4 days per week group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 35 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Recreationally active: exercising at least 2-3 days per week and not currently involved in, or had been involved in a systematic training program for at least 3 months prior to data collection.
• Safe to become physically active based on the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology - Get Active Questionnaire.

You may not qualify if:

• Smoking
• Consuming supplements known to affect metabolism (e.g., creatine, carnitine, nitric oxide, brain chain amino acids).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wilfrid Laurier University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Wilfrid Laurier University

Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5, Canada

RECRUITING

Study Officials

• Tom J Hazell, PhD

  Wilfrid Laurier University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Tom J Hazell, PhD

CONTACT

5488893902; thazell@wlu.ca

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: All pre- and post-testing is completed by researchers not involved in training, and thus are blinded to which group participants are assigned to. This prevents any potential bias when researchers are completing post-testing sessions.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: Following pre-testing participants are assigned to one of the four groups based on their baseline cardiorespiratory fitness to ensure no differences between groups at baseline. Participants will train 2, 3, or 4 days a week, or be assigned to the control group (no training) and re-test following the 4 week intervention.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 15, 2023
• First Posted: November 22, 2023
• Study Start: November 1, 2023
• Primary Completion: August 1, 2024
• Study Completion: August 1, 2024
• Last Updated: November 27, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-11

Locations

CA (1)