Which workout boosts heart fitness better for heart patients: short hard bursts or longer easy ones?
High-intensity interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous training on exercise capacity and health-related quality of life in patients with coronary artery disease: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The supposed superiority of HIIT disappears when workouts burn the same calories.
Popular fitness culture promotes HIIT as a time-efficient miracle for fitness, but this shows the benefit may come from higher total workload, not intensity itself.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a heart patient or coach, focus on total energy burned during exercise rather than just intensity.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The supposed superiority of HIIT disappears when workouts burn the same calories.
Popular fitness culture promotes HIIT as a time-efficient miracle for fitness, but this shows the benefit may come from higher total workload, not intensity itself.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a heart patient or coach, focus on total energy burned during exercise rather than just intensity.
Publication
Journal
Brazilian journal of physical therapy
Year
2024
Authors
M. Gomes-Neto, A. Durães, L. S. R. Conceição, C. M. Silva, B. P. Martinez, Vitor Oliveira Carvalho
Related Content
Claims (5)
Short, intense bursts of exercise (like sprinting) can boost heart and lung fitness just as well as longer, steady workouts — and take way less time.
Doing short bursts of intense exercise might boost heart fitness more than steady, moderate workouts for people with heart disease — on average by a small but measurable amount.
For people with heart disease, short bursts of intense exercise don’t seem to work much better than steady, moderate exercise when both burn the same number of calories — both help a bit, but the difference between them is tiny.
People with heart disease who did either short bursts of intense exercise or longer, steady workouts felt about the same in terms of how their physical, emotional, and social lives were affected — and the evidence we have isn't very strong.
For heart patients, how much total energy you burn during exercise might matter more than whether you do intense bursts or steady workouts — when both types burn the same calories, they seem to help your fitness just as much.