Horizon: The Truth About Exercise, 9pm, Tuesday 28th February, BBC2

[Northerner]

Just a heads up about this programme, which suggests that three minutes of high-intensity exercise a week provides similar benefits to two or three hours in a gym. I'm very sceptical, but do have a lot of respect for the investigator/presenter Michael Mosely, so I think it will be a nintersting programme. Michael has written an article about it here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...rt-lower-risk-diabetes.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

[Carina1962]

Very interesting indeed, Northerner, I will look forward to watching this programme with great interest 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm doubtful too. From the write-up in the Radio Times it seems his study sample extended to one person (himself). I'm also immediately inclined to dismiss anything in the Daily Fail on principle

 

[cherrypie]

Here is a link to the programme with some external links.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cywtq

Like Alan, I have enjoyed programmes that this person has been involved in. Wait and see is my motto here.

 

[Northerner]

I thought it was an excellent programme with some very interesting issues raised - especially about the genetic possibility that some people do not respond well to increased exercise in terms of aerobic fitness. The increased insulin sensitivity from the high intensity exercise would be of great benefit to non-insulin dependent diabetics, but possibly a bit difficult to manage for those on insulin?

I want some 'fidget pants'!

Personally, I enjoy my long runs and won't be replacing them with 20-second bursts if I can help it! Another very interesting thing was the brain's limiting of effort once it goes out of the 'comfort zone', and how this can be improved as training continues and the brain sets tighter targets - certainly my experience with running. Good programme, and worth watching on iplayer if you missed it 🙂

 

[HelenM]

I agree, I can't see that HIT would be useful for T1s or anyone with insufficient insulin. The purpose of the exercise was to force the release of glycogen. The immediate response to this would be a rise in blood glucose which would be fine if you had the normal insulin response to deal with it. Indeed the 20sec fast run is a technique recommended on runsweet to avoid post exercise hypos.

I wasn't convinced by the 20sec HIT exercise segment at all. We saw that his insulin sensitivity had increased during the period but there was no evidence that the HIT was the only exercise he was doing... indeed the way the film was edited made it look as if he was also trying to increase his NEAT (non exercise movement) at the same time.
It was interesting to see amount of circulating fat in the blood after eating a fatty breakfast and how much less it was when he'd exercised the day before.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I only saw the second half of the prog, but like you two I found it interesting though it left me with far more questions than answers...

For example they focussed on VO2max as a 'key indicator' of all form mortality and seemed to stop measuring any other markers of cardio-vascular health or otherwise. So when they were saying that effectively he was genetically unable to get any fitter they were presumably only talking about his VO2max, not his resting heart rate, nor the time taked for heart rate to return to normal after exertion, nor any other of the fitness markers.

I also don't really follow the logic of focussing on one factor like that. Here we have a whole load of people, living varied lives. Here is one measurable thing amid millions of other measurable things. The people with a higher (or lower) version of this particular 'thing' live longer. Therefore if we find a way of affecting the 'thing' level in these other people living completely different lives in completely different bodies they will live longer too.

Seems a bit like noticing that it always seems to rain when you are wearing blue socks, and deducing that your sock choice controls the weather.

And as Helen says, he was actively trying other strategies at the same time...

It's an interesting idea, and they were clear that it won't work for everyone, but then when they were talking about it 'not working' they kept interchanging whether it was HIT or exercise in general that would not work for some people.

The most encouraging man/presentation I thought was the guy talking about NEAT. Just generally gently doing more pottering about in order to keep the bodies engine functioning well.