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Vital Signs: Six Minutes of Exercise… | Men’s Journal

At least that’s what the eggheads in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, say. Recently lead researcher Martin Gibala put a group of 10 students on stationary bikes and had them ride for 50 minutes at a moderate pace five days a week, while another group of 10 students was asked to grind through four to six sets of 30-second sprints three days a week. After... Read moreAt least that’s what the eggheads in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, say. Recently lead researcher Martin Gibala put a group of 10 students on stationary bikes and had them ride for 50 minutes at a moderate pace five days a week, while another group of 10 students was asked to grind through four to six sets of 30-second sprints three days a week. After six weeks, the two groups exhibited equal gains in “blood vessel elasticity,” an indication of reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. This finding helped support an earlier, similar study by Gibala that showed both groups of riders having significant increases in size and number of mitochondria, the parts of the cell that produce energy, allowing for longer sustained athletic performance. View page