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Acute high intensity interval exercise reduces colon cancer cell growth

74 points by prostoalex 8y ago

matwood 8y ago
Another data point that shows what we all know. Daily exercise is good for you. HIIT is an effective way to exercise, and appears to provide additional benefits.
- kiba 8y ago
  I am not disputing the benefit of daily exercise, but the sample size seemed awfully small.
  - steve_adams_86 8y ago
    Am I mistaken or was it a study of 20 people (two slightly different groups of ten, at that)?
rscho 8y ago
A far cry from its enticing title.
kaycebasques 8y ago
A cautionary anecdote related to high-intensity exercise: A few months back I did a bunch of negative pull-ups [1] in an attempt to strengthen my pull-up muscles. The next day I was the most sore I've ever been in my life. Two days later the soreness increased. My arms were stuck in a 50 degree angle. I couldn't bend them straight or curl them up all the way. I had an intuition that something was wrong, checked the symptoms on Google, and saw something about a weird condition called rhabdomyolysis [2] where your muscles are so damaged that they start releasing damaging proteins into your blood that can damage your kidneys. Again, my intuition told me to go to the ER right away, which was unlike me because I'm your typical guy that usually trusts that my body will heal on its own. The doctors thought it was highly unlikely that I had rhabdo, but they ran the blood tests anyway, and were surprised to find out that I had diagnosed it correctly. I was hooked up to IV for 4 days after that, 24/7, pissing huge amounts of water every hour or so, because the only treatment is to just flush the proteins out of your system. If I hadn't gone to the ER that night, and had slept through it, I very well could have destroyed my kidneys. At the ER the doctors told me that rhabdo cases were on the rise because of HIIT classes pushing people past their limits. From what I understand it's a rare condition, I think only 1-5% of the population at risk of it, but it doesn't hurt to know. The bigger lesson from this experience for me was to be more careful about pushing myself past my limits. I'm only 29 and I already see that my body can't take the beatings that I used to give it. Ironically I'm exercising every day now but am much more mindful of putting extreme strain on my body. I support high-intensity exercise, but I stop if I'm at the point where my muscles are exhausted and I no longer am doing the exercises with good form. [1] https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/negative-pull-up https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/negative-pull-up [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  While not directly related to HIIT: my girlfriends stepmother performs in the Iron Man competitions on the world level in the seniour class (presently seniour, anyway). When designing workouts for my partner, she would schedule and recommend semi-regular rest weeks. These were weeks were she wasn’t to do much exercise except maybe some light cardio and get extra sleep. FWIW: my lats aren’t great myself (pull ups are not my strength!), but there are other lat exercises to build up strength and core you should do before going all out on those things. Or instead of pronate(pull up) form, go supine(chin up) as it let’s you get a little more out of your arms as you build up to it. Never heard of that condition. That’s frightening. My first instinct is similar: “Ah, I’ll just rest it”
  - kaycebasques 8y ago
    > there are other lat exercises to build up strength and core you should do before going all out This was recommended to me as a good beginner exercise for building up strength to do full pull-ups. In hindsight it's obvious why it destroyed my biceps. My pull-up muscles were fatigued and I was essentially just dropping my full-body weight on exhausted muscles. To be fair I still thought I was in control. It would take a second or two to go from the top position down to the bottom. But now I realize that if you can't slowly lower yourself down at a very slow pace, say 5 to 10 seconds from top to bottom, then your muscles are exhausted.
    - 52-6F-62 8y ago
      Yep, that's probably wise. Another queue is if you're quivering too much you might need to form some of the core for that exercise first—or you're just done. Lat pull-downs are a great start as you can set the weight while the movement is pretty near the same. Main difference being, you'll need some resistance bands or the equipment to do that one instead of just a mounted bar. Edit: My big beef with Crossfit and like circuits are that they do similar things: They recommend great methods for exercise, strength building, cardio, etc. However, they often have next to zero form coaching and some of the things I've seen people doing with their bodies right beside coaches and trainers in programs like that ... they're just asking for injuries (either short term, or long term. How they teach rowing form is particularly bad). It's less the exercise, and more the parameters—form and knowing your limits are core. In a coach, they should be able to judge what you're ready to be doing.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
fxfan 8y ago
Sincere question- assuming that '7 minute workout' is an HIIT - what kind of warm up does something like that require and how long? I want to do the 7 minute workout but I'm worried it needs a warm up.
- bitL 8y ago
  Initially go light at 7m workout, that would serve you as a warm up. Once you are able to push, add one more session right after (maybe 5 minute break in-between). Your first session stays warm up session. Once 2nd session is not enough (in like 3-4 months), add a third one. Then you can increase intensity of all exercises a bit (still keep the first session lighter). In 1 year you'll be in best shape of your life (given proper food & sleep). Good luck! ;-) Another way to do HIIT is to grab a stationary bike and do intervals there, e.g. 3 minute warmup at low level then increase difficulty or start pedaling faster for a minute. At some point you'd start reducing breaks in between, maybe in 1-2 years you'd do at most 10s low-intensity in-between.
- stevenwoo 8y ago
  The short description of the study in the link indicates 4x4 minute intervals at 85-95 percent with rest between sets which seems more like VO2Max intervals than HIIT and is described as High Intensity Interval Exercise, your description is closer to ballpark what I know of as HIIT, sometimes called Tabata intervals, which definitely need a warmup that depends upon you but 20-30 minutes is the minimum I strive for.
- tootie 8y ago
  7-minute workout is mostly a myth. You can do a very intense and thorough workout using the 7-minute routine but all the reported benefits involve working yourself up to 3 repetitions of the 7-minute routine so it really takes 21 minutes.
  - trainingaccount 8y ago
    Some of the research showed significant health improvements from 3 days a week of 3 reps of 20 second standing bike sprints. So only 3 minutes per week.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

74 points by prostoalex 8y ago

Another data point that shows what we all know. Daily exercise is good for you. HIIT is an effective way to exercise, and appears to provide additional benefits.

kiba 8y ago
I am not disputing the benefit of daily exercise, but the sample size seemed awfully small.
- steve_adams_86 8y ago
  Am I mistaken or was it a study of 20 people (two slightly different groups of ten, at that)?

rscho 8y ago

A far cry from its enticing title.

kaycebasques 8y ago

A cautionary anecdote related to high-intensity exercise: A few months back I did a bunch of negative pull-ups [1] in an attempt to strengthen my pull-up muscles. The next day I was the most sore I've ever been in my life. Two days later the soreness increased. My arms were stuck in a 50 degree angle. I couldn't bend them straight or curl them up all the way. I had an intuition that something was wrong, checked the symptoms on Google, and saw something about a weird condition called rhabdomyolysis [2] where your muscles are so damaged that they start releasing damaging proteins into your blood that can damage your kidneys. Again, my intuition told me to go to the ER right away, which was unlike me because I'm your typical guy that usually trusts that my body will heal on its own. The doctors thought it was highly unlikely that I had rhabdo, but they ran the blood tests anyway, and were surprised to find out that I had diagnosed it correctly. I was hooked up to IV for 4 days after that, 24/7, pissing huge amounts of water every hour or so, because the only treatment is to just flush the proteins out of your system. If I hadn't gone to the ER that night, and had slept through it, I very well could have destroyed my kidneys. At the ER the doctors told me that rhabdo cases were on the rise because of HIIT classes pushing people past their limits. From what I understand it's a rare condition, I think only 1-5% of the population at risk of it, but it doesn't hurt to know. The bigger lesson from this experience for me was to be more careful about pushing myself past my limits. I'm only 29 and I already see that my body can't take the beatings that I used to give it. Ironically I'm exercising every day now but am much more mindful of putting extreme strain on my body. I support high-intensity exercise, but I stop if I'm at the point where my muscles are exhausted and I no longer am doing the exercises with good form. [1] https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/negative-pull-up https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/negative-pull-up [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

52-6F-62 8y ago
While not directly related to HIIT: my girlfriends stepmother performs in the Iron Man competitions on the world level in the seniour class (presently seniour, anyway). When designing workouts for my partner, she would schedule and recommend semi-regular rest weeks. These were weeks were she wasn’t to do much exercise except maybe some light cardio and get extra sleep. FWIW: my lats aren’t great myself (pull ups are not my strength!), but there are other lat exercises to build up strength and core you should do before going all out on those things. Or instead of pronate(pull up) form, go supine(chin up) as it let’s you get a little more out of your arms as you build up to it. Never heard of that condition. That’s frightening. My first instinct is similar: “Ah, I’ll just rest it”
- kaycebasques 8y ago
  > there are other lat exercises to build up strength and core you should do before going all out This was recommended to me as a good beginner exercise for building up strength to do full pull-ups. In hindsight it's obvious why it destroyed my biceps. My pull-up muscles were fatigued and I was essentially just dropping my full-body weight on exhausted muscles. To be fair I still thought I was in control. It would take a second or two to go from the top position down to the bottom. But now I realize that if you can't slowly lower yourself down at a very slow pace, say 5 to 10 seconds from top to bottom, then your muscles are exhausted.
  - 52-6F-62 8y ago
    Yep, that's probably wise. Another queue is if you're quivering too much you might need to form some of the core for that exercise first—or you're just done. Lat pull-downs are a great start as you can set the weight while the movement is pretty near the same. Main difference being, you'll need some resistance bands or the equipment to do that one instead of just a mounted bar. Edit: My big beef with Crossfit and like circuits are that they do similar things: They recommend great methods for exercise, strength building, cardio, etc. However, they often have next to zero form coaching and some of the things I've seen people doing with their bodies right beside coaches and trainers in programs like that ... they're just asking for injuries (either short term, or long term. How they teach rowing form is particularly bad). It's less the exercise, and more the parameters—form and knowing your limits are core. In a coach, they should be able to judge what you're ready to be doing.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

fxfan 8y ago

Sincere question- assuming that '7 minute workout' is an HIIT - what kind of warm up does something like that require and how long? I want to do the 7 minute workout but I'm worried it needs a warm up.

bitL 8y ago
Initially go light at 7m workout, that would serve you as a warm up. Once you are able to push, add one more session right after (maybe 5 minute break in-between). Your first session stays warm up session. Once 2nd session is not enough (in like 3-4 months), add a third one. Then you can increase intensity of all exercises a bit (still keep the first session lighter). In 1 year you'll be in best shape of your life (given proper food & sleep). Good luck! ;-) Another way to do HIIT is to grab a stationary bike and do intervals there, e.g. 3 minute warmup at low level then increase difficulty or start pedaling faster for a minute. At some point you'd start reducing breaks in between, maybe in 1-2 years you'd do at most 10s low-intensity in-between.
stevenwoo 8y ago
The short description of the study in the link indicates 4x4 minute intervals at 85-95 percent with rest between sets which seems more like VO2Max intervals than HIIT and is described as High Intensity Interval Exercise, your description is closer to ballpark what I know of as HIIT, sometimes called Tabata intervals, which definitely need a warmup that depends upon you but 20-30 minutes is the minimum I strive for.
tootie 8y ago
7-minute workout is mostly a myth. You can do a very intense and thorough workout using the 7-minute routine but all the reported benefits involve working yourself up to 3 repetitions of the 7-minute routine so it really takes 21 minutes.
- trainingaccount 8y ago
  Some of the research showed significant health improvements from 3 days a week of 3 reps of 20 second standing bike sprints. So only 3 minutes per week.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]