High Intensity Aerobic Interval Training With Mediterranean Diet Recommendations in Post-Myocardial Infarct Patients

Summary

Acute myocardial infarction (MI) continues remains to be a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Exercise therapy has long been used for rehabilitation purposes and the benefit of regular physical exercise is also well established. The intensity of aerobic exercise training is a key issue in cardiac rehabilitation programmes.Endurance aerobic training is typically performed as continuous training at moderate to-high exercise intensity in steady-state conditions of aerobic energetic yield. However, interval training (i.e., repeated bouts of short-duration, high to severe- or severe to extreme-intensity exercise, separated by brief periods of lower-intensity) has been proposed to be more effective than continuous exercise for improving exercise capacity. Adding to that, health-related adaptations to low-volume and high intensity interval training have been presented.

On the other hand, the Mediterranean Diet has been widely reported to be a model of healthy eating for its contribution to a favourable health status and a better quality of life, reducing in overall mortality from cardiovascular diseases.

Considering all the above mentioned in MI population, the principal objective for the INTERFARCT study will be to assess the effects of different programs of high intensity aerobic interval training and Mediterranean Diet recommendations in the clinical condition, cardio-respiratory fitness, biomarkers, ventricular function and perception of quality of life after myocardial infarction.

Methods/Design: One hundred and fifty people after suffering acute MI will perform different assessments to evaluate clinical history, physical, biochemical and nutritional condition, and quality of life before and after 16-week of follow-up. All participants will receive Mediterranean diet recommendations and will be randomly assigned to attention control group (diet and physical activity recommendations) or exercise groups (diet recommendations plus high-intensity aerobic interval exercise). Participants assigned to an exercise group will train 2 days/week under supervision (day 1-treadmill and day 2-bike protocol). There will be two aerobic exercise groups: 1) high-intensity interval training and high-volume (HV-HIIT) group, and 2) high-intensity interval training and low-volume (LV-HIIT) group.

Conditions

• Myocardial Infarction

Interventions

OTHER

HIGH VOLUME (HV) Supervised exercise

Supervised exercise two nonconsecutive days per week (day 1-on the treadmill, day 2-on the bike) for 16 weeks. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol on the treadmill: 5-min warm-up at a moderate-intensity, before walking 2 intervals of 4 min at high-intensity interspersed with intervals of 3 min of walking at moderate-intensity. 1-4 min cool-down at moderate-intensity. HIIT protocol on the bike: 5 to 10-min warm-up at moderate intensity. After that, 4 repetitions (1rep = 30 s high-intensity followed by 60 s moderate-intensity) and gradually increased to 16 repetitions in HV-HIIT week by week. 5-10 min cool-down at moderate-intensity

OTHER

Mediterranean Diet Recommendations

Participants will be interviewed regarding their usual eating habits. They will receive practical information about which are the Mediterranean Diet (DMed) foods according to the model proposed in the "PREDIMED" trial. Medical doctors or nurses will give this information. Before starting the program of intervention, participants will assist to an informative talk in which benefits for the health of the DMed will be exposed and general information about food composition, frequencies of consumption, etc. will be explained. Nutritional management: Diet reviews and body mass control will be performed every two weeks to assess the body composition and adherence to treatment. In the event of poor compliance strategies will be addressed for its correction.

OTHER

Physical Activity Recommendations

Participants will be advised to perform, without supervision, moderate to high-intensity dynamic aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, cycling or swimming) 3-5 days per week, following an adequate warm-up of 5-15 min, at moderate to high intensity (below the ischemic threshold) for a period of 20 to 40 min (not including warm-up and cool-down) followed by a cool-down period of 5-10min. Participants will receive information related to heart rate values regarding moderate and high exercise intensity domains for the self monitoring of exercise intensity.

OTHER

LOW VOLUME (LW) Supervised exercise

Supervised exercise two nonconsecutive days per week (one day on the treadmill, and the second one on the bike) for 16 weeks. HIIT protocol on the treadmill: 5-min warm-up at a moderate-intensity, before walking 2 intervals of 4 min at high-intensity interspersed with intervals of 3 min of walking at moderate-intensity. The training session will end with a 1-4 min cool-down period at moderate-intensity. Total exercise time of 20min HIIT protocol on the bike: 10-min warm-up at moderate intensity. After that, participants will cycle for 4 repetitions (1rep = 30 s high-intensity followed by 60 s moderate-intensity) and gradually increased to 8 repetitions in LV-HIIT week by week. The training session will end with a 5-10 min cool-down period at moderate-intensity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• HOSPITAL SANTIAGO APOSTOL. MIRANDA DE EBRO. BURGOS. SPAIN

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• SARA MALDONADO-MARTIN, PhD · UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY. Department of Physical Education and Sport

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-09-30

Primary Completion

2017-12-31

Completion

2018-06-30

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations