Bodyweight Accumulation of Aerobic Exercise (vs. Continuous Training): Heart Growth?

[Bauer]

Pavel recommends Steady State for "cardio", i.e. stretching the heart:


Typical recommendations that fly around are to train at least 30 minutes continuously above 110 BPM HR to build a bigger heart (But below Aerobic Threshold).

However, current research indicates that overall there seems to be no difference between continuous and accumulated exercise (for example 1x30 minutes vs. 3x10 minutes) with respect to VO2-max, Resting-HR, BMI, cholesterol, and other measures. Accumulated exercise actually seems to give a bit better results (at least for relatively inactive people that start training), especially with respect to fat/weight loss.

But I have not found if this holds true for stretching the heart. Does anyone know a study on it? Or could you point me to the right keywords? I don't even know the technical term for "stretching of the heart" or "healthy heart growth".

I am asking because I often can find 10-20 minute slots for aerobic sessions, but 30-60 minutes are hard to come by for me.

Some Publications:
Meta-Analysis by Murphy et al. (2009): Accumulated versus Continuous Exercise for Health Benefit
Meta-Analysis by Murphy et al. (2020): The Effects of Continuous Compared to Accumulated Exercise on Health: A Meta-Analytic Review
Typical study with "walking" as exercise: Multiple short bouts of exercise are better than a single continuous bout for cardiometabolic health: a randomised crossover trial

 

[pet']

Hello,

I guess this is not really an answer, but the accumulation you are mentioning is also used in the 160s protocol: “160 Seconds a Day Keep the Doctor Away!”—Burn More Fat and Improve Your Health without Breaking a Sweat with a Simple Swing Protocol | StrongFirst

Kind regards,

Pet'

 

[wespom9]

Based on my experience I would estimate a few things. Please note this is simply and educated guess I would need to do some research to see if this holds true.

do small bouts give the same "stretching of the heart" benefit as a longer bout? probably yes, at least to within 80-90% of the benefit. I say slightly less due to the mutiple times needing to ramp up to the steady state within the Z1/2 range.

does this make a difference for longevity? probably not. Fitness, perhaps, but longevity no

 

[Alexander Halford]

Periods of 10-15 minutes should do the work in cumulative fashion. There are some "if"s however.
First, you need to have a capability to switch fast from cold to working state. It will depend on the conditions - amount of time you have, effectiveness of your warm-up, and your surroundings - ie if you are going to run outdoors in winter, your 10 minutes will be your warm-up.
Then, you will need to go out a bit off the typical lsd run conditions, making your run in around z3, high cadence - aim for ~170+ spm. But - maintaining talk test and staying 10-20 bpm below LT (typically that will make 140-150 bpm).
This is my uneducated guess.

 

[Bauer]

Thanks guys!
@Alexander Halford : The interesting thing (to me) is, that the research focused on similar intensities and actually NOT ramping the intensity for shorter sessions. Of course, it takes a while until HR rises - but then again it metabolism is also elevated after each bout.

I am currently experimenting with Zone 2 training with Heavyhands (à la Dr. Schwartz / Marty Gallagher / John McKean) and was surprised that pumping/swinging the arms with light weights gets my HR above 110 within 2-3 minutes without stressing myself (RPE is pretty low for Heavyhands).

BTW: The late Leonard Schwartz favoured multiple short bouts (10-30 minutes) during the day, because he found that this allowed more total work.

 

[Alexander Halford]

and was surprised that Swinging the arms with light weights gets my HR above 110 within 2-3 minutes without stressing myself (RPE is pretty low for Heavyhands).

I'm pretty much convinced that high speed/cadence, enough time under tension and sufficient power production in ballistics can take your HR high with almost any light weight. And if you compress or eliminate the rest, no power production needed. There's a lot of game in it.