This Training Tip Can Help You Live Longer

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Research shows that performing high intensity intervals twice a week can help you live longer. Ramping up one important measure appears to have enormous health gains.

Existing research had shown that performing high intensity intervals twice a week for four weeks can improve your VO2 max by 3%. However, recently new research has shown that bumping up your VO2 max can also reduce your risk of heart disease and premature death. People who are in the lower range of VO2 max experience greater benefits from improving their levels.

The existing research had shown that even if you’re an experienced trainer, you can improve your VO2 max, the benchmark for cardio fitness, by 3% after doing just four weeks of high intensity interval workouts twice a week.

A new landmark study has shown that VO2 bump will do more than let you dominate the competition: You’ll also lower your risk of heart disease and premature death by around 3%. To top this however, you can get even greater early death and disease protection without the need for leg-burning intervals. You just need to be more active.

In the largest study to date on cardiovascular fitness in healthy people, researchers from Sweden found that increasing your exercise and fitness levels is linked to living longer, no matter what your age or current fitness level.

The study researchers examined data on first time cardiovascular events and death from any cause among 316,137 adults between the ages of 18 and 74, who had undergone health screening, including a VO2 max cycling test, between 1995 and 2015. They found that for each millilitre increase in VO2 max, the risk of death from any cause and of a cardiovascular event like a heart attack dropped by 2.8% and 3.2% respectively.