Older Men, But Not Women, Benefit From High Intensity Exercise

Danish researchers report that high-intensity training (HIT) benefits older males but not older females. They monitored men and women age 62 and older who participated in an exercise regimen three times a week to see if their maximum muscle oxygen consumption (VO2max) would increase along with their mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity. Each session included five one-minute bursts of HIT activity. The men increased their VO2max and OXPHOS in the muscle and reduced their body fat percentage after six weeks. But no changes were observed in females. The researchers said more study is needed to determine why there was such a big difference in outcomes between the sexes.