The Benefits of Moderate-Intensity Exercise for Your Metabolic Health

What’s better for your metabolic health and performance: the kind of short-intense bursts seen with high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or more moderate exercise like a steady-state run?A recent study comparing the two suggests that’s a trick question. The other half did a moderate-intensity exercise program, riding the bikes at a comfortable pace for about 40 minutes total, five times per week.After six weeks, all participants showed fitness gains, but only the group who rode steady-state for 40 minutes saw a decline in body fat, as well as improved glycemic response to the shake and lower blood pressure.Although at first glance this might seem similar to many other HIIT studies (like this one, for example) that have been done, the breadth and depth of the measures used was unique, study co-author Jamie Burr, Ph.D., exercise science researcher at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told Runner’s World.