Detraining effect on overweight/obese women after high-intensity interval training in hypoxia.

PURPOSE

Promising benefits on fat mass and biochemical components may be reported after applying programs of cyclic hypoxia and HIIT.

AIM

To investigate the effect of a month of detraining on cardiometabolic risk markers after active hypoxia exposure.

METHODS

Participants included 59 overweight/obese women, who started a 12-week program of 36 sessions, and were randomly divided into four groups: (a) aerobic interval training in hypoxia (AitH; FiO  = 17.2%; n = 13), (b) aerobic interval training in normoxia (AitN; n = 15), (c) sprint interval training in hypoxia (SitH; FiO  = 17.2%; n = 15), and (d) sprint interval training in normoxia (SitN; n = 18). Body composition, anthropometric, and biochemical parameters were assessed at baseline (A), after 36 training sessions (B) and after 4 weeks of detraining (C).

RESULTS

Hypoxia conditions showed a significant positive effect on waist circumference (P = 0.01), WHR (P = 0.04), and percentage of trunk fat mass (P < 0.001). The percentage of trunk fat continued to decrease significantly after training cessation in both AitH and SitH groups.

CONCLUSION

After 4 weeks of detraining with a previous 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training under cyclic normobaric hypoxia, the percentage of fat mass located in the trunk decreases significantly and this effect was not observed in the normoxia groups.