Intermittent Interval Walking's Impact on During- and Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption

Purpose:  The prevalence of overweight and obese adults is a public health challenge in the United States.  Adherence to current physical activity guidelines can provide an array of benefits to the public; however, many Americans do not meet the current physical activity guidelines. Current physical activity guidelines state that adults can obtain the daily physical activity goal of 30-min each day (5 days per week) from multiple bouts of moderate-intensity exercise ≥ 10 min.  The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate caloric energy expenditure responses of continuous and intermittent exercises (≤ 10 min) in adults during and immediately following exercise. Methods: Four women and six men (age = 24 ± 5 years) completed one 30-min continuous, three 10-min intermittent, three 8-min 40-sec intermittent interval, and three 8-min intermittent interval walking protocols of the same volume [90 metabolic equivalents (METs)-min].  Baseline (pre) and post-exercise oxygen consumption was assessed during a 20-min supine rest period.  Results:  A significant difference in total during-exercise oxygen consumption [Greenhouse-Geisser – F (1.4, 12.5) = 50.6, p ˂ 0.001] and total excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) [Sphericity Assumed – F (3, 27) = 26.4, p ˂ 0.001] were found via one-way repeated measures ANOVA.  Conclusion: These results showed higher during-exercise oxygen consumption and EPOC for the intermittent interval walking protocols and intermittent walking than continuous walking of the same relative intensity.  Furthermore, interval walking may increase exercise adherence by removing the commonly cited “lack-of-time” barrier and facilitate updated education and policy development based on this findings.