Professor Parco Siu Ming-fai, Professor and Head of the Division of Kinesiology at the School of Public Health, HKUMed, wanted to know whether once-weekly interval training can be as effective as the traditional thrice-weekly regimen. To understand this, the researchers conducted a rigorous trial in Hong Kong involving 315 Chinese adults aged 18 and older. The participants were overweight and had central obesity. They were studied between September 2021 and September 2024. The participants were assigned to three groups: a once-weekly interval training group, a thrice-weekly interval training group, or a control group.
The control group attended a 2.5-hour health education session every two weeks over four months. On the other hand, participants in the interval training groups completed a total of 75 minutes of interval training per week. This was either in a single session or divided into three sessions. The participants’ body fat mass was measured before the study, at 16 weeks, and at 32 weeks. The researchers were surprised to find that both the once-weekly and thrice-weekly interval training groups had similar results.
