Performance and Recovery of Well-Trained Younger and Older Athletes during Different HIIT Protocols

Laura Hottenrott; Martin Möhle; Sarah Feichtinger; Sascha Ketelhut; Oliver Stoll; Kuno Hottenrott

doi:10.3390/sports10010009

Performance and Recovery of Well-Trained Younger and Older Athletes during Different HIIT Protocols

Sports (Basel). 2022 Jan 5;10(1):9. doi: 10.3390/sports10010009.

Authors

Laura Hottenrott¹, Martin Möhle², Sarah Feichtinger¹, Sascha Ketelhut², Oliver Stoll^{1

2}, Kuno Hottenrott^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Performance Diagnostics and Health Promotion (ILUG), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany.
² Institute of Sport Science, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany.

Abstract

Due to physiological and morphological differences, younger and older athletes may recover differently from training loads. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocols are useful for studying the progression of recovery. It was the objective of this study to determine age differences in performance and recovery following different HIIT protocols.

Methods: 12 younger (24.5 ± 3.7 years) and 12 older (47.3 ± 8.6 years) well-trained cyclists and triathletes took part in this study. Between the age groups there were no significant differences in relative peak power to fat-free mass, maximal heart rate (HR), training volume, and VO_2max-percentiles (%). Participants performed different HIIT protocols consisting of 4 × 30 s Wingate tests with different active rest intervals (1, 3, or 10 min). Peak and average power, lactate, HR, respiratory exchange ratio (RER), subjective rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and recovery (Total Quality Recovery scale, TQR) were assessed.

Results: During the different HIIT protocols, metabolic, cardiovascular, and subjective recovery were similar between the two groups. No significant differences were found in average lactate concentration, peak and average power, fatigue (%), %HR_max, RER, RPE, and TQR values between the groups (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that recovery following HIIT does not differ between the two age groups. Furthermore, older and younger participants displayed similar lactate kinetics after the intermittent exercise protocols.

Keywords: HIIT; aging; cycling; endurance exercise Wingate test; heart rate recovery; interval training; lactate; master athletes; recovery.