NCT06243016

Breaking Sitting with High-intensity Interval Training for Brain Health

Breaking Prolonged Sitting with High-intensity Interval Training to Improve Cognitive and Brain Health in Older Adults: a Pilot Feasibility Trial.

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 54 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 40 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This trial will examine whether interrupting 3.5 hours of sitting every 30 min with 6 min high intensity interval training (HIIT) breaks compared to light intensity interval training (LIIT) will improve brain health in cognitively normal older adults. This trial will test the feasibility of HIIT breaks to sitting. It will also address several important but unanswered questions: (1) Does interrupting sitting with short HIIT breaks improve frontoparietal function? (2) Can interrupting sitting with HIIT breaks improve cognitive functions?

Detailed description

The investigators are conducting an acute, single site randomized crossover trial testing two conditions lasting 3.5 hours each with a one to four-weeks washout period: (1) Interrupting sitting with 6 min of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) every 30 min, and (2) interrupting sitting with 6-min light-intensity interval training (LIIT) every 30 min. Investigators will administer the conditions in a counterbalanced order to 54 older adults (40-75 years). Brain function will be assessed using event-related brain potentials and measures of functional connectivity derived from electroencephalography. Cognitive functions will be assessed using a modified Eriksen flanker task and an antisaccade task. Investigators will measure episodic memory using a mnemonic discrimination task.

Conditions

• Aging

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Breaks to Sitting	HIIT Breaks: a 3.5-hour sitting will be interrupted every 30 min with 6-min HIIT Breaks. During sitting participants will engage in standardized sedentary activities. Each 6-min HIIT break comprises a one-minute warm-up, followed by a 2-minute high-intensity interval, one minute rest (sitting on a cycle ergometer) followed by another 2 minutes at high intensity.
BEHAVIORAL	Light-Intensity Interval Training (LIIT) Breaks to Sitting	LIIT Breaks: a 3.5-hour sitting will be interrupted every 30 min with 6-min LIIT Breaks. Each 6-min LIIT break comprises a one-minute warm-up, followed by a 2-minute light-intensity interval, one minute rest (sitting on a cycle ergometer) followed by another 2-minute light-intensity interval.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-05-07
• Primary completion: 2025-07-31
• Completion: 2025-07-31
• First posted: 2024-02-05
• Last updated: 2025-02-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States