NCT07418619

Minimum Effective Exercise Intensity in Sedentary Individuals

Minimum Effective Exercise Intensity for Improving Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Cardiometabolic Health in Sedentary Individuals

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: UKK Institute · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 30 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The aim of this randomized controlled intervention study is to examine the minimum exercise intensity that has an effect on cardiorespiratory fitness and/or cardiometabolic risk factors in sedentary adults. In addition, the study seeks to examine which background factors explain individual differences in exercise responses.

Detailed description

The study consists of a 2-week baseline period followed by two 6-week intervention periods. The study will compare changes in the predefined outcome variables between the exercise intervention groups and the control group that does not perform any exercise training. In addition to intensity prescribed relative to oxygen uptake reserve, exercise intensity will be retrospectively analyzed in relation to the first ventilatory threshold in order to examine the lowest effective intensity using this method as well. Among background factors, possible modifiers assumed on the basis of previous literature, will be analyzed to assess their contribution to inter-individual differences in the outcome responses. Potential main contributors are considered to be sex, the basal value of the outcome, nutritional habits, physical activity and stationary behavior outside the prescribed training, and non-invasive indicators of stress.

Conditions

• Sedentary Individuals Not Participating in Regular Exercise Training/Physical Activity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Exercise	6 weeks of 3 x 30 min/week supervised cycle ergometer training and 6 weeks of 3 x 40-50 min/week supervised cycle ergometer training

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-02-23
• Primary completion: 2026-12-20
• Completion: 2026-12-20
• First posted: 2026-02-18
• Last updated: 2026-02-18

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Finland