Can High-Intensity Interval Training help with Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is one of the toughest and most common symptoms, but taking care of your body is necessary. Exercise might sound like the last thing you want to do when your pain is always there, but new research shows that HIIT workouts might be the ticket for controlling chronic pain.
What is HIIT?
While it is common knowledge that regular exercise has positive health effects, many still struggle to make time for it. If you are struggling to find the time or enthusiasm to work out but still want to reap the benefits, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a nice alternative.
Over 20 minutes, participants in a HIIT program will alternate between short periods of intense activity and rest. It is a sort of exercise accessible to people of all fitness levels because it requires only two or three sessions per week to see results.
Can HIIT Workouts Help With the Symptoms of Chronic Pain?
In a study conducted in 2017 with four volunteers, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found a strong correlation between HIIT workouts and pain reduction in people with chronic pain.
Their experiment involved one group doing regular aerobic training (AET) while the other did HIIT. The researchers tested several outcomes before and after the two months. They measured their level of pain, as well as their strength, aerobic fitness, muscle mass, and body fat percentage.
The results showed that the AET group increased, but not significantly, in all these parameters. However, the HIIT group saw a nearly 40% drop in their overall pain levels and a significant increase in strength.
In addition, the participants with chronic pain who did HIIT had an average decrease in body fat percentage of 1.6 percent. In contrast, no change was observed for their counterparts doing AET. Hot Cycle is among the preferable HIIT exercise that you take 15 mins in an infrared sauna from a Schwinn indoor bike.
In short, HIIT might be the magic bullet. Those experiencing chronic pain from conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic headaches, and other neurological disorders can see significant improvements despite not getting to work out regularly.
Which Type of Workouts Would Be the Best for a Beginner in HIIT?
1. Air Squats
For this exercise, you should lie down with your arms overhead and legs outstretched in a V formation.
There are three parts to each squat: first, the torso is lifted off the floor; second, the body’s weight is pulled into the hips; third, all the way down to the floor. After this introductory move, you will need to adjust your technique and speed to suit your fitness level and pain tolerance.
2. Push-Ups
To perform a push-up correctly, you should lower your chest to the floor until your chin nearly touches it. The hands and arms should support the upper body (placed directly below the shoulders). You will also need to remember to keep your back straight and not allow it to sag toward the floor.
3. Lunges
You perform this exercise via a “walk” motion with one leg (instead of walking forward, as in normal walking). The first part of this motion is to place the left leg in front of the right foot. Then, you will slowly “walk” forward by shifting your weight into your right leg.
Once you have covered a certain distance, you will shift your weight back into the left leg and slowly “walk” backward to a starting position. The goal is to carefully perform sets of 15-20 repetitions for each leg.
4. Jumping Jacks
To perform jumping jacks, you will need to get into a standing position with legs relatively apart. After this, you should dip down, so your arms are near your knees and simultaneously kick each leg out to the side. Once in this position, you will straighten so that your arms are overhead and then quickly go back into the initial stance.
5. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers involve getting into a push-up position and then raising one hand at a time to be at shoulder height.
You can perform this exercise by either doing push-ups from the beginning or a downward push-up. Note that you should be cautious about using your upper body strength, as it is effectively the first component of the program to get a workout when you are in pain.
Published by the International Pain Foundation, iPain Blog, Team iPain
