Research summary · Training and performance
Does adding moderate cycling improve a short HIIT block?
Nineteen cyclists and triathletes, including 17 men, completed six weeks of three weekly HIIT sessions, either alone or with an additional 240 minutes of moderate cycling each week.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Randomized parallel-group trial
- Journal
- European Journal of Applied Physiology
- Population / context
- Cycling · Triathlon
What the publication reports
Both groups improved time-trial performance by an average of about 8.5%. Adding moderate training produced no clear additional change in time-trial performance, peak work rate or lactate thresholds despite substantially more training time.
Limits and interpretation
A small, predominantly male sample and six-week intervention cannot establish equivalence or show that easy training lacks value across a season. Modest differences and longer-term adaptations may have been missed.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
The effectiveness of polarized versus high-intensity training in moderately trained cyclists: a randomized parallel-design study
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42560532DOI: 10.1007/s00421-026-06380-wReader discussion
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