Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI): A new standard in activity tracking for obtaining a healthy cardiorespiratory fitness level and low cardiovascular risk.

Despite all the evidence of health benefits related to physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), low levels of PA have reached pandemic proportions, and inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Lack of time, and inability to self-manage are often cited as main barriers to getting adequate PA. Recently, a new personalized metric for PA tracking named Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) was developed with the aim to make it easier to quantify how much PA per week is needed to reduce the risk of premature mortality from non-communicable diseases. PAI can be integrated in self-assessment heart rate devices and defines a weekly beneficial heart rate pattern during PA by considering the individual's sex, age, and resting and maximal heart rates. Among individuals ranging from the general population to subgroups of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), a PAI score ≥100 per week at baseline, an increase in PAI score, and a sustained high PAI score over time were found to delay premature death from CVD and all causes, regardless of whether or not the current PA recommendations were met. Importantly, a PAI score ≥100 at baseline, maintaining ≥100 PAIs and an increasing PAI score over time was associated with multiple years of life gained. Moreover, obtaining a weekly PAI ≥100 attenuated the deleterious association between CVD risk factor clustering and prolonged sitting time. PAI and objectively measured CRF (as indicated by VO2peak) were positively associated in a graded fashion, and individuals with a PAI score between 100 and 150 had expected age and sex specific average VO2peak values. A PAI score ≥100 was associated with higher VO2peak in both men (4.1 mL·kg-1·min-1; 95% CI, 3.5 to 4.6) and women (2.9 mL·kg-1·min-1; 95% CI, 2.4 to 3.3), compared to the reference group of <100 PAI. The combined analysis of PAI, PA and VO2peak demonstrated that a PAI score ≥100 was associated with high VO2peak values regardless of meeting or not meeting the current PA recommendations. Collectively, these findings suggest that PAI has the potential to be a useful tool to motivate people to become and stay physically active by quantifying the amount of PA needed to produce significant health benefits.

Can Time Efficient Exercise Improve Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes? A Pilot Study.

Exercise is considered a cornerstone in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, but few individuals with type 2 diabetes exercise according to guidelines. We investigated the effect of two time efficient high intensity exercise interventions on exercise capacity, glycemic control and other cardiometabolic risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes. Twenty-one individuals with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to low volume high intensity interval exercise (HIIE; 27 minutes/bout; 10x1-minute at 90 % of HRmax; n = 10) or extremely low volume sprint interval exercise (SIE; 10 minutes/bout; 2x20 seconds at maximum achievable intensity; n = 11) 3 days/week for 12 weeks. Aerobic exercise capacity (VO2peak), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure and body composition were measured at baseline and post test. Both HIIE and SIE improved VO2peak (3.3 mL·min(-1)·kg(-1), 10.4 %), p < 0.01, and 1.4 mL·min(-1)·kg(-1) (4.6 %), p = 0.03, respectively). Only HIIE reduced body fat percentage (4.5 %, p = 0.04) and two minute heart rate recovery (11.0 bpm, p = 0.02). Neither HIIE nor SIE improved HbA1c. In conclusion, this study indicates that substantially lower exercise volumes than recommended in current guidelines can improve aerobic exercise capacity in individuals with type 2 diabetes. However, 12 weeks of time efficient high intensity exercise did not improve glycemic control, and interventions of longer duration should be investigated. Key pointsLow volume high-intensity interval exercise can improve peak oxygen uptake in previously sedentary individuals with type 2 diabetesThe weekly exercise volumes in the two intervention groups of 81 and 30 minutes respectively, is substantially lower than recommended in current exercise guidelines and could reduce the time-barrier associated with exercise among patients with type 2 diabetes.However, 12 weeks of structured, supervised low-volume exercise did not improve glycemic control, indicating a need for exercise volumes or longer intervention period.