AMA #57: High-intensity interval training: benefits, risks, protocols, and impact on longevity

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
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Welcome to Ask Me Anything episode 57 I'm once again joined by my co-host, Nick Stenson. In today's episode, we dive deep into the topic of HIT, High Intensity Interval Training. This is a topic we get asked about a lot, and it seems that there is a lot of confusion around both the semantics of this, and perhaps more importantly, the data. So in today's AMA, we cover what exactly HIT is and what the different types are. When is HIT beneficial and when is it not, especially if you're looking through the lens of longevity, the importance of broadening your portfolio of exercise training, and we talk about the best protocol if you're going to use HIT. Throughout this conversation, we also speak about VO2 max and what a person can do to increase their VO2 max, which is something we know is a very important metric for longevity, and of course, how does HIT training factor into that.
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**Nick Stenson** (1:51)
Peter, welcome to another AMA. How are you doing?

**Peter Attia** (1:53)
Very well, thank you.

**Nick Stenson** (1:55)
Well, today's episode is going to be exercise related, but kind of on a topic that we get asked about a lot and we haven't really covered, which is HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training. And it's something that people see everywhere. It's marketed a lot. People talk about it. And so we see a lot of questions come through around people who are wondering more about it. What are the different types?
How does interval training fit in? Where can it be used? Where is it limited? What's the quote unquote best protocol? And I think we gathered a lot of those questions, which we'll cover today.
And through it, I think we'll also hopefully talk a lot about how someone can increase their VO2 max as well, which is something that we've talked a lot about the importance of VO2 max, and a lot of people who are thinking about their longevity, it's something that they'll want to increase. So we'll hit on that. And then also, no surprise to people, we'll also, I'm sure, talk about the importance of having a broad exercise program and training and not just specifically focusing on one thing. So we have a lot to do with that said. Anything you want to add before we hit the first question?
No pun intended.

**Peter Attia** (3:01)
I think that's great. I think there's a lot to cover here. This was a subject matter that we had been kicking down the road a little bit because we couldn't wrap our head around the right way to present it.
And I feel like it really kind of came together in the last couple of weeks. I feel much better about this subject matter. So I'm glad we waited until we had the data that we've got, the studies that we've been able to look at, and then obviously the implications so that we make this much more rooted in what do you need to do as opposed to making sure you understand every molecular pathway of HIIT.

**Nick Stenson** (3:35)
Yeah, I think that's correct. And I think it would help to start off with just talking about the word HIIT because HIIT is such a commonly used word when people talk about exercise.
Can you maybe set the stage of where it even comes from?

**Peter Attia** (3:50)
Yeah, this is something I was kind of curious to learn about as we were getting ready to prep for this because I learned a little bit of this stuff when I was writing Outlive, and it actually didn't make the final cut in the spirit of half the stuff you end up writing in the first draft is on the cutting room floor. So it was kind of fun to go back to some of this stuff. But this stuff gets documented as far back as the 1800s, which in some ways seems like a long time ago, in some ways is not, obviously. But given the relative paucity of time that we have serious training, I would say that this is a long time.