I’m a 68 year-old man. My mother is 91. Apparently, I am most likely to die before I am as old as my mother is now. I want to change those odds if I can!

I’m changing my food and drink, but that is a topic for elsewhere. Here I’m talking about HIIT, which I’ve decided will be a component in trying to extend my active/quality life. Note “active” and “quality”!

First, some observations. I’m the sort of nerd who reads academic papers instead of relying on media articles. Here are problems I’ve found:

1. It is hard to find research on what sort of exercise should be done by someone whose most obvious life-threatening problems are “being 68” and “being male”. I’m considered to be an “elderly” pensioner, who should perhaps get a dog to get me out of the house occasionally! But I haven’t degenerated to that level yet.

2. I can find research on HIIT for helping with the consequences of acute conditions such as heart attacks, or chronic conditions such as T2 diabetes, but typically not for simply being “elderly”. I can see why – it is important to reduce or solve such noncommunicable diseases. But that doesn’t help me.

3. I haven’t found research into long-term use of HIIT, especially in the “elderly”. Most research, unsurprisingly, tends to identify what happens after weeks or at most a few months of HIIT. Little, if any, covers years of HIIT. Should I continue as I start, or should I switch to “maintenance mode” after a few months?

Here is what I am doing.

I first tried HIIT a couple of years ago, when I was a mere 66 and therefore not “elderly”. I added it to the exercises I was already doing to build up my strength and stamina for a somewhat strenuous wildlife photography holiday I had booked. For the HIIT I “simply” used the lightest pieces of exercise equipment I already had, or even no equipment at all for some exercises, and used them as fast as I could for 30 seconds each. (For example, “punching” as fast as possible with 1-kilogram dumb-bells in each hand for 30 seconds). Then pacing up and down between each high-intensity exercise to recover. I don’t know what this actually achieved, because it was mixed in with the other exercises. (The whole “exercise project” was successful).

Now that I’m planning long-term use, I bought an exercise bike in October. I want to avoid too much wear-and-tear on my knees and hips, and also mainly to exercise my larger muscles. (But when I’m away from home I take those light-weight items I used before, and exercise my muscles above the waist).

My exercise bike regime currently, (since the start of November), takes 8 minutes on the bike itself. Warm up at a moderate pace. Then 4 times 30-seconds flat out, with 90 seconds recovery at a moderate pace between them. Then wind down. (Then pace up and down for minutes until I feel human again!). I do this on non-adjacent days, on average 3 days per week.

The exercise bike is a DKN AM-EB. (It had some good reviews but I don’t know much about how it compares with others). I use level 10 out of 32. That is just a guess, and I don’t know whether another setting would be better. I can imagine changing any or all of the numbers I’ve just quoted: perhaps 5 instead of 4; perhaps reduce the 90 seconds; perhaps use a different level.

The problem is that, while the science suggests that I am doing myself some good, nearly all of the benefits are not obvious. Before I retired I was an engineer, used to running experiments. How can I tune the parameters to achieve optimum results? If I were trying to lose weight, or increase strength, I could measure that. But how do I measure a reduced risk of a heart attack or stroke? (Or, worse, am I even increasing some risks?)

Questions and suggestions welcome!

Hi, penguin. Thanks for that.

While I could measure increased strength, I’m not sure how to measure increased fitness in a general sense. Certainly not the fitness-factors that I expect HIIT to address. I suspect that I would need to buy some checks that are not available on the NHS. Without such information, it will be hard to tune my HIIT parameters.

Weight is not an issue. My BMI is probably about 21, and no-one ever suggests I should lose weight. (I’m not sure why this is; perhaps a combination of a high basal metabolic rate and high NEAT?) I would be happy to add muscle-mass, but in body-building terms I’m an ectomorph-type “hard gainer”. (I say weight is not an issue; arguably I’m under-weight, which could have health implications, but there doesn’t appear to be much I can do about that).

I agree with your comment about the statistics. Whenever I look at the science relating to the topics covered by NHS guidelines, I realise that the guidelines may be useful for social engineering, but not so good for the individual. I suspect we will see general guidelines replaced by personalised guidelines over the next 10 years.

Thanks, penguin.

The BMI was first invented about 150 years ago as a way of gathering population statistics. Not as a measure of health.

To a mathematician, the basic formula is obviously dubious! It compares an area (height squared) with something related to a volume (weight). There have been many criticisms of that “square” formula.

The boundaries between the words such as “under-weight”, “normal”, “over-weight”, “obesity”, (18.5, 25, 30, etc), are opinions rather than numbers identified by science. (There is no scientific research that demonstrates that those are the right numbers).

Using the BMI alone to diagnose an individual is equivalent to diagnosing someone without examining them. Similarly for advising someone, which is equivalent to prescribing medicine without examining the patient.

There are known to be various better methods, but the BMI is so well known that there is reluctance to move forward.

PJBR, thanks for that information.

Interesting! There is a view in some circles that one of the most important causes of aging is inflamation. Does Metformin address that? Is that an aspect of its affect on Type 2 Diabetes, which also involves inflamation? (I guess studies in humans will take many years).

As I said at the start, I am changing my food and drink as well as exercise. In other words, I am trying to achieve a sustainable (and enjoyable) lifestyle to keep me healthy. In order to identify whether I’m getting things right, I need to have health checks after a period that is sufficient to ensure the lifestyle is sustainable, and sufficient for it to take effect.

To avoid complicating the results of the checks, I intend to see if I can avoid ALL medication, whether prescribed or over-the-counter, in 2016. (I may have the flu-jab later in the year; I haven’t decided yet). Then I’ll have a better idea of what is or isn’t working.

So I wouldn’t be in the market for Metformin in 2016!