High Intensity Aerobic Interval Training With Mediterranean Diet Recommendations in Post-Myocardial Infarct Patients

Acute myocardial infarction (MI) continues remains to be a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Exercise therapy has long been used for rehabilitation purposes and the benefit of regular physical exercise is also well established. The intensity of aerobic exercise training is a key issue in cardiac rehabilitation programmes.Endurance aerobic training is typically performed as continuous training at moderate to-high exercise intensity in steady-state conditions of aerobic energetic yield. However, interval training (i.e., repeated bouts of short-duration, high to severe- or severe to extreme-intensity exercise, separated by brief periods of lower-intensity) has been proposed to be more effective than continuous exercise for improving exercise capacity. Adding to that, health-related adaptations to low-volume and high intensity interval training have been presented. On the other hand, the Mediterranean Diet has been widely reported to be a model of healthy eating for its contribution to a favourable health status and a better quality of life, reducing in overall mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Considering all the above mentioned in MI population, the principal objective for the INTERFARCT study will be to assess the effects of different programs of high intensity aerobic interval training and Mediterranean Diet recommendations in the clinical condition, cardio-respiratory fitness, biomarkers, ventricular function and perception of quality of life after myocardial infarction. Methods/Design: One hundred and fifty people after suffering acute MI will perform different assessments to evaluate clinical history, physical, biochemical and nutritional condition, and quality of life before and after 16-week of follow-up. All participants will receive Mediterranean diet recommendations and will be randomly assigned to attention control group (diet and physical activity recommendations) or exercise groups (diet recommendations plus high-intensity aerobic in