相較於高血壓、糖尿病和肥胖等心血管危險因子，心肺能力更作為心血管死亡率的重要預測指標。 近年來，藉由運動訓練提高心肺耐力，其適用對象已從健康族群延伸至心血管病患。高強度間隔訓練 (high-intensity interval training，簡稱HIIT)，係結合高、低強度交替的訓練，被發現無論在一般健康人或 心血管患者上，相較於傳統的中強度連續訓練(moderate-intensity continuous training，簡稱MICT)，更能 有效地提升其心肺耐力。雖然HIIT和MICT都可藉由有氧能力的提升，顯著降低心血管風險和全因死亡 率，並提升身體適能。但HIIT亦能同時改善有氧和無氧適能。然而，不同族群的最佳訓練方案，及不同 訓練方式對於生理參數的影響程度目前皆仍未定調，故未來仍需進一步建立對於改善有氧能力的最適運 動處方和其相關實證研究。

Improving or maintaining cardiopulmonary endurance can reduce the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, when compared with other well established risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking and obesity, cardiopulmonary fitness is a more powerful predictor of mortality. Exercise training aimed at the improvement of cardiopulmonary endurance therefore has broad appeal to the general population and the patients with cardiovascular diseases. For athletes who are already trained, improvements in endurance performance can be achieved only through high-intensity interval training (HIIT)—a burst-and-recover cycle. In recent years, HIIT is suggested to be a viable alternative to the traditional approach to enhance aerobic fitness, namely moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT). MICT and HIIT both increase aerobic fitness and thus relate to benefits in cardiovascular risk factors, fitness and all-cause mortality. However, some studies have suggested that HIT leads to improvements in both aerobic and anaerobic fitness and improves endurance performance to a greater extent than MICT. Nevertheless, specifying an optimal training regimen for improving fitness in the general population and the patients with cardiovascular diseases requires knowledge of how these different types of training influence adaptations in physiological parameters. Consequently, there has been a substantial amount of research examining which exercise prescription is superior for aerobic fitness improvements.