Short-term high-intensity interval exercise training attenuates oxidative stress responses and improves antioxidant status in healthy humans

•Training reduced oxidative stress markers during high intensity exercise.•Training induced a marked elevation of antioxidant status indices.•These adaptations were attained after a total of 22min of high intensity training. This study investigated the changes in oxidative stress biomarkers and antioxidant status indices caused by a 3-week high-intensity interval training (HIT) regimen. Eight physically active males performed three HIT sessions/week over 3weeks. Each session included four to six 30-s bouts of high-intensity cycling separated by 4min of recovery. Before training, acute exercise elevated protein carbonyls (PC), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and creatine kinase (CK), which peaked 24h post-exercise (252±30%, 135±17%, 10±2%, 85±14% and 36±13%, above baseline, respectively; p