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Scientists Study How Little Exercise You Need
Hugh Pickens writes "Millions of Americans don't engage in much exercise, if they complete any at all and asked why, a majority of respondents, in survey after survey, say, 'I don't have time.' Now Gretchen Reynolds reports that instead of wondering just how much exercise people really need in order to gain health and fitness, a group of scientists in Canada are turning that issue on its head and asking, how little exercise do we need to maintain fitness and the answer appears to be, a lot less than most of us think — provided we're willing to work a bit. Most people have heard of intervals, or repeated, short, sharp bursts of strenuous activity, interspersed with rest periods. Almost all competitive athletes strategically employ a session or two of interval training every week to improve their speed and endurance. Researchers have developed a version of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) that involves one minute of strenuous effort, at about 90 percent of a person's maximum heart rate (which most of us can estimate, very roughly, by subtracting our age from 220), followed by one minute of easy recovery. The effort and recovery are repeated 10 times, for a total of 20 minutes and the interval training is performed twice a week. Despite the small time commitment of this modified HIIT program, after several weeks of practicing it, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness. 'A growing body of evidence demonstrates that high-intensity interval training can serve as an effective alternate to traditional endurance-based training, inducing similar or even superior physiological adaptations in healthy individuals and diseased populations, at least when compared on a matched-work basis.'"
Works wonders if your employer has an onsite gym. Duck in at random intervals throughout the day, bang out 100 leg presses, 15 heavyweight curls each arm, 30 heavyweight dumbell presses, 40 reps of wrist curls with 40-pound dumbbells each arm. Feels good, man, even on a diet of beer and Mexican food.
The intervals meaning that interruption to your routine is minimal since you're not doing it all at once when everybody else is using the gym, like at lunchtimes or after work.
Researchers have developed a version of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) that involves one minute of strenuous effort, at about 90 percent of a person's maximum heart rate (which most of us can estimate, very roughly, by subtracting our age from 220), followed by one minute of easy recovery. The effort and recovery are repeated 10 times, for a total of 20 minutes and the interval training is performed twice a week.
That's way more than I was willing to commit to memory, let alone perform
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
"Now Gretchen Reynolds reports that instead of wondering just how much exercise people really need in order to gain health and fitness, a group of scientists in Canada are turning that issue on its head and asking, how little exercise do we need to maintain fitness"
How is that 'turning the issue on its head'? It seems to me more like a very minor rephrasing of the question which ultimately makes no difference at all.
Well, 90% of one's max HR is simply that; to a certain point, it'll be higher the more fit you are. So unless you have a heart condition, intervals aren't going to kill you (especially the one minute intervals referenced in the NYT link).
Because I think it's boring. It's not that I don't have the time, but I would just rather be doing other things. I think a lot of people who say, "I don't have the time" are like that, too.
Other things like commenting on Slashdot, yes.
...30 minutes a week, every week for the past 3 years, and still getting stronger every week. Slow strength training is by far the most effective exercise I've encountered so far, and the benefits for just 30 minutes a week are *crazy*.
http://slowburnfitness.com/
No, I don't get kickbacks, but I'm forever grateful to Fred Hahn for figuring this crap out.
It sounds like this regimen could be incorporated into sex, or masturbation if you're creative.
preemptive "slashdot readers don't have sex, lol"
I've made a point of exercising a lot lately... and I've found that my endurance has gone up considerably since I started, but I'm just as fat as I ever was. At least I'm not gaining any more weight... still undesirably obese though.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Define Fitness
Defined:
Despite these differences, both protocols induced similar increases (P < 0.05) in mitochondrial markers for skeletal muscle CHO (pyruvate dehydrogenase E1alpha protein content) and lipid oxidation (3-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase maximal activity) and protein content of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha. Glycogen and phosphocreatine utilization during exercise were reduced after training, and calculated rates of whole-body CHO and lipid oxidation were decreased and increased, respectively, with no differences between groups (all main effects, P < 0.05).
Refrigerator door pull:
1. Stand with your feet evenly in front of the icebox. Pull door open, check whats inside. Close the door.
2. Pull open, retrieve one of the 6pack. Close door.
3. Pull open, get salsa. Close door.
4. Pull open, get lime. Close door.
5. When it's time for next bottle/can, repeat #2.
Sixteen ounce wrist curls:
1. Pop open that beer/soda/caffeinated drink. 6 reps, one for each gulp, right wrist first.
2. Do 6 reps for left wrist as well.
Use your imagination, and your regular work area could be a workout area as well. Practice saying, "Yeah, I work out" with the intensity showing in your eyes.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Not unless you have a serious heart condition. It is impossible for a healthy person (no matter how unfit) to injure his heart by working it hard.
Interval training is excellent. I do roughly what the article describes every other day (on the other days I just run two miles). This keeps my blood pressure below 120 and my resting heart rate in the low fifties.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The best way, currently known, to slow age-related cognitive decline is exercise because it produces Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor.
But did TFA even mention BDNF?
nnnnnnaaaaaaaaOOOOOOOOOOHHHHhhhhhh
Maybe the author should exercise more.
Seastead this.
Maybe it is true that 10x1 min high-intensity training is just as good as 20, 30 or even 40 minutes of easier training.
But for most people I am not sure if it is any more fun or easier to commit to.
As a pretty serious long distance runner (running Boston Marathon this spring), I don't doubt that intervals can make me faster and I will do some before the race, but that is easily the worst part of my training. It is just very unpleasant to run at >90% of max capacity. I even prefer 15 mile long runs over intervals.
You're confusing 'fit' with 'slim'. Many people do. It's completely possible to have a healthy cardiac system (the most important part), but be quite obese. How thin you are is mainly a function of diet; how healthy you are is mainly a function of exercise. They have significant correlation, but they are distinct data points with separate causes.
The more important of the two for health is your cardiac fitness. The more desirable of the two in social situations is your BMI. Choose wisely.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
You don't need any gadgets: just a stretch of road and a supply of self-discipline.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
No it won't. In fact, as you get fit your max HR may decrease. However, you will be able sustain it much longer. Your heart will become stronger, will move more blood per stroke, and your circulatory resistance will decrease. Your resting HR (and your blood pressure) will drop substantially so that your ratio of max HR to resting HR will increase even if your max HR decreases.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Nope. That's the exact opposite of what you need now.
People should not fear their government. Governments should fear their people.
The 90s called and wanted their exercise article back.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
You have, unironically, used the term "Bro" on Slashdot. Guards!
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Their lifestyle is not the same as yours. We lead a much more sedentary lifestyle, and we consume a lot more in terms of raw quantity (and with increasing frequency). The idea behind wheat belly can be extended to carbs in general -- wheat, rice, corn etc. And I've found that cutting carbs and calories is the biggest factor in getting in shape, and lowering your bf%. You can skip everything else, but if you're maintaining a caloric deficit consistently, you'll lose weight.
I was at 19% body fat, and once I started cutting carbs and working out, I just started burning fat that much more quickly. The journey from 19% bf to 15% bf was a nightmare, but the journey from 15% bf to 12% bf was much easier. And the journey from 12% to under 10% was much, much harder, only because it requires an insane amount of discipline.
Unfortunately, the holidays wreaked havoc and I'm back in the 15% range, but I am amazed at how just simple things with your diet help a lot. Complex carbs and protein for breakfast (think oatmeal and eggs), salad with fruit for lunch, a couple of protein shakes in the afternoon, and salad for dinner. No cheat days. Watch your calories carefully (I use the LiveStrong MyPlate), and maintain a reasonable protein intake. You'll see progress in no time.
Dr Ken Cooper - the guy who invented aerobics and published back in the 1970s - was answering this question more or less. He was a US Air Force doctor and had access to thousands of subjects for testing. He wanted to answer the question: "How much exercise do I *need* to do, when a doctor tells me to get `more' exercise?"
Basically, after a 13 week conditioning program of gradually increasing exersion, his program settles down into walking 4 miles in 55 minutes, three times a week. This is not that burdensome. And there are many alternatives to walking: swimming, running/jogging, cycling, playing various vigorous sports like squash, etc. He worked out age and activity based tables for mixing and matching various activities to achieve the weekly exercise goal - all based on research into basic aerobic fitness.
I am anarch of all I survey.
Not a whole lot more to say on the subject. Do some swings and get-ups once or twice a day, and you'll be fit and trim. Unless you eat trash and guzzle carbonated sugar water all day. In which case, you're fucked no matter what you do.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
The more fit you are, the harder it becomes to approach your max heart rate. Your max doesn't get higher.
imo it was and still is a good program, nothing needed apart for a bit of floor space.
These days the tabata protocol (basically 4 minutes of hiit) 4 times a week is my main form of exercise (no warm up), I also "play" with rings - this doesn't take much time as it is very taxing on the upper body. But for a change, nothing wrong with the 5BX calistenics.
BM3
I'm having the flu right now, and yet, my buddies and I just had an intense workout out for over an hour at the gym, and I didn't even feel tired.
I'm glad you feel so healthy, but please stay away from the gym while you're coughing, sneezing, or barfing.
and therein lies the problem.
HIIT has actually been around and been discussed in running groups for a number of years. Lest you think I am pulling this from where the sun doesn't shine, I write this from some personal experience; I am an experienced ultramarathoner (six 50 milers). HIIT is extremely difficult for "normal" people to do as an ongoing exercise program.
The great majority of Americans are simply not capable of pushing themselves as hard as is required for a successful HIIT regimen. If you're not capable of pushing yourself to do this type of strenuous exercise, you're not going to do it. It's as simple as that.
HIIT will work extraordinarily well for people that are already moderately fit or even overweight if they are capable of pushing through their pain (not the physical pain, the mental pain). Again, and again, and again; and each iteration is harder than the last.
Most people - especially the great unwashed overweight masses (pun intended) - aren't willing or capable of doing this, and simply aren't going to do it. They would be better served starting out just walking briskly for 30 minutes four or five times a week.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;
If you consume fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. No amount of adapting can get around that.
If only it were that easy. Metabolism varies depending on what you do, and what you eat. It can vary as much as 700 calories for people with similar body composition. That is, I may look exactly the same as you, and exercise the same amount, but I can eat 700 calories more than you each day without gaining weight. Furthermore it varies within the same person.
And that is ignoring body composition and nutrition. If you have a high sugar diet, you can still lose weight if you eat few calories, but you will not be very health. You want to lose weight in a way that makes you more healthy, not less healthy.
These are problems that can be overcome, of course, but claiming it is a simple inequality is ignoring a number of complications, tautological, and not particularly helpful.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The simple claim is that if you eat less than you burn, you lose weight. It IS that simple.
It sounds simple, but unless you have your body hooked up to a calorimetry laboratory, it's hard to know how many calories you've burned in a day.
People want simple cures.
That's basically what you're prescribing.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
You wanna look like a douche, play around with some machines or dumbells (guess why they call them that). You wanna be healthy, feel great and get all the poon you can handle? Tai Chi.
I guess I rather look like a douche than act and sound like one.
In the UK, it's easy to lose hundreds of pounds just by joining the gym...
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The parent has excellent advice. My own regiment is Tabata protocol coupled with squats, deadlifts, standing overhead press, and pullups. My workouts average about 25 minutes TOTAL between lifting and cardio, and I workout three times a week max. Ring training is also awesome.
In reality, most of us could do HIIT, some pushups, pullups, and pistols (which admittedly are demanding) and be fine.
The number ONE issue with weight control will nearly always be what you put in your mouth. If you can wedge more vegetables and fruits in (with an emphasis on veggies) and decrease the carbs (mainly cutting sweets and starches) with a bit of physical activity the effects can be marked.
Ride a BIKE
I smoke, drink, and eat some godawful crap, I'm nearly 30 and I still run up and down stairs two at a time like a ten year old. Because rather than all this pretentious exercise, I go out and play in the mud once a week like god intended!
This fitness freak thing is really getting old. People don't avoid the gym because they are lazy, they avoid it because they DONT WANT TO BE LIKE YOU!
Anecdotal, but my experience perfectly matches this.
I started couch-to-5k three years ago (to gain fitness and lose weight). I never modified my eating habits, but I gradually increased my running until I would run 5-6 miles a day, 2-3 times a week.
I never lost weight.
1 month ago I decided to restrict carbs (and I because I injured my calf I stopped running). I didn't try to restrict calories, watch fat, or do anything except keep as low carb as possible (usually try for under 100 grams, under 50 if possible).
With several cheat days (probably about 1 a week or more), and no exercise, I still lost 18-20 lbs. I can't friggin believe it.
I don't even feel like I have been "trying hard" to diet.
Look into Mark's Daily Apple. He was a marathoner. Then, the wear and tear on his body finally got to him.
He started researching, and the info on his blog will tell you what makes you fat.
Here's a brief run down:
Grains (all, but most commonly consumed are oats, wheat (cereal, bread and pasta) and corn (including corn syrup and tortilla chips)
Potatoes (Potatoes are a starchy white carbohydrate)
Sugar
As much as possible, eat Natural meat, and a large variety of vegetables with a few fruits.
Short, intense bursts with light effort in between?
20 minutes a day?
Twice a week?
BRB interval training/taking a shit.