"The Truth About Exercise": Did you watch it?

Michael Mosley's The Truth About Exercise on PBS aired here last night.

 

"We have always been told that regular exercise is one of the keys to a healthy, happy life, and, broadly speaking, the more exercise the better. But new research suggests that short bursts of intense exercise may be as effective as, if not better than, long periods of moderate exercise.

Courtesy of Jenna Caldwell-Weiler

Dr. Michael Mosley on an exercise bike at University of Nottingham Medical School. He is performing his first ever session of High Intensity Training (HIT) on an exercise bike. Michael smiles as he is skeptical that cycling a total of three minutes a week can have just as many health benefits (if not more) than longer endurance training sessions.

 

 

British journalist and physician Michael Mosley investigates, using himself as the guinea pig, whether humans can get exercise benefits from working out just three minutes a week."

It turned out that Mosley's body type did not give him great cardiovascular benefits from this type of exercise, but his insulin resistance and other conditions improved significantly.

Anyone have thoughts about this research?

Very interesting. I guess this would be of more benefit to those with time constraints. I wonder if anyone who is curious would consider swapping their hour long sessions with these short ones, or even mix and match through out the week and see if there is any improvement.

Did the show mention that these short high intensity workouts were just as effective in losing weight? Or was it strictly to improve overall health?

As I recall, some people have the genetic makeup to get excellent cv benefit from the short bursts; others do not. The researchers looked at Mosley's genetic markers and predicted he would not get the cv benefit: they were right. But his prediabetes and blood fats were corrected.

There is evidence that interval training, which I think is also called plyometrics, gives far greater results than longer, steady exercise. Both effects have to do with stressing the muscles, which respond by sucking up sugars and causing fat burning--especially of visceral (bad) fat--and other good stuff. I'll have to read the transcript or investigate further to see what the weight loss effect is, but fat burning pretty much = weight loss.

I think both merit a lot more attention. God knows I'd rather pump it up for three minutes a week than slog along for an hour a day.

I have read a lot about exercise and my conclusion is that there are many different types and they have different benefits. For some reason, we have chosen to focus on a very narrow range of activities and call that "exercise" and act like the rest doesn't count for some reason. I am glad to see some focus on expanding what is counted as exercise but I hope people don't just try to change what goes into the narrow range and still keep it a narrow range.

HIIT has it's  place and it's benefits. Traditional cardio does as well. So does the moderate/light exercise. So does the so-called "functional fitness". So does team sports. So does certain lifestyle activities.

I'll give an example of how we've gotten off-base in how we think about exercise. I know someone whose DEXA scan came back showing osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporesis. She was lamenting that she really needs to get back to the gym to start working out again so her bones wouldn't melt further. At the gym she rides the spin bike. What she was doing instead of going to the gym was renovating her house. Renovating the house was giving her a ton of weight bearing activity. Spin bike was not. But, to her, going to the gym to do cardio for an hour was "exercise" and renovating a house was not.

I think about your point often.  It's weird that so many people I know hire someone to mow their lawn then turn around and pay a gym membership and pay for childcare to get in a workout.  Why not just mow the lawn, pull your own weeds, let the kids play in the backyard???  Same thing with a car wash.  They'll sit at a carwash for an hour to wait for the car to be detailed.  Spend the hour at home doing it yourself.  You get to burn a ton of calories, probably do a better job that they would anyway, and save your hundred bucks.  I don't get it.  Why do people think they have to be at a gym to burn calories?  I'm not hating on gyms; I belong to two but I like being active at home too!  Just my two cents.

Yes, it is kind of perverse. Though I particularly hate to both mow/weed and wash my car so I understand those two things. LOL

I think it's something to think about though. And now I'm off to add CHORES to my list of exercises! (I'm making a list for a presentation.)

Ooopss. This is really something. The mere fact I know about exercise is that it can help us to keep physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually fit. Exercise is an aid in trimming down shape, though losing weight can be frustrating sometimes.