More Exercise? Less Exercise? (June 3, 2014)
We are a nation of extremists. If two aspirin are good, we think that four are better. If slender is good, we think that we need to be able to count someone's ribs before we can consider them attractive. And if exercise is good, we think not only that training for a triathlon is better than walking, but also that if we are NOT working out hard at a high level that there is no point in working out at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you’re just trying to stay healthy rather than win the Ms./Mr. Zucchini contest, sometimes less is more.
Please don’t get me wrong, exercise is essential, it’s really good for you, and most people don't get enough. But athletic excess is genuinely unhealthy, and I don't think we should hold up for admiration and emulation people who are doing their bodies a disservice. Beyond a certain level, the musculoskeletal system is not used but overused (think about how crippled retired football players become) and the cardiovascular system likewise. A study in the June 2012 Mayo Clinic Proceedings found signs of significant heart damage in seemingly healthy marathon runners. (This is no surprise to traditional Chinese medicine, where the slowed heartbeat that is typical of serious athletes is considered to be a sign of ill health.)
This doesn’t mean that you can just sit around, of course. The longer you sit during the day, the more likely you are to die, according to a 13-year study published in July 2010 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. But the amount of exercise required to stay in decent physical condition is almost startlingly little, and it does not have to be vigorous, especially at the beginning. That is why walking is so great. No matter how tired you are at the end of the day, you can go out and totter around for ten minutes or so and you've done yourself some good. And you may not have enough time for triathlon training but EVERYONE has ten (to thirty) minutes a day that they can walk in.
What is considered a desirable amount of exercise? The general weekly guideline for healthy adults is 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise (that's like brisk walking at a level where you can talk but not sing) plus two sessions of strength training (no time recommendation for sessions), which do not have to be in a gym – heavy gardening would qualify. Especially for someone who has not been working out at all, do NOT underestimate the power of this amount of exercise. Here are some benefits of training at this level.
1) Reduced incidence of cancer (because that amount of exercise speeds digestion, strengthens immune system, improves circulation, and reduces body fat).
2) Lower blood pressure.
3) Improved cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
4) Less chance of acquiring diabetes, and managing it by helping insulin work better.
5) Managing weight (especially helpful at keeping weight off. The exercise described above would burn somewhere around 1000-1200 calories a week, or 14 pounds per year).
6) Reduced incidence of osteoporosis, because the exercise increases bone density and maintains bone mass.
7) Enhancement of mental well-being by reducing stress, improving sleep, and improving mood in mild to moderate depression.
8) Increased energy and stamina.
And the list goes on.
The aerobic recommendations break down neatly to five 30-minute walks a week, but you do not have to walk for 30 minutes at a time. Three ten-minute walks, or even six five-minute walks, will accomplish the same goals. (Likewise for shorter sessions of weight training.) And you do not need to start with thirty minutes a day -- ten minutes a day is enough to start seeing real improvements.
Here’s one more finding I'd like to mention. It’s been known for ages that healthy old people are physically active, but whether activity increases health or whether healthy people are just more active was not clear. Recently, in an attempt to answer this question, a large number of elderly (ages 70-89), borderline infirm people were given a program of light weight training and walking, ultimately working them up to the level of 30 minutes weight training and 150 minutes walking per week.The comparison group only received education in healthy living. After two and a half years, the exercise group were about a third less likely than the other group to have become disabled. This is a very significant finding, especially considering that many in the comparison group began exercising as a result of their education, thus diminishing the differences between the two groups), this is a very impressive finding.
Civilization has been geared to minimize the amount of effort needed to perform the actions of daily living, the same way that it has been oriented to provide more food with minimum effort. Most of human history has been characterized by too much physical work and too little food, and so we naturally minimize physical effort and maximize caloric intake. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten so good at doing those things that our solutions have become the problem! We need just to get up and move, as much as we can, and we’ll be better off for it.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014
We are a nation of extremists. If two aspirin are good, we think that four are better. If slender is good, we think that we need to be able to count someone's ribs before we can consider them attractive. And if exercise is good, we think not only that training for a triathlon is better than walking, but also that if we are NOT working out hard at a high level that there is no point in working out at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you’re just trying to stay healthy rather than win the Ms./Mr. Zucchini contest, sometimes less is more.
Please don’t get me wrong, exercise is essential, it’s really good for you, and most people don't get enough. But athletic excess is genuinely unhealthy, and I don't think we should hold up for admiration and emulation people who are doing their bodies a disservice. Beyond a certain level, the musculoskeletal system is not used but overused (think about how crippled retired football players become) and the cardiovascular system likewise. A study in the June 2012 Mayo Clinic Proceedings found signs of significant heart damage in seemingly healthy marathon runners. (This is no surprise to traditional Chinese medicine, where the slowed heartbeat that is typical of serious athletes is considered to be a sign of ill health.)
This doesn’t mean that you can just sit around, of course. The longer you sit during the day, the more likely you are to die, according to a 13-year study published in July 2010 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. But the amount of exercise required to stay in decent physical condition is almost startlingly little, and it does not have to be vigorous, especially at the beginning. That is why walking is so great. No matter how tired you are at the end of the day, you can go out and totter around for ten minutes or so and you've done yourself some good. And you may not have enough time for triathlon training but EVERYONE has ten (to thirty) minutes a day that they can walk in.
What is considered a desirable amount of exercise? The general weekly guideline for healthy adults is 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise (that's like brisk walking at a level where you can talk but not sing) plus two sessions of strength training (no time recommendation for sessions), which do not have to be in a gym – heavy gardening would qualify. Especially for someone who has not been working out at all, do NOT underestimate the power of this amount of exercise. Here are some benefits of training at this level.
1) Reduced incidence of cancer (because that amount of exercise speeds digestion, strengthens immune system, improves circulation, and reduces body fat).
2) Lower blood pressure.
3) Improved cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
4) Less chance of acquiring diabetes, and managing it by helping insulin work better.
5) Managing weight (especially helpful at keeping weight off. The exercise described above would burn somewhere around 1000-1200 calories a week, or 14 pounds per year).
6) Reduced incidence of osteoporosis, because the exercise increases bone density and maintains bone mass.
7) Enhancement of mental well-being by reducing stress, improving sleep, and improving mood in mild to moderate depression.
8) Increased energy and stamina.
And the list goes on.
The aerobic recommendations break down neatly to five 30-minute walks a week, but you do not have to walk for 30 minutes at a time. Three ten-minute walks, or even six five-minute walks, will accomplish the same goals. (Likewise for shorter sessions of weight training.) And you do not need to start with thirty minutes a day -- ten minutes a day is enough to start seeing real improvements.
Here’s one more finding I'd like to mention. It’s been known for ages that healthy old people are physically active, but whether activity increases health or whether healthy people are just more active was not clear. Recently, in an attempt to answer this question, a large number of elderly (ages 70-89), borderline infirm people were given a program of light weight training and walking, ultimately working them up to the level of 30 minutes weight training and 150 minutes walking per week.The comparison group only received education in healthy living. After two and a half years, the exercise group were about a third less likely than the other group to have become disabled. This is a very significant finding, especially considering that many in the comparison group began exercising as a result of their education, thus diminishing the differences between the two groups), this is a very impressive finding.
Civilization has been geared to minimize the amount of effort needed to perform the actions of daily living, the same way that it has been oriented to provide more food with minimum effort. Most of human history has been characterized by too much physical work and too little food, and so we naturally minimize physical effort and maximize caloric intake. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten so good at doing those things that our solutions have become the problem! We need just to get up and move, as much as we can, and we’ll be better off for it.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014