Most of us today have an overflowing to do list. And so when a patient walks in the office and the talk goes to exercise – there is often an uneasy silence. Because very few of us want one more thing to do in our crowded day. And yet physical activity is one of the single most important things my patients can do, to dramatically improve their quality of life and their health.
So today I bring good news. Concepts of exercise have changed dramatically in the last decade or two. We don’t have to sweat it out for extended periods of time on a treadmill to get the wonderful benefits of exercise. In fact short burst of more intense activity can produce dramatic improvements. This understanding is documented in study after study comparing interval training to standard continuous exercise. Just look up http://scholar.google.com/ or the National Library of Medicine database http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez and type in Interval Training and see what all the studies say.
And how much time do you need? 20 minutes a day can do it! 10 minutes twice a day works great. These exercises are now called HIIT short for High Intensity Interval Training. One such study looked at the effect of doing just four short 30 second sprints a day with 2-4 minutes and only three days a week of recovery in between. This was gradually increased to ten sprints. Muscle biopsies done showed significant increases in aerobic activity of all muscle groups. http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/6/2138
A study done in Norway showed that a prediabetic state called metabolic syndrome or Insulin Resistance was better treated with aerobic interval training than regular exercise in enhancing the function of the lining aof the arteries called endothelium, insulin signaling in fat and skeletal muscle, skeletal muscle growth, muscle efficiency and in reducing blood glucose and lipogenesis in adipose tissue. http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/4/346
As always do not start any exercise program without consulting your physician and getting a clean bill of health.
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Tahoma Clinic
Leo Galland, MD
Life Extension
Phillip Alexander, BrandMuscle
Tom Peters!
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