Know the recommended amount of exercise to maintain health – 06/03/2023 – Equilíbrio

How much exercise can you fit into your routine?

In a parallel universe, I practically live in the pool, bike everywhere and run 10km just for fun.

But in the real world –of work and family– swimming once a week is already a great achievement.

The medical recommendation is for people to dedicate almost two and a half hours (150 minutes) to moderate-intensity exercise per week. But about a quarter of the population cannot exercise even for half an hour.

So is there an easier alternative? What is the minimum amount of exercise to maintain health?

Professor Zoe Saynor – of clinical exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth and a former professional rugby player – seeks to recommend simpler exercise routines.

She will help me look for an answer to that question. For a week, I wore an activity tracker.

Before I even reveal the test results, I’ll make my apologies: It’s been a very busy week at work, and I’ve been stuck at my desk for most of the time I’ve been using the device.

The results were horrible. I managed just one minute of intense exercise (equivalent to jogging) a day and 16 minutes of moderate exercise (a brisk walk).

“That’s a snapshot of what we see happening to many people in modern society,” says Saynor.

Whatever my state of health, a lot depends on that one hour of swimming I manage to squeeze in on weekends.

Go fast or go far?

If you want to spend less time exercising – but get good results–, the only option is to exercise with greater intensity.

“There’s clear evidence that if you want shorter exercise sessions, they need to be at a higher intensity,” says Saynor.

The official guidance from doctors is to do 75 minutes of intense physical exercise a week, instead of 150 minutes of moderate activity.

One of the hottest workouts is high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves bursts of intense activity over short periods of time.

However, Saynor says most people can’t routinely do this routine because HIIT is so intense.

What is the minimum?

When it comes to the least amount of exercise people should do, Saynor says she believes the number of steps a day is somewhere between 5,000 to 6,000.

It’s easy to disregard the advice to get off one bus stop early and walk the rest of the way, or to take a walk on your lunch break. But apparently these small efforts seem to make a difference.

A study of nearly 80,000 people published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine showed that walking a little more each day reduces the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and early death.

This pattern continues until you reach about 10,000 steps a day. Faster steps are worth more than slow ones.

“If you don’t have time to overnight take 10,000 steps a day, could you take 5,000 steps faster? It would improve your health,” says Saynor.

You don’t even have to do formal exercise like running, weight training or swimming to see the health benefits.

A study published in Nature Medicine looked at 25,000 people who don’t formally “exercise” but perform small everyday tasks that require some physical effort.

This can be something quite mundane – running to catch a train, using the vacuum cleaner, playing with children or dogs, carrying heavy groceries or climbing stairs.

Research has shown that as little as three to four minutes of short vigorous activity throughout the day has enormous health benefits.

“People who exhibit this intermittent activity can reduce their risk of major diseases such as heart disease and cancer by up to 50%,” says Mark Hamer, Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine at University College London.

“Over the past decade, guidelines have been slowly moving away from recommending 30 minutes a day to something like ‘anything goes,’ and I think these results underscore that idea.”

Does sauna count?

If you still don’t have time for even a few exercises, there may be another way – which is quite enjoyable.

How about a bath – in a hot tub or sauna?

I decided to put on my swimming trunks and participate in a new test.

This is a precise experiment – ​​I can’t just jump into the water. Researcher Thomas James has to “hoist” me into a pool of water at 40°C, so that only my head and neck are above the water.

The 40°C point is higher than body temperature (37°C). So the whole time I’m here my body is working to lose heat.

Quickly, I feel the sweat on my forehead. But the rest of my body is just dripping with sweat and it’s not cooling me down.

“Hot water is lethal in that regard,” says James.

If I stayed here too long, my body would overheat and I could die. My heart would be pumping faster and faster, trying to make the body lose heat by bringing the blood closer to the surface of the skin.

“Your heart will be working hard, similar to what you would see with low-intensity exercise,” he says. “We’re seeing reductions in blood pressure even in healthy people.”

The researchers’ idea is to simulate what would happen to the body in an exercise.

“This is a very good way to mimic some of the benefits you get from exercise, but the evidence is certainly pretty clear that exercise is the better way. But the two things together [exercício e banho ou sauna] provide the greatest health benefits,” says James.

“I think this will really play an important role in the future.”

The bottom line is that taking a sauna or hydromassage bath after working out at the gym can give your health a boost.

But the Portsmouth team warns that people need to follow the right recommendations.

“Don’t say, ‘I’m going to stay here as long as I can.’ Do it for the fun of it,” says James.

The advice is baths or sauna for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the equipment.

Obviously, we should all aim to get the recommended amount of exercise, but as many of us find this impossible, it’s reassuring to know that there are significant benefits to be gained from just doing a little more in our day-to-day lives.

This text was originally published here