You're Not Exercising As Hard As You Think
Most people know that moderate exercise
is great for your health.
- But according to research, surprisingly few of us know exactly what moderate exercise
means. - An instructive new study in PLOS ONE found that many of us underestimate how
hard we should exercise to achieve maximum health benefits & overestimate how
vigorously we are actually working out.
- So how much exercise should we really be getting?
- According to the United States Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should
engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic exercise per week, in order to enjoy the significant health benefits
they’re after.
- Any activity is acceptable as long as the specified intensity is reached & maintained,
whether it be gardening, water aerobics or hiking. - But it turns out that people have difficulty judging the intensity of their workout & often
miss the mark.
Gauging Exercise Intensity
-
In a 2014 study published in PLOS One researchers from York University in Toronto
enlisted 129 adults aged 18 to 64 with the goal of understanding what they know about exercise & health. - The majority of people were young, normal weight men & women with poor cardiovascular fitness.Participants were asked if they were familiar with the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines. 80 percent indicated that the guidelines were easy to understand & 57 percent reported that they met the minimum guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity
per week. - The participants were informed that for light effort:
1. You are starting to feel warm & you have a slight increase in breathing rate’; for
moderate effort: ‘you are warmer & you have a greater increase in breathing rate
& for vigorous effort.
2. You are quite warm & more out of breath.
3. When put to the test, however, the majority of adults underestimated the intensity
of physical activity required to attain health benefits.
4. Though participants accurately estimated light effort physical activity, they drastically underestimated moderate & vigorous effort, even after being provided with specified
heart rate levels to gauge exercise intensity.
Talk it out
- Setting tangible intensity benchmarks is a better way to gauge how hard you’re actually
working. - According to the Center for Disease Control, the talk test is a simple way to measure
relative intensity. - As a rule of thumb, if you’re doing moderate-intensity activity you can talk, but not sing,
during the activity. - If you’re doing vigorous-intensity activity, you will not be able to say more than a few words
without pausing for a breath. - The perceived purpose of exercise can also impact eating habits, according to a study published in Marketing Letters: A Journal of Research in Marketing.
- Researchers found that labeling a physical activity as ‘fun’ reduced the amount of calories consumed, the amount of food served & the choice of a healthy snack over junk food,
whereas labeling an activity as exercise contributed to overeating.
- Your takeaway?
1. Seek activities that you look forward to rather than dread.
2. Listening to music during a run, making phone calls during a walk, or watching a video
during a treadmill routine may be more related to weight loss success & perseverance.
Copyright © 2012-2019 KosherWoman.com
All rights reserved.