 |
||||
Eight Is Not Enough Fitness routines can promise results in a few minutes' time - just don't expect any 
Got a minute? That's about the only amount of time left in today's fitness world that is not attached to any workout. From coast to coast in advertisements on television to the internet, fitness centers and home DVD companies are offering a myriad of exercise programs that are getting shorter by the minute. "There are eight minute workouts, 10 minute workouts, any and all varieties because people are trying to appeal to this notion that people do not have enough time to exercise," says Dr. Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise (www.acefitness.org) in San Diego, Calif. "And for many people, exercise is viewed as an unpleasant necessity. They're attracted to the notion that they can only exercise 8 minutes and get all they need." Instead, fitness experts say, all they are getting is 30 seconds of marketing hype. "A lot of times what they are doing is selling false hope," agrees Kathy Stevens, educational director for the Aerobics and Fitness Association of American in Sherman Oaks, Calif. (www.afaa.com). "You're not meeting the recommendations for cardiovascular fitness or disease prevention in two to six minutes of cardio activity." ACE supports government guidelines of 30 minutes of moderately intense activity on most days, averaging about five days a week or 150 minutes, says Bryant. This can help prevent inactivity related diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease, says Stevens. A more vigorous workout, Bryant and Stevens say, can lead to higher levels of fitness and can be done less frequently and in less time. One of the shortest effective forms of daily exercise is interval training, which Stevens says is a form of cardiovascular training where you play with your intensity. People do one minute really hard, then two minutes at a recovery pace to catch your breath. Repeating the intervals at different lengths of time until 12 or 20 minutes of exercise has passed. The 20 minutes you get in intervals can equal the 60 minutes of exercise in a steady state. So how do you know what length of a workout is good for you? First, don't get discouraged if you can't work in 30 minutes of exercise at a time or per day. Instead, try to work your way up to that goal. "There are far too many people who think if they can't meet that 30 minute threshold, I'm wasting my time. That's not the case," Bryant says. "As little as 10 or fifteen minutes can help and add up to a real benefit." "If a person has been inactive, the first activity to take up is walking," Stevens suggests. "After that, or even in conjunction, if a person wants to cross train, like swimming or cycling, as long as you can keep it up for 10 minutes, it is a cardiovascular exercise." Hiking, signing up for tennis classes and playing outdoor games like tag with the kids are also great ways to get exercise where the minutes fly by, Bryant says. If you find you are experiencing prolonged muscle discomfort or not recovering adequately following your workout, you are probably doing too much too soon. Ultimately, the goal is to find the time to do those types of exercise you enjoy. Bryant says: "If you find something you enjoy, the minutes will come." |
||||
|
||||
