We all know friends or fellow workers who are passionate about their exercise; football, cycling, badminton or perhaps the gym. It is easy if you don’t exercise very much to get the impression that exercise is a high commitment venture.
However this is not necessarily true. There is a growing trend towards simple, small exercise bursts that can make a real difference when done regularly.
Regular firing of your body’s nervous system and cardiovascular system has huge health benefits.
I used to catch a train from Cambridge to Norwich every day at 6.30am. I would set the alarm for 5.10am, hurry a shower, breakfast and then powerwalk to the station. If I strolled it was half an hour and if I powerwalked it was 20 minutes.
I can honestly say that whilst I disliked getting up this early I do miss this daily walk and I have seen this lack of walking take a toll on my fitness, strength and weight.
There has been increasing focus in the media on ‘short burst’ exercise; we have talked about Tabata training recently. I was discussing the idea of short exercise bursts with a gym trainer who had some interesting points to make.
You might have heard the joke about how to lose 4 stone in 10 minutes. Cut your legs off! While this joke is a stab at the exercise industry it makes a very interesting point.
Your leg muscles and buttocks do make up a sizeable part of your physical structure and herein lies an important point. Muscles aren’t just slabs of meat that create movement. They contain many important structures vital for your overall metabolism. Remember that there are very few structures in your body that do just one thing.
When you fire up these ‘engines of metabolism’ you increase your heart rate and begin to perspire; you are actually firing up your metabolism. You are asking your body to change the computer programme to burn fat and prepare for expenditure of energy.
This change of programme will last for many hours and perhaps all day. Firing up these large powerful muscles even for short periods of time, say ten minutes on an exercise bike, a power walk, skipping rope or for the more hardy, a Tabata regime will bring powerful change to your health.
In the search for improved health, prevention of injury, improvement of fitness, strength and weight loss, short amounts of regular exercise can be very powerful.
The regular firing of your body’s nervous system and cardiovascular system has huge health benefits.
How do you fire up your metabolism?