interesting findings

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend. I know I did!

I read some interesting articles that I will share with you in a minute. But first...

I stepped on the scale this morning, it's been a while. I've been pigging out literally for the past 4 weeks not and I have not gained an ounce! I haven't been working out like a crazy maniac, eating like there's no tomorrow, and I weigh exactly the same. I was so baffled by this that I mentioned it to my husband, to which he replied, "Maybe you've got enough muscle to sustain now...". Hmm, wouldn't that be fun?!

Ok, so onto this article. My mom gets ELLE magazine, for reasons unknown to her (haha) and so she always gives it to me. I would never buy this magazine on my own because I'm not a hard core fashionista and it's 90% ads for things I can't afford. But since she gives it to me, I look at it.

Much to my wondrous surprise, there was an article about whether or not cardio is really necessary. Naturally, I HAD to read it. Lucky for me, the author had the same mentality as me when it comes to the treadmill, "Mind-numbingly dull"...yep. Plus, she adds that a 45 minute workout ends up taking 2 hours when you factor in travel time, showering, etc. True dat! But it has to be done to stay fit, am I right?

So, to answer the question, Yes, according to pretty much every study ever done, you need cardiovascular exercise. But the question lies in how much? Well, lucky for those of us who don't particularly enjoy jogging 10 miles a day, there is no need to in order to be super fit. YAY! Of course, I already knew this.

Turns out, you can do more good just doing as little as 3 minutes a week than you can doing 30 minutes 5 times per week. Yeah, I didn't believe it either, but listen. We all know that HIIT training is a super efficient way of getting in cardio and reaping multiple benefits that range from conditioning your heart, to speed, to stamina, to fat loss. And you don't need to spend 7 hours a week doing it. Which appeals to a lot of us who'd rather be doing other things. Look, I like to exercise, but I'd much rather be photoshopping or playing with my kids or sitting in the shade with a good book.

In a study done on cyclists, who were seperated into two groups, one group riding for 2 1/2 hours and the second group doing intervals of 30 second max-intensity sets followed by 4 minutes of rest, each group showed identical endurance-related molecular changes in their muscle tissue, even though one group only exercised a total of 15 minutes as opposed to the other's 10 1/2 hours. Shocking, isn't it?

Not only that, but blood vessels get more elastic during interval training, the same as what is seen with much larger amounts of traditional cardio. "There seems to be lot of benefit in terms of increased fat burning when you go one step beyond aerobic exercise and get your anaerobic system working, which is the one that leaves you breathless and a little uncomfortable." Another bonus, HIIT may subdue appetite, thereby alleviating the urge to pig out that so many people experience after long runs.

This sounds a little like the article in TIME magazine where they basically said you shouldn't exercise because it makes you hungrier. But that was stupid. Who tells the masses NOT to exercise? I do feel hungrier on days where I workout, but if you eat properly and at the right times, it's not going to adversely affect your weight versus pigging out on crap.

So getting back to the 3 minutes per week thing. Here's the skinny: Ever heard of Tabata? This is something I've done before. It's 20 seconds if maximum effort exercise followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8 times. It's great. Apparently if you do all out sprints like this, you might puke...haha. This is said to deliver the same fat burning effect as an hour of exercise....in 4 minutes! Nice! Who would EVER go back to conventional cardio after that finding?? It's not for everyone I guess. Not all of us can handle it or even like it. But I'm more of a - get in, work hard, get out - type of girl. Not a - I think I'll have a relaxing reading session while I'm on the stationary bike for an hour - type of girl.

It's now generally agreed that long-duration cardio shouldn't be the main thrust of anyone's exercise regimen, anyway. "And when you do cardio, about a third of every pound you lose is going to come from muscle tissue." - Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS, lecturer in Exercise Science at the City University of New York and author of the upcoming The MAX Muscle Plan. "And when you lose muscle, your metabolism becomes suppressed, so it makes it harder for you to lose weight and can ultimately cause you to gain." This is why the obvious choice (to me) for exercising is weight training. He recommends doing 25-minute resistance-training circuits which are a good way to sneak in cardio. "Your heart rate is elevated, and you're burning calories while adding lean muscle tissue." Win win. Oh, and it takes less time. Another win.

Now, onto another article which debunks some fitness myths. It turns out, harder faster longer is not the path to a healthy brain and body, according to Gretchen Reynolds in her new book, The First 20 Minutes. (this also taken from ELLE)

One thing that caught my eye was the myth that there is no such thing as too much exercise. Turns out, there IS. According to scans from a group of sedentary middle-aged people versus serious athletes, the athletes had scarring in their heart muscles, while the sedentary group had none! This reminds me of a post I did a while back. It also makes me think about elite athletes that drop dead, like that Norwegian swimmer who died a few weeks back, and he was in his early 20's. Heart related death I believe. Scary.

There was an experiment done on mice where one group was made to run for more than 2 hours and the other jogged for 30 minutes. Both groups were then infected with the human influenza virus. 70% of the group that ran over 2 hours died compared to the group who jogged 30 minutes (almost all recovered!). In exercise, as in most things, moderation may be best.