Category Archives: Fitness

Fitness, Health

A 7-minute workout by a leading physiologist…

Health & Fitness

For real results exercise must be a regular habit. Use weights for both strength and speed, an excellent way of improving fitness, metabolism and general wellbeing.

If you’ve renewed your commitment to getting fit now that spring is in full swing, you may be wondering how much time that goal will require.

If you want your workouts to produce real results, exercise has to be a regular habit, says Chris Jordan, the exercise physiologist who came up with the 7-minute workout. Jordan’s now-viral routine, officially called the “Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout” is designed to give you the benefits of a trip to the gym in just a few minutes.

“Skipping workouts can prevent you from achieving optimal results, whatever your specific fitness goal,” Jordan says.

To start seeing results from your fitness plan — whether you’re looking for physical signs like leaner limbs and toned muscles or psychological ones like improved mood and higher energy levels — you should aim to exercise at least three to five days each week. And that doesn’t mean simply lifting a few weights on those days.

“You should aim to do cardiovascular exercise [like running on a treadmill, riding a bike, or doing high-intensity interval training] three to five days each week and resistance training [like planks, squats, or leg raises] two to three days per week,” Jordan says.

The results you see will vary based on your current fitness level. If you’re new to regular workouts and start doing resistance training two or three days each week, you may start building muscle in just a few weeks. But if you’ve been a regular at a gym or yoga studio for several months, you’ll want to step it up a notch and work your body at least four days per week.

Jordan suggests interspersing different types of workouts to target various regions of your body. This will help you avoid fatigue and maximize your time. Here’s an example five-day training plan:

Monday: Cycling and upper body resistance training, like arm raises

Tuesday: Yoga and lower body resistance training, like squats

Wednesday: Running and upper body resistance training, like bench presses

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Boxing and lower body resistance training, like leg raises

Research suggests you can also use high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which combines the cardiovascular benefits of cycling or running with resistance training, to achieve the same or similar results. If you like HIIT, the 7-minute workout is a great place to start.

Whichever workout you try, however, the most important thing is to keep doing it.

“To achieve results,” says Jordan, “consistency is key.”

Standard
Fitness, Health, Medical, Science

Research reveals that walking is better for the brain than cycling

HEALTH

WALKING is better than cycling for the brain, because striking the ground boosts blood flow.

A stroll is often seen as gentler exercise than a long bike ride.

But as your foot hits the ground, each step sends backward-flowing pressure waves up the arteries, which boost the brain’s blood circulation.

This makes walking better for cerebral blood flow than cycling.

It follows numerous studies showing walking can prevent Alzheimer’s disease, which has been linked with reduced blood flow in part of the brain. Researchers at New Mexico Highlands University say a stroll not only boosts brain function, but may make exercise more enjoyable.

Lead researcher Dr Ernest Greene said: ‘What is surprising is that it took so long for us to finally measure these obvious hydraulic effects on cerebral blood flow.’

The scientists took ultrasounds from 12 healthy adults as they stood upright or walked steadily at a rate of a metre per second.

This calculated the speed of blood flow through vessels including the carotid artery to both sides of the brain. Plodding feet sent pressure waves through the arteries, which modify and increase the brain’s blood supply.

The waves were found to synchronise with the heart rate and stride rate to regulate blood circulation to the brain. While the effect was less dramatic than when running, it was greater than when cycling.

The results, presented to a meeting of the American Physiological Society, show that the brain, as well as the heart and muscles, benefits from going for a walk.

The NHS advises people to take 10,000 steps a day to reduce the risk of stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and asthma.

Appendage:

Walking

Some of the benefits of walking.

Standard