Study: Exercise amount outweighs intensity..

[IGBT]

Text

ya don't have to sweat blood to benefit from excercise and if your causing injury to your self your missing the point.

Interestingly, however, the vigorous intensity exercisers did not get any "fitter" than the moderate intensity exercisers. "The moderate intensity group only exercised to 40 or 50 percent of their max," Duscha explained. "That's walking briskly up a hill or walking fast -- you could walk around the neighborhood after dinner and get that in. You don't have to go jog, climb on the stairmaster or elliptical trainer and kill yourself."

 

[Czar]

they are strightly talking about the heart, not the rest of the body

 

[Warthog912]

Interesting to read... I've always heard "No pain No gain" was the way to do it-

Any excuse for the lazy will work though. This article just encourages people to do more not as intense, where as I disagree. I believe working out (not going the gym as a social occasion) to the max is the only way to go. Only when you are Completely exhausted have you done enough-

 

[azazyel]

Originally posted by: Czar
they are strightly talking about the heart, not the rest of the body

Yup, you can be healthier but not look healthier.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

While true based on the study, I think the author commentary is closer to the take home.

"Anything beyond walking briskly for 12 miles per week, whether increasing your intensity or the amount of miles, has additional benefits," Brian D. Duscha from Duke University Medical Center in Durham who was involved in the research said.

"So there is a separate and combined effect."

"People need to know: even without losing weight, you are getting significant benefits by exercising -- you're improving your fitness level, decreasing fat and increasing muscle and improving your lipid panel -- so don't stop exercising," Duscha said.

This message is what "good physicians" have been trying to convey for decades. You should exercise to improve your health, which is often NOT correlated with what's on the scale.

"The other thing to realize is that people gain 3 to 4 pounds a year, so exercise is really important for weight maintenance," Duscha said.

Take home message for people with decent bodyweights.

 

[cKGunslinger]

How much you exercise may be more important than how hard you exercise in terms of heart health, according to a study of sedentary overweight men and women. And, many will be happy to hear, exhaustive amounts of exercise are not needed for heart health.

I think we're only talking about the heart here, not the overall body health and the effects of intense exercise.


edit: I suppsoe if I had exercised a bit harder, I would have got this post in earlier, when it still would have been relevant.

 

[misle]

I've always associated the "No pain, no gain" slogan with body building and weight lifting. When you lift heavy weight, you cause microtrauma in your muscles. The pain is that muscle rebuilding itself bigger and stronger. Therefore it you didn't cause microtrauma (pain), you won't get any new muscle growth (gain).

Applying no pain, no gain to cardio and other exercise just seems silly to me.

 

[43st]

So the whole target heart rate thing is out the door? Seems a a bit off doesn't it?

 

[maluckey]

Not really. Lots of studies have shown that even a strict bodybuilding regimen assists in heart health, but not nearly as much as a "cardio" workout.

Anything that you do to raise te heart rate assists in heart health. The overall measure for aerobic health is also including your lungs capacity as well as the circulatory systems ability to get the O2 where it is needed. That being said, a combination of muscle strength AND cardio workouts provides more than either can provide for alone, and the muscle training adds the benefit of incresed muscle mass and cvascularity, as well as burning more calories even at rest.

 

[azazyel]

I just because it fits...

IRON AND SOUL - by Henry Rollins

"Iron and the Soul"

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like you parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me "garbage can" and telling me I'd be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn't run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn't going to get pounded in the hallway between classes.

Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you'll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn't think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my adviser. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard.

Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn't even drag them to my mom's car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.'s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn't looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing.

In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn't want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in. Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn't say **** to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn't want to come off the mat, it's the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn't teach you anything. That's the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a ceratin amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn't have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone's shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body. Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn't see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you're made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live.

Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind. The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

 

[maluckey]

"......you're one of them!!" "You say, that your my friend, but you're one of them!!!"

Seriously, Henry Rocks!! A true original who's not afraid to say what's on his mind. Makes Marshall Mathers pale in comparison. It's also a good way to think about fitness. Fitness should be measured as the golden mean of the Greeks, which ALWAYS includes mental health and training of he mind.

 

[azazyel]

Originally posted by: maluckey
"......you're one of them!!" "You say, that your my friend, but you're one of them!!!"

Seriously, Henry Rocks!! A true original who's not afraid to say what's on his mind. Makes Marshall Mathers pale in comparison. It's also a good way to think about fitness. Fitness should be measured as the golden mean of the Greeks, which ALWAYS includes mental health and training of he mind.

I have never gotten into his music but I love his spoken word. What I like about him is that he can come down hard on anyone but at the same time he is more than willing to come down on himself aswell.

 

[dahunan]

I really like his album "WEIGHT"

If I?d listened everything that they said to me, I wouldn?t be here!
And if I took the time to bleed from all the tiny little arrows shot my way,
I wouldn?t be here!
The ones who don?t do anything are always the ones who try to put you down
And you could spend your entire life walking around
In the nowhere land of self doubt

?coz when you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive!
It?s time, it?s time to align your body with your mind, it?s hero time
It?s time, it?s time to align your body with your mind, it?s hero time
?coz when you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive!
And you know it?s true!
I?m talking to you: hero time starts right now! yeah, hero time, yeah,
Time to shine, hey, hero time!

If ya think you?ve got 100 years to mess around: you?re wrong!
This time it?s real, y o u r t I m e I s n o w . . . it?s hero time!
Yeah, hero time,hey, time to shine, yeah, hero time, yeah!

Hard times are gettin? harder, the liars are acting strong
You better get a grip on yourself or you won?t be around too long
It?s hero time, hey, time to shine, yeah, hero time, yeah, hero time, yeah!
It?s hero time, it?s hero time, time to shine, shine, shine, shine, shine!
Oh yeah! (x3)

No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time
No such thing as down time
All you got is life time... go! ?coz it?s hero time, ?coz it?s time to
Shine
?coz it?s time to go, go, go! yeah, hou!

When you?re gone, you?re so gone (x2) you?ve got it now, it?s time to go
Hero time starts right now! yeah, aha..! ...change it!

I got grace in times of friction, I got truth in times of fiction
I?ve got no time for the hype... suicide!? I?m not that type...
I got no time for drug addiction, no time for smoke and booze
Too strong for a shortened life span, I?ve got no time to lose!
It?s time to shine, yeah, it?s hero time, yeah, it?s hero time, yeah,
Yeah!

When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive! yeah!
You could spend your entire walking around, coward: or you can get up!
Get up, get up, get up, get up! it?s time to shine! yeah...

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Warthog912
Interesting to read... I've always heard "No pain No gain" was the way to do it-

Any excuse for the lazy will work though. This article just encourages people to do more not as intense, where as I disagree. I believe working out (not going the gym as a social occasion) to the max is the only way to go. Only when you are Completely exhausted have you done enough-

I suppose that would depend on what your definition of "enough" is, or rather, what your goal for exercise is. If you are just trying to stay in reasonable shape, that's different than if you are competing in the Iron Man competition.