I have seen another piece of research that showed that you actually get more weight loss benefit from three 10 minutes sessions than from one 30 minute session, but that was a long time ago and I don’t know how to find the information again.
[sub]I’d give my eye-teeth for an online archive of all of Reuter’s health news[/sub]
Of perhaps more importance is the fact that one 10-minute session is better for you than skipping exercise entirely just because you can’t exercise for 30 minutes. Back in the day when I actually researched the effects of exercise rather than just doing it, the basic idea is that the body is stupid and slow in how it reacts to stuff. For most people, if they “exercise” for 10 minutes, it’s actually stretch for a minute or two, warm up for a minute or two, exercise for five, then cool down. If, instead, the 10 minutes is 10 minutes on a stairmaster, that’s different. If you’re only really exercising for 5 minutes, your body will blow it off as a freak accident (“we don’t need to be able to run long distances–that was just a short jog”). If you go for a solid 10, your body will do something about it (“whoa, we had to catch the antelope today!”).
Well, we’ll see. I’m currently trying out the whole “Body for Life” thing. Well, sort of trying it out - his food restrictions are a bit much for me, but I like his exercise plan. I don’t know if it works or not, but it’s enough of a new and different thing for me that I’m motivated, which is the most important part.
Anyways, the big thing is 3 days of weightlifting, intersperced with 3 days of 20 minutes of cardio. The cardio is 4 - 4 minute intervals, with 2 minutes of “warm up” at the beginning and 2 minutes of “maximum power”, ie, you go really hard, at the end. Seems like very little cardio to me, but we’ll see. I do find that it’s easier to drag my ass out of bed in the morning when I tell myself “If you can’t run/sit on the spin bike for 20 minutes then you might as well just resign yourself to ho-hos and beer.” Hmmmm… ho-ho’s and beer… Yummmm…
I’ve read too much exercise research. I find it all contradicts itself. I’ve decided on a much more practical approach. I asked my self when have you lost weight in your life. I came up with only one occasion, basic training. After 12 weeks I was a leaner, meaner me. I was 19 and lost about 3 inches from my waist. I ran 4-8 miles a day, did 100’s of push-ups and sit-ups daily. And I ate three huge meals a day. (That was the only good part of basic. I could eat all the eggs and bacon for breakfast I wanted.)
My fitness was gained by twice daily 1.5-hour exercise sessions under the watch full eyes of my drill instructors. I no longer have three hours a day to devote. So I run at lunch everyday. How long you ask? 20 minutes because is takes me 5 minutes to get dressed to run then 35 minutes to cool down, stretch shower and put my office clothes back on. If my wife feels like running in the evening I run with her then too.
No books no physiological studies, just the practical approach. I’m on day 4 of week 2 of my self-imposed 12-week program.
I have to say it’s much more fun without the drill sergeants.