February Challenge- EXERCISE INTENSITY

One month into the New Year and we are ready to take a look at our next challenge: Exercise Intensity.

We can all agree that exercise is beneficial. In fact, any form of energy expenditure provides benefits, and there are piles of scientific evidence to prove it. Understand, however, that not all exercise is created equal.

The American College of Sports Medicine(ACSM) currently recommends 30 minutes of moderate activity at least 5 days per week (a minimum of 150 minutes per week), or 20 minutes of vigorous activity at least 3 days per week. It is important to periodically reassess your our current routine to determine if we are working out at a high enough level of intensity to suit your specific needs and health concerns.  At some point most individuals will reach a point where they need to move on to the moderate to vigorous intensity levels.

To illustrate, let’s compare walking and running.  We know that to lose one pound of fat we must burn 3,500 calories.  Based on this, and the metabolic equations from ACSM – for a 150-pound person to burn one pound of fat, he/she must walk at 4 mph for 8 hours and 45 minutes or 35 miles or run 8 mph for 3 hours and 42 minutes or 29.5 miles. That is only a 5.5 mile difference, but a whopping time savings of 5 hours and 3 minutes. Granted many people can’t jump from walking 4mph to running 8 mph, but we can gradually incorporate intervals to up the exercise intensity.   As an added bonus, research out of Beaumont hospital in Michigan shows that working out at a higher intensity can over time give us a cardio protective benefit-( limit our risk of a heart attack).

So next time you think about just moving why not pick up the intensity you will not only get more benefit out of your time but provide a better bang for your heart health.

Doing anything is always better than doing nothing, but America is experiencing a health epidemic and lack of exercise intensity and duration contributes greatly to this crisis.