Health And Fitness Mag Biography
Source Google.com.pk
How many days a week do you need to work out? Can you get all the health benefits from one weekly workout lasting more than two hours as you can in daily 20-minute exercise sessions?
A new study from Queen’s University, Canada, looked at how the body reacts to working out once a week compared to several times a week, and how exercise frequency affects health risks.
According to the World Health Organization’s current physical-activity guidelines, adults need to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) throughout the week in bouts of at least 10 minutes or more. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however, urges at least 30 minutes of daily MVPA. Given the lack of research to clearly demonstrate the optimal frequency of exercise (and hence, the differing guidelines), the research team from Queen’s University set out to find the answer.
A cross-section of 2,324 adults, ages 18-64 years, were recruited to participate in the study. Subjects were divided into two groups—the dailies and the intermittents—and were each given accelerometers to track their activity for one week. The dailies (those who regularly exercised) were assigned to five days a week of physical activity, while the intermittents (those who did not participate in regular exercise programs) were instructed to exercise one to four days a week. Both groups were required accumulate at least 150 minutes of MVPA for the week.
Researchers were also interested in the association between the frequency of physical activity throughout the week and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in physically active adults. At the end of the week, each participant’s risk of MetS was measured by blood biomarkers, and researchers found that the more frequent group had lower risks than those who exercised intermittently. However, after adjusting the amount of MVPA, the difference in risk of MetS was less significant.
It is important to note that the short-term nature of this study makes it difficult to draw long-term conclusions about how frequency of exercise affects health conditions such as MetS. Although there is considerable evidence suggesting that any exercise is better than none, it is not advisable to limit exercise to one long session per week in the hopes that that long-term health benefits will result. A myriad of factors should be considered when determining exercise frequency, including time constraints and adherence, as well as the potential benefits associated with more frequent exercise, such as stress reduction and mental stimulation.
Who isn’t an expert these days when it comes to stress? Parents rushing their children off to school while packing their own briefcases and munching on a “breakfast bar,” commuters making a breathless dash to catch transportation, dealing with aggressive bosses who don’t know how to manage people, parents moving, divorcing, and/or not sleeping due to continuous thoughts about financial or health worries.
Yet for all of this “expertise,” nearly 80 percent of Americans regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress, and nearly 75 percent experience stress-related psychological symptoms. Extreme stress is a familiar feeling for one-third of the country, due largely to job pressures, financial woes, health concerns and unhealthy relationships.
Debilitating fatigue, jackhammer headaches, hypertension, weight gain, weak immune system, lead weights inside your upset stomach, vice-like muscle tension, boiling anger, frozen anxiety, “I give up” depression and yes, even impaired sex drive—just a few of the stress-related side effects that cost Americans an estimated $300 billion a year.
Skip Saying Hello to Stress in the First Place
For something that we create ourselves, this is all unnecessary. You read that right. Stress is not something we GET. We are the writers, producers, directors, stage managers and actors in our own creation we call “stress.”
Seneca, the Greek philosopher, said, “Everything hangs on one’s thoughts.” Epictetus, another Greek philosopher, observed, “People are not disturbed by outside things and events, but rather we disturb ourselves about those outside things and events.” American philosopher/psychologist William James added, “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” And I’ll add what I’ve learned from coaching CEOs, athletes and everyday folks for more than three decades: “The link is what you think.”
Believe you lack the resources to handle a challenge or imagined “threat”? Think you “must” do well and it’ll be “terrible” if you don’t? Believe that people “must” treat you well and it’s “awful” when they don’t? Demand that life “must” be fair and it’s the “end of the world” when it’s not? Think that “nothing could be worse,” things are “more than 100 percent bad,” or “no good can come from bad events”?
Instead of creating the psychological and physiological effects of stress with these irrational thoughts, substitute more accurate and rational beliefs:
“I’d like to do well, but I don’t have to do so.”
“It’s bad if I don’t do well, but not terrible.”
“I want you to treat me well, but unfortunately you don’t have to do so. And when you don’t treat me well it’s really unfortunate, but not awful.”
“I very much want life to be fair, but unfortunately it doesn’t have to be the way I want it to be. So, if life is unfair that’s very bad, but it’s not the end of the world.”
See? Things could be worse. The event you are facing is less than 100 percent bad, and good could come from a bad event—you just have to look for it.
Stress is not a mosquito that bites you when you are resting (remember rest?). It’s not a snake that comes slithering into your office (that’d be your boss!). Stress is something that only originates in your thinking! Change the way you think and you’ll release the energy you built up, leading to a change in the way you feel. Ahhhh—feeling better already?
We know that exercise, of course, increases your ability to combat the effects of the stress you created. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor actually promotes the health of your brain and its growth, in particular in your prefrontal cortex/hippocampus, and thus helps in stress management.
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
Health and Fitness Mag Quotes Inspiration Picture Clipart Logo Magazine Images Tumblr Motivation Tips
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