Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/510259
Page 6 | Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysHealthAndNutrition.com Get to your Goal in Less Time N o time for exercise? Want to learn how to work less and still get better results? University of Alberta researchers reported in September that a group of healthy people who wore pedometers and made an effort to take an extra 5,000 steps a day (about 50 minutes of walking) showed no improvement in their physical fitness after six months. But yet another group that hit the gym only four days a week for 40 minutes of intense workouts (for example walking as fast as you can without actually running) significantly increased their endurance levels. So, the harder you work the more efficiently you can increase your fitness. A study published in the September Journal of Physiology compared two groups of cyclers who engaged in six exercise sessions over two weeks and found that those who did 30–second sprints mixed with 4–minutes rest periods for 30 minutes had the same improvements as those who biked at a moderately intense pace for more than 90 minutes. "When you do an all-out sprint it calls every muscle cell into action, while traditional endurance workouts allow some cells to sit there in a resting phase", explains study leader Martin Gibala of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Much Improved fitness means your muscles are able to better use oxygen, which translates into increased energy and better blood pressure and cholesterol levels. "With High Intensity workouts, you can get these benefits in three or four days a week instead of five to seven days for a lower-intensity workout", says University of Florida researcher Michael Perri. When you are just starting an exercise program,