BBC
Knowledge The Truth About Exercise
“The Chair
Kills”
I have read
about these astonishing findings in The Economist. Recently, I have seen the documentary
on BBC Knowledge (it is on right now, 15:30 May 1st). The first
astounding research talks about the length of the exercise and the second about
sedentary, office work. It is useless to go every day for one hour to the gym,
if you spend 12 hours on a chair. We need to get up and have some activity very
hour, for a few minutes. You can learn more about this if you google it and
watch, but I have placed what I have found on the subject at http://charlusguermantes.blogspot.ro/
The
conclusion is…The Chair Kills!!
A
few relatively short bursts of intense exercise, amounting to only a few
minutes a week, can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits of hours of
conventional exercise, according to new research, says Dr Michael Mosley. But
how much benefit you get from either may well depend on your genes
Like many, Michael Mosley wants to get fitter and
healthier but can't face hours on the treadmill or trips to the gym. Help may
be at hand.
He uncovers the surprising new research which suggests
many of us could benefit from just three minutes of high intensity exercise a
week.
He discovers the hidden power of simple activities
like walking and fidgeting, and finds out why some of us don't respond to
exercise at all.
Using himself as a guinea pig, Michael uncovers the
revealing new research about exercise, that has the power to make us all live
longer and healthier lives
When I first read studies which suggested that I could make significant and
measurable changes to my fitness by doing just three minutes of exercise a week,
I was incredulous.
But this apparently outrageous claim is supported by many years of research
done in a number of different countries including the
UK, so I decided to give it a go.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Aerobic fitness is a measure of how good your heart and
lungs are at getting oxygen into your body and is an excellent predictor of
future health”
End Quote
My guide into the world of High Intensity Training
(HIT), was Jamie Timmons, professor of ageing biology at Birmingham
University.
Jamie assured me that by doing just three minutes of HIT a week for four
weeks, I could expect to see significant changes in a number of important health
indices.
The first, and the one I was most interested in, is insulin sensitivity.
Insulin removes sugar from the blood, it controls fat and when it becomes
ineffective you become diabetic.
My father was a diabetic and died from complications of that disease. Jamie
assured me that research from a number of centres has shown that three minutes
of HIT a week improves insulin sensitivity by an average of 24%.
The second improvement I was likely to see would be in my aerobic fitness.
Aerobic fitness is a measure of how good your heart and lungs are at getting
oxygen into your body and is an excellent predictor of future health. I asked
Jamie why.
"The simple answer is we don't know," he replied. "What we do know is that it
is a very, very powerful predictor of future health."
Genetic test
So if I could improve my insulin sensitivity and my aerobic fitness then that
should improve my general health. But Jamie said there was a potential sting in
the tail. There was a possibility that I wouldn't improve. Not because HIT
doesn't work but because I've inherited the wrong genes.
Continue reading the main story
FIND OUT MORE
- Michael Mosley presents Horizon: The Truth About
Exercise on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday 28 February 2012 or watch online
via iplayer (UK only) afterwards at the above link
The fact is that people respond to exercise in very
different ways. In
one
international study 1,000 people were asked to exercise four hours a week
for 20 weeks. Their aerobic fitness was measured before and after starting this
regime and the results were striking.
Although 15% of people made huge strides (so-called "super-responders"), 20%
showed no real improvement at all ("non-responders").
There is no suggestion that the non-responders weren't exercising properly,
it was simply that the exercise they were doing was not making them any
aerobically fitter.
Jamie and his collaborators investigated the reasons for these variations and
discovered that much
of the difference could be traced to a small number of genes.
On the basis of this finding they have developed a genetic test to predict
who is likely to be a responder, and who is not. Jamie offered me that test. But
I would not be told the results until I had completed my HIT regime.
I agreed, had blood taken and went through some baseline tests to assess my
starting point, fitness-wise. Then I began to do HIT.
Full throttle
It's actually very simple. You get on an exercise bike, warm up by doing
gentle cycling for a couple of minutes, then go flat out for 20 seconds.
A couple of minutes to catch your breath, then another 20 seconds at full
throttle. Another couple of minutes gentle cycling, then a final 20 seconds
going hell for leather. And that's it.
Michael Mosley tries high intensity training
So how does it work? According to Jamie, and other researchers I spoke to,
part of the explanation is (probably) that HIT uses far more of our muscle
tissue than classic aerobic exercise.
When you do HIT, you are using not just the leg muscles, but also the upper
body including arms and shoulders, so that 80% of the body's muscle cells are
activated, compared to 20-40% for walking or moderate intensity jogging or
cycling.
Active exercise also seems to be needed to break down the body's stores of
glucose, deposited in your muscles as a substance called glycogen. Smash up
these glycogen stores and you create room for more glucose to be sucked out of
the blood and stored.
Somewhat sceptical I went off and dutifully did my four weeks of HIT, making
a grand total of 12 minutes of intense exercise and 36 minutes of gentle
pedalling. I then went back to the lab to be retested.
The results were mixed. My insulin sensitivity had
improved by a remarkable 24%, which was extremely satisfying, but my aerobic
fitness had not improved at all.
I was crestfallen, but Jamie was not surprised. It turns out that the genetic
test they had done on me had suggested I was a non-responder and however much
exercise I had done, and of whatever form, my aerobic fitness would not have
improved. My dreams of winning Olympic gold ended there and then.
I will continue doing HIT because I can see the benefits. It won't suit
everyone, because although it is short, it is extremely intense. Like any new
exercise regime if you have a pre-existing medical condition you should consult
your doctor before trying it.
Michael Mosley presents Horizon: The Truth About
Exercise is on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday 28 February 2012 or watch
online afterwards at the above link.
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