Why the gym three times a week will not make you healthy

We choose to workout every couple of days, but the rest of the inactive and often spend weekends passively. And in the end the sport does not bring us much good. The thing is that we misunderstand what physical activity and what we need.

What we really need exercise

Advances in technology has solved the problem of exhausting manual labor, but it has created a new one. As a result, each new generation is even less active than the previous one.

The researchers concludedBone Density Drop in Modern Humans Linked to Less Physical ActivityThat our ancestors normal level of physical activity several times higher than ours. The amount of work required for the existence in ancient times, was enormous: it was necessary to search for food and water, hunt, build shelter, make tools, and escape from predators. Therefore, prehistoric people were even stronger and healthier than Olympic athletes Today.

100 years ago, life has become much easier. But still go shopping more needed to walk, and wash the floors, chopping wood and had to wash the clothes yourself, by hand.

Today life in the city does not involve such loads. The main means of transportation was the car, walking We put on the backburner. We are moving less than before, for reasons of convenience, safety, and their own desires.

In the XX century, to clean the carpet, it was necessary to pull it out and knock hand about half an hour. Today, there are robotic vacuum cleaners, which do everything for us. And if earlier in the carpet cleaning spends about 200 calories to activate the robot cleaner needs only about 0.2.

We buy food and other things over the Internet, we have a dishwasher and washing machine, self-cleaning oven, of a self-refrigerators and coffee makers capsule. The work that is no longer necessary for us to carry out today, we take for the savings efforts. But few wonders what they must now spend.

A huge amount of energy is conserved and new kinds of work. At the end of the XIX century the labor market began to change radically the number of office workers has increased dramatically. A recent study in the US showedErgotron JustStand Survey & Index ReportThat today 86% of employees are engaged in sedentary work.

As a result, inactive lifestyle has led to the fact that our bones become thinner and weaker muscles than those of our ancestors centuries ago.

It would seem a small problem. But the same passivity - a major cause of heart disease and blood vessels, from which die each yearThe Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke 17 million people.

And the only way - is regular exercise, which can make us healthier. They help to reduce theExercise - the Miracle Cure risk strokes, Certain types of cancer, depression, heart disease and dementia by at least 30%. The likelihood of developing colon cancer is reduced by 45%, and osteoarthritis, hypertension and diabetes type 2 by 50%.

It turns out that the sport - it's not a fad, not a way to get a beautiful body and not just a supplementary item in the list of daily tasks. This is a way to keep us alive.

But in contrast to the sedentary work, which has to go every day, physical activity is separated from our real work. Therefore, we have to incorporate it into everyday life, not just to keep in the gym.

We already appeared trackers activities that are designed to help us start to move more in everyday life. Yet this is not enough. to physical exercises become useful for us, we need to change our approach to them.

Why periodic trips to the gym will not help

Doctors are actively promoting the idea of ​​regular physical activity among their patients. But the problem is that modernity is pushing us around at the same time strive to simplify and maximize efficiency. Therefore, health authorities are trying to motivate people with promises that good health is sufficient minimum of physical activity.

For example, we recommend a minimum of 150 minutes per week devote moderate aerobic activity: cycling or walking fast. Plus, at least twice a week, you need to engage in strength training, which will involve all the major muscles: legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms.

150 minutes - a half-hour sessions five days a week.

For some, and it's a lot. But there is another suggestion. Health Ministry campaign in England Active10 It suggests that a daily 10-minute brisk walking is considered exercise. It "may reduce the risk of serious diseases: heart disorders, diabetes type 2, dementia and some types of cancer."

Even less time require high intensity interval training (HIIT). This technique includes more than 20 seconds of operation at the maximum intensity, which is followed by a rest period or a more relaxed activity EnoughEnhanced Protein Translation Underlies Improved Metabolic and Physical Adaptations to Different Exercise Training Modes in Young and Old Humans a few minutes HIIT 2-3 times a week to improve insulin sensitivity and increase the circulation of oxygen and help build muscle.

All of these approaches to the exercises are effective in their own way and each has its supporters. But none of them can make the body so healthy and strong as it should be. And the problem is not the exercise itself, but the fact that we usually do between these bursts of activity.

In order for our body to stay healthy, we need to actively burn calories all day long, not just during short intervals.

Of course, a rare exercise is better than no. But if regular exercise prolongs life, it would be logical to think that professional athletes have to live very long. Actually this is not true.

according to a studyEveryone could enjoy the "survival advantage" of elite athletes, Olympic athletes on average live longer than 2.8 years. If we consider the constant demands to nutrition and healthy lifestyles, as well as tens of thousands of hours of training, 2 years and 8 months - it is not too much.

Besides Excessively high intensity loads can increase the production of free radicals and thereby expediteExhaustive physical exercise causes oxidation of glutathione status in blood: prevention by antioxidant administration the aging process.

It turns out that the strongest and most healthy people on the planet do not go to the gym. They live in the so-called blue zones longevity - it's Sardinia, Okinawa, Ikaria, Lomo Linda and Nicoya.

Demographers Dog Gianni (Gianni Pes) and Michel Poulain (Michel Poulain) studiedThe Blue Zones: areas of exceptional longevity around the world a way of life in these areas and find out why people live longer. This is facilitated by a number of customs and habits from fostering a sense of belonging to society to smoking cessation and nutrition mainly on vegetable food. Sports was not in this list.

The secret of the residents of "blue zones" lies in the constant physical activity, albeit at a low level. These are not the intensive training, to which we are accustomed. It is a way of life, when energy is constantly consumed during the day.

In addition, these people spend very little time sitting. Gianni Dog wondered why women who have worked for a long time sitting at the sewing machine, it is lived very much. It turned out that the machines were treadle - that is, workers are regularly burned enough calories.

That's why, even if you go to the gym every Saturday, because of low physical activity during the rest of you still do not become healthier.

What to do to become healthier

We must strive for a little activity, but for long periods. Exercise should be a part of everyday life.

Someone refuses the computer chair, preferring to stand behind the work. But to do it is just as harmfulIs sitting worse than static standing? How a gender analysis can move us toward understanding determinants and effects of occupational standing and walking.Like to sit. Someone is trying to combine the workplace treadmill - but this is impractical and creates an additional burden on the eyes.

Even an ordinary uncomfortable chair better than these options. Just because it is not possible to sit in one position and you have to keep moving.

Researchers agree that prolonged periods of little activity useful. For health, we needPhysical Activity 2016: Progress and Challenges 1-1.5 hours of moderate physical activity every day. To do this quite 10 000-15 000 steps daily.

You can abandon the car and try to walk more. Plan your time so as to be outdoors more often. But the best thing - to determine what the most simple and the most common movement taken away from us the present and try to bring them back into their lives.