Source: MakeLemonade.nz
Boston – Intense workouts can improve a person’s fitness more, compared to milder forms of exercise like walking 10,000 steps a day, according to a report, Boston University School of Medicine research has found.
Working out with more intensity than walking 10,000 steps over the course of a day drastically improves a person’s fitness, compared to milder forms of exercise, the report says.
Exercise is healthy and the Boston University School of Medicine set out to answer in the largest study to date aimed at understanding the relationship between regular physical activity and a person’s physical fitness.
The study of about 2000 participants from the Framingham heart study appears in the European Heart Journal.
By establishing the relationship between different forms of habitual physical activity and detailed fitness measures the researchers hope their study will provide important information that can ultimately be used to improve physical fitness and overall health across the life course.
While there is a wealth of evidence supporting the health benefits of both physical activity and higher levels of fitness, the actual links between the two are less well understood, especially in the general population, as opposed to athletes or individuals with specific medical problems. The study was designed to address this gap, but they were also interested in answering several specific questions.
The researchers wondered how different intensities of physical activity might lead to improvements in the body’s responses during the beginning, middle, and peak of exercise. They expected to find that higher amounts of moderate-vigorous physical activity, like exercise, would lead to better peak exercise performance.
They were surprised to see that higher intensity activity was also more efficient than walking in improving the body’s ability to start and sustain lower levels of exertion.
They were also uncertain whether the number of steps per day or less time spent sedentary would truly impact peak fitness levels. The findings were consistent across categories of age, sex, and health status, confirming the relevance of maintaining physical activity throughout the day for everyone.
They wondered how different combinations of the three activity measures contribute to people’s peak fitness? They saw that individuals with higher-than-average steps per day, or moderate-vigorous physical activity, had higher-than-average fitness levels, regardless of how much time they spent sedentary.
So, it seems that much of the negative effect that being sedentary has on fitness may be offset by also having higher levels of activity and exercise.
Do people really need to walk 10,000 steps a day? Is 30 minutes of daily exercise enough? The researchers say higher steps are associated with higher fitness levels, which is reassuring, especially for older individuals or those with medical conditions that may prohibit higher levels of exertion.
There is also ample evidence from other studies that higher step counts are associated with a host of favourable health outcomes.
