Photo: Ryunosuke Kikuno, Unsplash
Could Exercise Be Both Weirder And Simpler Than We Thought?:
One of the hardest questions to ask yourself is, “Am I doing enough?”
If the answer is No, then how do you catch up?
The behavioral-economics answer is: Baby-step progress that just keeps going.
But a lot of people, can feel like they’re boxed-in by their schedule.
And how many aspirations fall victim to the, “I don’t have time right now.” excuse?
For exercise, some people decide to take the crazy route to catching up and obeying Tim Ferriss’ caution, “If it doesn’t get scheduled it doesn’t get done.”
And their community, even some at-risk members, just got a big boost from a Harvard team’s work…
The Short Answer:
- The standard prescription for exercise is 30 minutes of cardio/day.
- The WHO knocks that down to 5 days/week for their metric.
- To test how much it helps, a Harvard-centered team researched data from almost 52,000 subjects with Diabetes.
- They were broken into 3 groups: 1) Less than 150 minutes/wk, 2) 150 minutes in 3+ sessions, 3) 150 minutes in 2 sessions.
- Weekend-Warriors had results that were so good, they beat the 3-session group.
- They had 21% lower rate of early mortality vs. 17% for group 2.
- They also had 33% lower risk of cardiovascular death vs. 19% for the 3 session group.
- Similar reductions occur in non-diabetic subjects.
- Even non-diabetic patients who do less than 150 minutes have lower rates of disease & early-mortality than those who do nothing.
- The number of health problems they reduce is about 250 different ones.
- For non-diabetic subjects, they also seemed to avoid that disease if they exercised.
- Exercise is one of the few things that reduces Insulin-Resistance besides Intermittent-Fasting.
- Some doctors raise caution about high injury & joint-problem rates for Weekend Warriors.
- There is increasing evidence that total exercise time matters more than exercise schedule.
Read on to find out the details…
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There Is An RDA For Exercise, Just Like Every Vitamin Or Mineral:
So for anyone who’s new or just needs a good reminder, you need about 30 minutes of (preferably cardio) exercise every day.
And in his masterful vid, Dr. Mike Evans goes over all the different problems you’d be saving yourself if you did this.
But what about all the people caught up in the hustle & bustle? -Or just using excuses?
Exercise Study On Three Groups Of An At-Risk Population:
That’s what Harvard researchers set-out to find, and even highlight the results by doing their study on an at-risk population!
So they looked through data on almost 52,000 subjects who also had Diabetes.
-So exercise was an even more important part of life for them!
The 3 tested exercise groups were:
1) Less than the WHO standard exercise amount
2) Standard amount in 3 or more sessions
3) Standard amount in 2 sessions (ie: the Weekend Warriors)
What was particularly interesting, was the Weekend Warriors had better results than the 3+ sessions group.
Mystifyingly, The Weekend Warriors Win Big In The Numbers!:
They had:
1) A 21% lower rate of early mortality vs. 17% for 3 Sessions
2) 33% lower risk of cardiovascular death vs. 19% for the other group
And if you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel,
Even subjects who did some physical activity that was at least moderate-intensity,
But less than the WHO’s pretty low standard of 150 minutes/week,
STILL had lower rates of early-mortality and disease than those who didn’t exercise at-all!
So when you hear public health folks trying to get people to do ANY EXERCISE, boy do they have a good reason!
But What About People Who Don’t Have The Same Problems?:
So if you don’t have diabetes, do those same numbers work for you anyway?
YES THEY DO!
In at least a few other studies, Weekend Warriors who were otherwise healthy ended-up with +/- the same risk for health problems as people who exercised every day during the week.
And those results come from analysis of almost 90,000 subjects in the UK Biobank.
The Weekend Warriors lowered the risk of almost 250 different diseases just as well as people exercising 20-30 minutes every day of the week or close.
Here Are Just A Few Of The ~250 Different Problems That Get Better:
Some of the ~250 health problems exercise (even just walking!) can help improve are:
1) Knee Arthritis
2) Dementia
3) Study-favorite, Diabetes
4) Hip Fractures
5) Anxiety
6) Depression
7) Early Mortality
8) Fatigue
9) Overall Quality Of Life
Exercise Is Almost As Magical As The Voodoo Of Intermittent-Fasting:
As a matter-of-fact, the Biobank study also found out if you’re already a Weekend Warrior without Diabetes, there’s a great chance you get to avoid it in the first place.
-Along with many of the cardio diseases they also avoided.
Because one of the strange components of that disease and also stubborn weight-loss is Insulin-Resistance.
Well, by some crazy biochem magic, one of the few things besides 10/14 Intermittent-Fasting that lowers Insulin-Resistance?
One of Science’s most powerful “drugs”. -Cardiovascular exercise, baby!
A Few Final Points. -One Might Make You Reconsider The WW Route:
And finally, a couple of other points:
1) You may have to be a little careful if you chose the WW route,
Because pros like Dr. Keith Diaz caution that injury-rates and joint issues do seem to be higher for those exercisers.
2) But also weirdly, there is more & more strong evidence that it could be the total amount of time doing exercise that counts,
And maybe a little bit less emphasis on the specific days you do it.
So if you can manage some amount of cautious warmup as part of your WW efforts, maybe you can still make it work in your favor?
Either way, the disease & early-mortality %s are amazing for this group.
And it’s great to see even a time-compressed form of exercise look good, especially for people with challenging schedules.
References & Links:
• Source: Med X
• More Coverage: TCTMD | Harvard Gazette
• Source Study: AIN – Association of Weekend Warrior and Other Physical Activity Patterns With Mortality Among Adults With Diabetes: A Cohort Study
