Learn three simple exercises to complete a scientific workout that fits into anyone’s holiday schedule
All you need to get started is an open space, comfortable clothes and shoes, and a one-minute timer. Warm up with jumping jacks for a minute and then start the sequence. Complete as many repetitions of each exercise as you can manage in one minute.
From a standing position, lower to the floor, feet under your chest, hands on the floor. Extend your legs and straighten them. Pull them back. stand. Repeat for 60 seconds. When you’re done, recover by walking in place for 60 seconds, so your breathing, heart rate, and muscles relax for a moment.
Hold your hands in front of you as you stand. Lift your left knee until it touches your hands. Bring your feet back to the ground. Repeat. After 30 seconds, switch legs. When you’re done, recover with a 60-second walk in place.
As if climbing a horizontal slope with one leg on all fours and then the other. Repeat for 60 seconds. When you finish, walk in the recovery position for 60 seconds.
Repeat 60 seconds of knee curls, followed by 60 seconds of walking in place.
Repeat the 60 second squats. You are done!
Why bodyweight workouts are good for you.
The exercises in this workout were specifically chosen by the researchers to “engage muscles in the upper and lower body,” said Martin Gibala, a kinesiology professor at McMaster University who helped develop and study the new workout. .
The routine is generally “energy-friendly,” he said, because it involves little jumping or kicking, even if there is bending.
The goal is to push yourself out of your physical comfort zone for those 60 seconds, Gibala says, reaching a 7 or 8 on a 10-point scale. This effort qualifies as “vigorous” in exercise-science terms, meaning it’s harder than a brisk walk, which is considered moderate effort.
Previous research by Gibala and other scientists has shown that this exercise makes body-weight routines more effective.
“Ideally, these types of workouts should raise your heart rate into the vigorous range for at least 10 minutes,” says Gibala. They should also engage muscles throughout the body, he said, in the legs, core and upper body.
This way, the exercise can adequately adapt and strengthen your cardiovascular system and muscles, he said.
Improvement in other physical activities
In the year In 2021, an earlier, somewhat more intense 11-minute bodyweight workout was developed by Gibala and colleagues. It has improved significantly Aerobic fitness among healthy college students who completed three sessions of exercise per week for six weeks.
But that exercise, including burpees, sprints in place, and split squat jumps, could easily hamper some people’s fitness and mature knee joints, the researchers speculated.
So, the researchers replaced more moderate exercises and tested the new exercise again. Research It was published in Scientific Reports in November. During this time, 27 healthy young men and women were equipped with heart rate and glucose monitors, so researchers could evaluate their heart rate, 24-hour blood sugar control and other physiological parameters in their normal life.
Then, a few days later, they wore the same trackers and ran through the 11-minute workout, squatting and climbing a mountain.
The single workout raised their heart rate into the intense zone for most of the 11 minutes. “It can be a really effective workout,” says Gibala.
The routine had little effect on 24-hour blood sugar control, because the young people tested started with such strong, healthy blood sugar levels, Gibala said.
So, when the holidays get busy and you push yourself for five minutes of exercise and five more walks, find an empty space in your home or hotel room. If the exercises feel too easy, pick up the pace. Or swap one or two of them for more demanding calisthenics, such as jumping jacks or high-intensity jogging, if your joints and stamina allow.
Above all, enjoy yourself with the training, says Gibala. “It’s easier to do with a team,” he points out. So, cajole to join a visiting relative. Raise restless children on board. Encourage each other to “see who can do the most reps” in minutes of each exercise or to finish the last squat push. The aim is to make the holidays healthy and fun.
Videos by Alexa Juliana Ard. Copy editing by Matt Schnabel. Exercises demonstrated by Alison Thie, a certified personal trainer in Las Vegas.
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