It’s April. By this point, many of those New Year’s Resolutions to get back into the gym have evaporated, but if you’re one of the ones who have stuck it out, well done!
For those who felt overwhelmed by the amount of exercising required to meet your goals, perhaps the latest study by the Journal of the American Heart Association could give you some inspiration to give it another try.
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The idea that a person needs to work out every day may seem logical and it’s probably what you think all of those gymfluencers you follow are doing. Don’t let that bog you down. You don’t need to work out that much; in fact, the aforementioned study suggests one to two days of exercise is enough to help you on your path to better health.
You Don’t Need to Fit in a Workout Every Day. Do This Instead.
The group consisted of 93,409 people between 37 and 73 years old between 2013 to 2015. The scientists tracked exercise patterns through movement data and fitness trackers, looking to see how their patterns impacted their chances of death from cancer or heart disease.
After many years of following these people and more data points than I care to write, what was discovered was that those who worked out in that 1-2 days per week window saw the same health benefits as those who did so throughout the week. It’s more so about hitting 150 minutes of physical activity a week than it is hammering down five to six sessions at the gym a week.
That’s great news for people in the workforce who struggle to find the time after their 9-5 ends. You can just knock out your exercise on the weekend and feel good about yourself!
Dr. Zhi-Hao Li, Ph. D, who authored the research, calls it “reassuring” that “even sporadic physical activity can have lasting health benefits.” Those with busy schedules just need to find a couple of hours, if that, each week to fit in some workouts and get back on track.
Now with a study like this, there’s a bevy of other factors that can impact someone’s health outside of exercise. Family history, diet, and consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs also play a role.
That being said, the important thing here, and the biggest thing to take away, is that any exercise is good. It’s better to go for a 20-minute run once a week than it is to go seven straight days without anything.
It may not feel like much, but in the long run, you’ll be glad you did.
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