As one of the fattest nations in the world Australians are now being urged to increase their weekly exercise to 300 minutes a week. The government believes that more exercise is the answer to our growing health problems; however I’m not so convinced.
In an ongoing attempt to help curve the rising rates of obesity amongst Australians, the department of health put out guidelines last month on how much exercise you should be getting each day. Previously Australians were recommended to get 150 minutes of exercise spread over a week (and more if you want to lose weight). But in a world first, the recently updated guidelines have just been bumped up to 300 minutes a week. Spread over 5 days that equates to a full hour of exercise a day.
I’ll be honest… As an Exercise Physiologist, fitness trainer, gym goer and football player, I can admit that even I don’t exercise that much. The reason is it’s simply too much, you’ll burn out if you’re constantly working your body for that long. Particularly if you’re eating a sub-optimal diet like most unhealthy people are.
And that’s not even considering the fact that it’s simply hard to find that much time in a day. Whether you’re a busy mum or working 50-60 hour weeks, an hour a day is a lot of time lost. I know there are plenty of things I’d prefer to be doing than slogging it out at the gym. However there is another way; and the funny thing is, it’s more effective and takes much less time.
The first step is to nourish your body with what it needs. Start with an energy dense, nutritious diet (not calorie restricting!), good sleep and stress reduction. Once you’ve got those basics in place you can start to introduce some high intensity exercise into your day. The key is not to exercise longer, but instead to exercise harder. This is the most time efficient way to get your body in shape and reclaim your health. But it must be done slowly and be supported with good nutrition and sleep. The perfect exercise program will include some type of full body strength and cardio, core work, mobility and stretching.
Don’t think your body can handle high intensity exercise? You’d be surprised; I have most of my elderly and overweight clients doing this in some form or another.
To get you started, here are three ideas on ways to include high intensity exercise into your day:
1. Stair climb – complete 10 flights of stairs as quickly as you can with a 15 second rest between each one. Too easy? Add in 10 quick squats when you get to the top each time
2. Bike sprints – either on a stationary bike or out on the road, complete 10 x 1 minute sprints with a 30 second recovery of slow pedalling
3. Get the app “7 minute workout” and complete their daily exercises. Nothing like having a personal trainer on your phone
Like the sound of it but worried about getting injured? Then book in a session with an Exercise Physiologist and they can help guide you. Down at the clinic we can structure a program to make sure you’re not wasting time or putting yourself at risk.
What are your thoughts? Do you have the time to fit in an hour of exercise a day? Have you tried one of our recommended workouts above? As always we love to hear your feedback so please keep on sending it through!
Yours in health
-Chris