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| How to get fit in 20 minutes |
| | Mon, 16 Apr 2012 |
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DALLAS: Think about your day. Can you unearth a spare 20 minutes? They may be masquerading as Internet-surfing or lurking within the commercials-skipped sitcom you record and watch every evening. This search comes with a caveat: When you find those wayward 1,200 seconds, you lose your no-time-to-exercise excuse. Because though most health recommendations are for a half-hour workout daily, a concentrated 20 minutes can suffice quite nicely. “Do as much as you can in that 20 minutes,” says Jakob Vingren, assistant professor in the department of kinesiology, health promotion and recreation at the University of North Texas. “Get as much work done as possible in the allotted time.”
At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, researchers studied the effect that intervals – short bursts of intense exercise – had on various groups of people. They found that a 20-minute workout consisting of one minute of strenuous activity alternated with a minute of easy recovery, had significant health and fitness effects on unfit volunteers, cardiac patients and, in later research, diabetics. “There’s a lot of benefit in 20 minutes if done the right way,” says Bobby Patten, co-founder and head coach of Dallas Aquatic Masters. “If you go for a leisurely walk for 20 minutes, that’s better than sitting. If you upped the intensity, it’s better than a stroll. If you walked up and down hills, that’s even better.”
The brevity is good from a convenience standpoint, though, and breaking the time into pieces helps it pass even more quickly, says Craig Leverette, academic chair professor of physical education at Collin College. “Interval training is about fluctuation of heart rate within a target zone,” he says. “Anything you do, a bunch of little milestones along the way goes by faster than staring at the exact same tree out the exact same window on the exact same treadmill.” The first part of most workouts tends to involve burning carbohydrates as an energy source, he says. Most people have a goal of burning fat, which comes later in a workout. The concentrated intensity of a 20-minute workout helps speed the process a little.
“Everybody has a target zone” for their heart rate, Leverette says, “based on age, resting heart rate, things like that. You want it to be as high – moderate to vigorous – as you can be. It will be hard to breathe and talk, not that you would want to.” Additionally, Vingren says, “The higher the intensity, the more muscle fibers you activate.” Plus, working hard in bursts of intensity helps improve VO2 max, which is a measure for cardiovascular endurance.
How to spend those 20 minutes?
“We can make a simple answer, but it’s not always simple,” says Vingren, who has a doctorate in exercise physiology. “It would be like going to the doctor and saying, ‘I’m sick. I need to take a pill.’ It depends on your goal, current level of training, risk factors. It should all be done on an individual basis.” He recommends a “super-set workout” – moving from one strength-training exercise to the next without stopping, then repeating at least one more time. For example, do a set of squats (lower body, abs and core) followed by bench pressing (arms and chest) and row exercise (back).
“Do larger muscle exercises before smaller muscle exercises, and alternate muscle groups,” Vingren says. One of the Ontario researchers suggested a 20-minute workout that alternates one minute of running or cycling hard with one minute of decreased intensity, done a couple of times a week, after clearing with your doctor, of course. Here are two more ideas:
SWIMMING
The expert: Bobby Patten, head coach of Dallas Aquatic Masters. The advice: “Play for effort over distance: short distance fast, short easy.” He suggests “pyramid sets” – 25 yards fast, then 25 yards easy. Increase distance: 50 fast, 50 easy; 100 fast, 100 easy, resting 10 to 20 seconds between each set. “You’re increasing your metabolism more that way than by just going at 70 percent for a longer time,” Patten says. “Any interval I think is beneficial: heart rate high, steady aerobics, then zap it up again. In 20 minutes, you can kill yourself, really feel spent.” Every mile of swimming is equal to about four miles of running, he says. People run two or three miles and think it’s “a good enough workout. Swimmers get a mind-set of ‘only 1,000 meters’ being not any good. But if you do it as intervals, that’s a good workout.”
CALISTHENICS
The expert: Kristin Moses, co-owner of the newly opened Body Bar fitness studio in Travis Walk. She’s also raising three boys, so “totally understands” the no-time-to-exercise crunch. The advice: Start with a three- to four-minute warm-up by doing 30 seconds of jumping jacks, 30 seconds of high knees, 30 of glute kicks, 30 of jumping jacks. “That gets you moving, gets the oxygen moving,” she says. From there, go into a series of squats and lunges: 15 squats at moderate tempo, 15 lunges with your right leg and 15 with your left. “Come to the floor and do 20 to 25 full or modified push-ups. You’re moving from your legs, big-muscle groups, to upper-body big muscles and chest, which builds your heart rate and puts you into fat-burning zones.”
Next, turn over and sit, hands on the floor behind you. Raise your hips off the floor for 20 to 25 triceps dips. Repeat the sequence, and this time “pick up your pace, get your butt moving,” Moses says. “Do the leg sequence again. You’re building stamina.” The third go-round, make it a sprint: “Do jumping jacks as fast as you can, high knees as fast. You’re starting to spike.” Finish with ab work, she says. Come to the floor and do a plank for 30 seconds to a minute. From there, turn onto your right side and do a side plank. Repeat with the left side. “Voila!” she says. “You’re done, and you’re in amazing shape.”
FAST WORKOUT ADVICE
Mix it up: If you do 20 minutes of cardio one day, do strength training the next time. Make the most of your time. “Some people do 100 bicep curls with the same little dumbbell,” says Jakob Vingren, co-director of the Applied Physiology Laboratory at the University of North Texas. “That’s not really resistance training. The benefits aren’t there. Plus, you’re wasting your time. It takes forever and is not efficient.” Gear your workout to your lifestyle. “What else are you doing that could be counted toward a workout?” says Craig Leverette of Collin College. For people on their feet all day, he suggests doing a 20-minute workout focusing on flexibility or strength training. For someone doing a lot of lifting, use the time for cardio. – MCT
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