Contents
Doctors of many specialties, as well as trainers and physiotherapists emphasize that 30 minutes of walking a day is enough for our health. This is confirmed by further studies. A small amount of daily physical activity is the most beneficial approach when it comes to building muscle strength, informs the latest «Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports».
- Research shows that a very small amount of regular exercise can have a real impact on muscle development
- If we only go to the gym once a week, it will never be as effective as daily home exercises – says the author of the research, Prof. Ken Nosaka
- Muscles need rest to improve their strength and mass, and they like to be stimulated more often, she adds
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Exercise, but how?
The body responds better to frequent resistance exercises with low repetitions than less frequent resistance exercises with high repetitions.
Everyone knows that physical activity is important and must be exercised. But is it better to do it a little each day, or intensively and long 1-2 times a week? This is a dilemma for many people who want to take good care of their health. A new study by a team from Edith Cowan University in Australia shows that one of the above schemes is definitely more favorable than the other.
In collaboration with scientists from Japan, the Australians conducted four-week tests of three groups of participants, whose task was to perform resistance exercises aimed at the muscles of the arm.
The exercise consisted of maximal eccentric contractions of the biceps performed on a machine that measured their strength during each contraction.
The authors of the publication explain that an eccentric contraction occurs when a muscle lengthens; in the discussed situation, it therefore happened when the heavy dumbbell was lowered. (The opposite is concentric contraction, which is where the muscle shortens.)
Two study groups performed 30 contractions a week: one of them did 6 contractions a day for 5 days a week (group 6 × 5), the other did all of them on one day (group 30 × 1).
The third group was to be satisfied with only 6 contractions once a week.
A small amount of regular exercise gives the best results
After four weeks, changes in muscle strength and size were measured in all participants. They found that the group doing 30 contractions in one day showed no increase in muscle strength, although muscle thickness (an increase in muscle size) increased by 5,8 percent.
The group training the least, i.e. performing 6 contractions once a week, showed no changes in muscle strength or thickness.
The 6 × 5 group saw a significant increase in muscle strength (over 10%) with a simultaneous increase in their thickness at a level similar to the 30 × 1 group.
Importantly, the result obtained by the latter group is very similar to the results of a previous study by the same group of scientists, in which participants only performed one three-second maximal eccentric contraction once a day for 5 days a week (for a period of 4 weeks).
All of this suggests that a very small amount of regular exercise can have a real effect on strength.
– People think they have to do a long resistance training session in the gym every time, but research proves that this is not the case, says the lead author of the publication, Prof. Ken Nosaka. – Just focus on lowering the heavy dumbbell accurately and slowly 1-6 times each training day.
The professor adds that although the study discussed here required maximum effort from participants, the tests currently conducted by his team suggest that similar results can be achieved without the need to use as much resistance as possible.
“Plus, it’s worth noting that while we’ve only focused on the biceps this time, the results can be translated into other muscle groups, at least to some extent,” he says.
The scientist also emphasizes that caring for muscle strength translates not only into a nice appearance of the figure, but above all into health. Resistance exercise helps prevent the decline in muscle mass and strength that occurs with age, which is the cause of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, dementia, and musculoskeletal problems including osteoporosis.
Muscles need rest to improve their strength and mass
Experts do not see exactly why the body responds better to regular but fewer contractions than to those with higher loads but less frequently.
Perhaps this is because of how often the brain is “asked” to provoke a muscle to act in a certain way.
Prof. Nosaka also emphasizes that rest, i.e. regeneration, is extremely important in any training program.
“Note that in this study, the 6 × 5 group had two days off a week,” he says. – Muscle adaptation occurs precisely when we rest. So if someone was somehow able to train 24 hours a day, contrary to appearances, he would not notice any improvement in the parameters of his muscles ».
“Bottom line: muscles need rest to improve their strength and mass, and they like to be stimulated more often,” she emphasizes.
When leading a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise and the introduction of dietary modifications, it is worth undergoing preventive examinations at least once a year. Thanks to them, you can check why pains appear in various parts of the body during training. You can also learn how to quickly recover from an injury.
According to the scientist, it also makes no sense to make up for missed workouts. – If someone was unable to exercise for some time, for example because he was sick for a week, he should not try to make up for it with a longer session at a later date. He’d better just go back to regular exercise when he gets better, she advises.
Current guidelines recommend that adults take 2,5-5 hours of moderate physical activity per week. Prof. Nosaka adds that it is worth adding that it should be a regular activity, i.e. divided into shorter sessions.
“If we only go to the gym once a week, it will never be as effective as daily home exercises,” he concludes.
Katarzyna Czechowicz (PAP).